QURAN ON MOUNTAINS AS PEGS

Table of Contents

Quran Says Mountains Have Roots And They Are Like Stakes & Pegs

Parts & Structure Of Earth

The crust of the earth floats on a liquid. Basically, our earth’s second layer which is molten and fluid-like is spinning over the inner core which is solid (because of Pressure) and then the crust where we live, it actually floating on the mantle as it is also like a thick viscous fluid. You can see the details of this in my article Earth Anatomy: Parts, layers, and Structure. The first and uppermost layer Crust in oceans is 5-10 Km thick and in continents 25-50 Km thick. But continental surfaces are almost 80 km thick below great mountain ranges. The depths of the mountain strata go as far down as 200 km. These are the strong foundations on which mountains stand.

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Thus, the mountains are sort of pegs driven into the earth. The highest mountain ranges on earth and mount Everest is almost 8.8 Km high from sea level, but it is found that it has roots about 200 km deep. These facts were unknown until a few centuries back. But look that almost 1400 years ago this is what the Quran told us in Surah Naba 78:6-7

٦ أَلَمْ نَجْعَلِ الْأَرْضَ مِهَادًا

٧ وَالْجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًا

Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse (Resting Place)
And the mountains as pegs? Surah Naba 78: 6-7

Shape & Structure Of A Mountain

The word أَوْتَاد means stakes or pegs they are the deep foundations of geological folds. Frank Press was the Science Advisor to former US President Jimmy Carter and also the President of the Academy of Sciences in the USA authored a book named ‘Earth’ which is considered as a primary source textbook on geology. In this book, he mentions the whole mountain as a wedge-shape and the visible mountain itself as a small part of the whole with roots in the ground. You can see that the most suitable word to describe such an illustration is the word peg. Also, the modern theory of plate tectonics states that mountains work as stabilizers for the earth. All this knowledge, including plate tectonics, has just recently come to us only a few decades back. This is precisely what the Quran mentioned for mountains hundreds of years ago.

Since the Earth revolves very quickly around its own axis, and outer layer of earth in the form of plates floating on thick viscous fluid, it is because of mountains fixing effect and there depths mostly at the edges of these tectonic plates that the movement & shifting of these plates is less and we are saved from the much devastating effects.

DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANT WORDS USED IS GIVEN BELOW

مِهَادًا

The fourth word of verse 78:6 is an indefinite masculine noun and is in the accusative case منصوب. The noun’s root is (م ه د). This root occurs 16 times in the Quran, in six derived forms.

N – accusative masculine indefinite noun اسم منصوب

(م ه د): To prepare, extend, unfold, stretch out, make level, make provision. Those who spread couch; Spreaders. Cradle; Bed. The root with its six derived forms has been used to the Holy Quran as many as 16 times. مِهَدً (and alsoمِهَادً) : A child’s bed; a bed; a thing spread to lie, recline or sit upon. مِهَدً and مِهَادً are considered by some to be synonymous, but some say that مِهَادً is more comprehensive than مِهَدً and when it is applied to earth meaning an even or smooth expanse. Yet some say that مِهَدً is inf. Noun and مِهَادً is simple substantive.

أَوْتَادًا

The second word of verse 78:7 is an indefinite masculine plural noun and is in the accusative case منصوب. The noun’s root is (و ت د). This root occurs three times in the Quran as the noun awtād (أَوْتَاد).

N – accusative masculine plural indefinite noun اسم منصوب

(و ت د): To drive in a stake, fix a stake into the ground, fix a thing firmly. Autâd أَوْتَاد: Stakes, Hosts; Pegs; Chiefs; Armies; Poles of tents. Autâd أَوْتَاد (pegs) are the symbols of the firmness. وتد [both intransitive and transitive]: He fixed a wooden peg or stake in the ground or in a wall. أَوْتَاد The chief men of the towns.