And it is He who has released [simultaneously] the two seas [i.e., bodies of water], one fresh and sweet and one salty and bitter, and He placed between them a barrier and prohibiting partition.
Verse 53 of Surah Al-Furqan (25:53), a Meccan surah, is in juz 19, on page 364 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 74 reciters.
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Tafsir of verse 53
Al-Mukhtasar
It is Allah, may He be glorified, who merged the water of the two bodies of flowing water. He mixed the sweet and the salty, and put a barrier and dividing line between them that prevents them from intermingling.
It is He Who merges the two bodies of water: one fresh and palatable and the other salty and bitter, and He has made between them a barrier and an insurmountable partition29.
Notes
[29] When salt and fresh waters meet, although both mix together, each still keeps its distinctive qualities, as if a barrier prevents them from mixing completely.
And it is He Who has let free the two seas (kinds of water): this is palatable and sweet, and that is salt and bitter; and He has set a barrier and a complete partition between them.
And He it is Who hath given independence to the two seas (though they meet); one palatable, sweet, and the other saltish, bitter; and hath set a bar and a forbidding ban between them.
It is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing water: One palatable and sweet, and the other salt and bitter; yet has He made a barrier between them, a partition that is forbidden to be passed.
And He it is Who has made two seas to flow freely, the one sweet that subdues thirst by its sweetness, and the other salt that burns by its saltness; and between the two He has made a barrier and inviolable obstruction.
And He is the One Who has merged the two seas, this one sweet, grateful (to taste), and this salt, bitter (to the tongue); and He has made between them an isthmus, and an utter- obstruction. (Literally: obstruction obstructed)
Is He [not best] who made the earth a stable ground and placed within it rivers and made for it firmly set mountains and placed between the two seas a barrier? Is there a deity with Allāh? [No], but most of them do not know.
