# Porous Rocks

> Can store water.

- Field: Geology
- Level: Advanced
- Qur'an passage: Quran 2:74
- URL: https://dailymuslim.org/quran-miracles/porous-rocks

In the Quran some rocks can store. Skeptics claim that whoever wrote the Quran made a mistake; rocks cannot store water. Today geologists confirm that porous rocks can store water.

The empty space in porous rocks can store liquid or gas.

> Reservoir rocks are rocks that have the ability to store fluids inside their pores, so that the fluids (water, oil, and gas) can be accumulated.

— [American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Reservoir, 2019](https://wiki.aapg.org/Reservoir)

Water is one of the fluids that porous rocks can store. This was known recently, however this was portrayed in the Quran 1400 years before it was discovered.

## Qur'an passage · Quran 2:74

٧٤ ثُمَّ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنَ الْحِجَارَةِ لَمَا يَتَفَجَّرُ مِنْهُ الْأَنْهَارُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَشَّقَّقُ فَيَخْرُجُ مِنْهُ الْمَاءُ ۚ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَهْبِطُ مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ

*Then after that your hearts hardened like rocks, or even harder. For there are some rocks from which rivers gush out, and others that crack and water comes out from them, and others that descend in awe of Allah. Allah is not unaware of what you do.*

Rocks crack and water comes out of them. No mistakes in the Quran.

### Additional references

> Original article: Miracles of Quran, shared under the source website’s no-copyright notice. Its short reservoir-rock definition remains credited to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. The linked summaries below are separate additions.

— [Miracles of Quran — About Us](https://www.miracles-of-quran.com/about.html)

### Additional evidence — summary

> The USGS explains that most void spaces in rocks below the water table are filled with water. Rocks differ in porosity, which is how much open space they contain, and permeability, which is how easily water moves through connected spaces. A porous sandstone can hold and yield groundwater, while dense granite may hold very little.

— [USGS Water Science School — Aquifers and Groundwater](https://www.usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/aquifers-and-groundwater)

### USGS Water Science School — Springs and the Water Cycle

> A spring forms where groundwater moving through an aquifer reaches an opening at the land surface. USGS notes that water can move through pores, cracks, fissures and caverns, and an aquifer can fill until groundwater spills into a river, lake or the surface. This directly supports the physical picture of water stored in rock and emerging from it.

— [USGS Water Science School — Springs and the Water Cycle](https://www.usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/springs-and-water-cycle)

### Quran.com — Al-Baqarah 2:74 context

> The verse compares hardened hearts with rocks, then points to rocks from which rivers gush or water comes after they split. The water-and-rock description agrees with observable groundwater and spring processes. The geological sources do not establish when people first knew this, and they do not by themselves prove a theological interpretation; that connection remains a reflection on the verse.

— [Quran.com — Al-Baqarah 2:74 context](https://quran.com/en/al-baqarah/74-286)

## Ponder

**How could an illiterate man who lived 1400 years ago have known that rocks can store water?**

## Sources and further reading

- [Quran 2:74 · Quran.com](https://quran.com/2/74)
- [USGS Water Science School — Aquifers and Groundwater](https://www.usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/aquifers-and-groundwater)
- [Miracles of Quran](https://www.miracles-of-quran.com/porous_rocks.html)

— Miracle of Quran, Daily Muslim · https://dailymuslim.org/quran-miracles/porous-rocks