Water is a central theme of the Quran, which promises pious believers an afterlife with “gardens graced with flowing streams” and “rivers of water forever pure,” while those who reject the book’s teachings are condemned to eternal fire and showered with “water like molten metal, scalding their faces” in punishment. “To a desert culture,” writes historian Garry Wills, “water is not only needed for life. It is life. It is the material thing nearest to God.” Below are five illustrative verses from the Quran’s suras translated by Muhammad A.S. Abdel Haleem.

water as creation

Are the disbelievers not aware that the heavens and the earth used to be joined together and that God ripped them apart, that He made every living thing from water?

—from The Bee (16:10–16)

water as drink and sustenance

It is He who sends down water for you from the sky, from which comes a drink for you, and the shrubs that you feed to your animals. With it He grows for you grain, olives, palms, vines, and all kinds of other crops. There truly is a sign in this for those who reflect…It is He who made the sea of benefit to you: you eat fresh fish from it and bring out jewelry to wear; you see the ships cutting through its waves so that you may go in search of His bounty and give thanks. Can He who creates be compared to one who cannot create? Why do you not take heed?

—from The Prophets (21:30)

water as life force

He brings the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living. He gives life to the earth after death, and you will be brought out the same way. One of His signs is that He created you from dust and—lo and behold!—you became human and scattered far and wide. He sends water down from the sky to restore the earth to life after death. There truly are signs in this for those who use their reason.

—from The Byzantines (30:19–24)

water as gift

He sends water from the sky that fills riverbeds to overflowing, each according to its measure. The stream carries on its surface a growing layer of froth, like the froth that appears when people melt metals in the fire to make ornaments and tools: in this way God illustrates truth and falsehood—the froth disappears, but what is of benefit to man stays behind—this is how God makes illustrations.

—from Thunder (13:17)

fresh water separated from salt water

Who is it that made the earth a stable place to live? Who made rivers flow through it? Who set immovable mountains on it and created a barrier between the fresh and salt water? Is it another god beside God? No! But most of them do not know.

—from The Ants (27:60–61)