Epigraph

You look at the mountains and see them fixed and motionless. But they slide like the passage of clouds. A handiwork of Allah! The One Who brought everything to perfection! He is certainly well Aware of what you are doing. (Al Quran 27:88)

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD

Mountains are big, solid, and awe-inspiring. Who could have thought in seventh-century Arabia that they slide, except for the All-Knowing God?

In the past, traditional commentators attributed this verse quoted in the epigraph to the Afterlife or the Day of Judgment. But there are all the reasons in the very verse that Allah intended to claim His creativity through this verse in our present universe. The clauses, “A handiwork of Allah! The One Who brought everything to perfection!” reveal that intention clearly.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica:

“The concept of plate tectonics was formulated in the 1960s. According to the theory, Earth has a rigid outer layer, known as the lithosphere, which is typically about 100 km (60 miles) thick and overlies a plastic (moldable, partially molten) layer called the asthenosphere. The lithosphere is broken up into seven very large continental- and ocean-sized plates, six or seven medium-sized regional plates, and several small ones. These plates move relative to each other, typically at rates of 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) per year, and interact along their boundaries, where they converge, diverge, or slip past one another. Such interactions are thought to be responsible for most of Earth’s seismic and volcanic activity, although earthquakes and volcanoes can occur in plate interiors. Plate motions cause mountains to rise where plates push together, or converge, and continents to fracture and oceans to form where plates pull apart, or diverge. The continents are embedded in the plates and drift passively with them, which over millions of years results in significant changes in Earth’s geography.”

Since the discovery of tectonic plates, our understanding of the verse under discussion has become more profound as we learned that mountains are literally moving and sliding, serving a purpose in doing so also.

Critics sometimes question if Muslims are retrofitting scientific discoveries into the Quran. I have three replies to that, firstly, let them try to retrofit science in some other book and compare it with our work. Secondly, just the sheer number of articles on this theme that we have on our website cannot be attributed to chance or forced pretense. Thirdly, just on the subject of mountains we have two more articles:

The Glorious Quran: ‘And (look) at the mountains, how they are anchored?’

The Glorious Quran: Mountains as Earth’s Natural Shock Absorbers

For the open-minded, the conclusion is inescapable that the Glorious Quran is the word of the All-Knowing.