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What
we see of mountains is just the “tip of the iceberg”.
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The
illustrious Qur'an reads:
"Ãáã äÌÚá ÇáÃÑÖ ãåÇÏÇ*æÇáÌÈÇá
ÃæÊÇÏÇ*"a(ÇáäÈÃ:6-7)a
"Have
We not made the Earth as a levelled expanse?* and the mountains as
pegs?*" (LXXVIII:6,7)
Here,
I shall comment on the second of these two verses (verse #7 only,
despite the great geologic importance of the preceding verse (#6)
which will be dealed with in another article).
The
description of mountains as pegs (or pickets) clearly implies that
such striking geomorphic features are not just the lofty
elevations that are seen on the surface of the Earth (as most
current glossaries and encyclopedias define them), but their
downward extensions in the Earth's lithosphere is highly
emphasized. In as much as most of the picket (or peg) is hidden in
soil or rock and its function is to hold one end of the tent to
the surface of the ground, modern earth sciences have just proved
that mountains possess very deep roots that stabilize lithospheric
plates as well as the whole planet.
What
we see of mountains above the ground surface is nothing but the
tops of great masses of rocks that penetrate the lithosphere and
float in a more dense substratum (the asthenosphere) as icebergs
float in oceanic water. Mountains have downward extensions below
the ground surface that are 10-15 times their outward elevations
(depending on the average density of the rocks of which the
mountain is formed and that of the material in which its root is
immersed).
A
mountain mass with an average specific gravity of 2.7 (that of
granite) can sink into a layer of plastic simatic rock (with an
average specific gravity of 3.00 until the range is floating with
a submerged part (or root) of about nine-tenths, and a protrusion
of one tenth its total length.
Thus,
we can see that by one word (awtad = pegs or pickets) the Holy
Qur'an describes both the outward lofty elevations of mountains,
their very deep, downward extensions (to much greater depths than
their elevations) and their function as a means of fixation for
the whole planet as well as for its lithospheric plates.
The
term "picket" or "peg" which is used by the
Holy Qur'an to describe mountains, is both literally and
scientifically more precise than the term "root" which
is currently used to describe the hidden, downward extension of
mountains.
The
fact that mountains have deep downward extensions below the ground
surface and that their main role is to stabilize the Earth as a
planet, and its outer rocky cover (particularly that which
constitutes continental plates) have only been discerned by
specialists very recently, although scientist have pondered about
the possibility of mountains having roots as early as the second
half of the nineteenth century. However, the process of formation
of such downward extensions as well as their role in halting the
sudden, jerky movements of the planet and of its lithospheric
plates have only begun to be understood in the framework of modern
astronomy and the very recent concept of plate tectonics (late
1960's and early 1970's).
The
precedence of the Holy Qur'an with more than 143 centuries in
describing mountains as pegs (or pickets) and in defining their
main role as "stabilizers for the Earth, let it should shake
with us" is a clear testimony that the Qur'an is the word of
The Creator, and that Mohammed (PBUH) is His final messenger.
Read
Also:
Dr. Zaghlool
El-Naggar is a Fellow of the Islamic Academy of Sciences. Member of the Geological Society of London, the Geological Society of Egypt and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fellow of the Institute of Petroleum, London. Prof. Naggar is the author/co-author of many books and more than 40 research papers in the field of Islamic Thought, Geology, General Science and Education. He was awarded by the Ministry of Education in Egypt the top “Secondary Education Award” as well as the seventh Arab Petroleum Congress Best Papers Award in 1970. Elected a member of the IAS Council (1994 and 1999), Prof. Naggar is currently working at the Arab Development Institute.
