In Geology, the
phenomenon of ‘folding’ is a recently discovered fact. Folding is responsible
for the formation of mountain ranges. The earth’s crust, on which we live, is
like a solid shell, while the deeper layers are hot and fluid, and thus
inhospitable to any form of life. It is also known that the
stability of the
mountains is linked to the phenomenon of folding, for it was the folds that
were to provide foundations for the reliefs that constitute the mountains.
Geologists tell us that the radius of the Earth is about 3,750 miles and the
crust on which we live is very thin, ranging between 1 to 30 miles. Since the
crust is thin, it has a high possibility of shaking. Mountains act like stakes
or tent pegs that hold the earth’s crust and give it stability. The Qur’aan
contains exactly such a description in the following verse:
“Have
We not
made The earth as a wide Expanse,
And
the mountains as pegs?”
[Al-Qur’aan
78:6-7]
The word awtad
means stakes or pegs (like those used to anchor a tent); they are the deep
foundations of geological folds. A book named ‘Earth’ is considered as a basic
reference textbook on geology in many universities around the world. One of the
authors of this book is Frank Press, who was the President of the Academy of
Sciences in the USA for 12 years and was the Science Advisor to former US
President Jimmy Carter. In this book he illustrates the mountain in a
wedge-shape and the mountain itself as a small part of the whole, whose root is
deeply entrenched in the ground.[1] According to Dr.
Press, the mountains play an important role in stabilizing the crust of
the earth. The
Qur’aan clearly mentions the function of the mountains in preventing the
earth from shaking:
“And
We have set on the earth Mountains standing
firm,
Lest it should shake with them.”
[Al-Qur’aan
21:31]
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