Who hasn’t looked at a snowcapped mountain and be inspired by its vast beauty? I know I have, and it still manages to move me every time I look upon an awe-inspiring mountain. I have always had an interest in learning more about them and I became even more interested when I read about them in many verses of the Qur’an. In this blog article, we will go into more detail about what Allah said about mountains and why they are so important.
We see in the Qur’an that God bestows certain qualities on mountains. These qualities may sound a little out of place or even impossible at first, but that is what makes the Qur’an so special. The way it shocks its readers if they delve further into it.
Mountains as Pegs
Let´s start with a simple one. In chapter 78, verses 6 to 7 God says:
Have We not smoothed out the earth ˹like a bed˺,and ˹made˺ the mountains as ˹its˺ pegs
We see that mountains are described as pegs/stakes. A peg or a stake is simply a tool that is driven into the ground to secure a tent, for example. We know that most of a peg is underground and only a small portion is visible from above.
Once we look into the science of geology we see that this is the exact description of a mountain.
If you’ve ever seen a mountain, you know that they can be pretty tall. But even though they look like they’re just sitting there on the ground, mountains actually have roots. Those roots are what hold the mountain securely in it´s place.
Mountains form when two tectonic plates collide and push against each other until one of the plates submerges under the other. This movement causes the outermost, thin crust of the earth to build a mountain at the location of the collusion.
Here is what textbooks are saying:
- Mountains have roots deep under the surface of the ground. (Press and Siever, Earth, 413.)
- Schematic section. Mountains, like pegs, have deep roots embedded in the ground. (Andre Cailleux and J. Moody Stuart, Anatomy of the Earth (McGraw-Hill Companies: 1968), 220.)
- Another illustration shows how mountains are peg-like in shape, due to their deep roots. (Edward J. Tarbuck and Frederick K. Lutgens, Earth Science (USA: Macmillan USA: 1993), 158.)
Mountains floating just like clouds
Now you see the mountains, thinking they are firmly fixed, but they are travelling ˹just˺ like clouds. ˹That is˺ the design of Allah, Who has perfected everything. Surely He is All-Aware of what you do.
This is the one verse that flabbergasted me beyond anything. Like how could these massive mountains move like the clouds in the sky?
In order to understand this verse we must first understand how a cloud floats up in the air, therefore here´s a part of the blog article Heavy Clouds that dives deep into another miracle of the Quran.
A cloud is composed of tiny water droplets and ice crystals that form when water vapor condenses in the atmosphere. As these tiny particles collide with one another and other objects, they begin to float upwards. The reason they float upwards is called buoyancy, which is the upward force that acts on an object in a fluid (like air).
Cloud’s typical volume is around 1km3, and its density is around 1.003kg per m3, which is about 0.4 per cent lower than that of the surrounding air. That’s why clouds float.
So basically, the denser underlying/surrounding matter pushes the lighter material upwards. This force is called buoyancy. This is also true for the movements of mountains. The scientifical term for this phenomenon is called “Isostasy”, when it comes to the mountains.
Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Isostasy, ideal theoretical balance of all large portions (such as mountains) of Earth’s lithosphere (earths crust) as though they were floating on the denser underlying layer, the asthenosphere, a section of the upper mantle composed of weak, plastic rock that is about 110 km (70 miles) below the surface.
Wikipedia:
The rigid plates “float” on the comparatively ductile (compliant) asthenosphere. They are in constant motion with top speeds of more than 10 centimeters per year.
As we can see, these scientific explanations of such complex subjects were correctly mentioned in the Book of God 1400 years ago. This is one of the many undeniable miracles of the Qur’an.
