The movements of mountains
In one of the verses, we are informed that the mountains are not motionless as
they seem but that they are in constant motion:
(You will see the mountains you reckoned to be solid going past like clouds.
Such is the artistry of God, who disposes of all things in perfect order;
surely He is Aware of what you do.) (Surat an-Naml, 88)
This motion of the mountains is caused by the movement of the earth’s crust
that they are located on. The earth’s crust sort of floats over the mantle
layer, which is denser.
It was at the beginning of the 20th century when, for the first time in
history, a German scientist by the name of Alfred Wegener proposed that the
continents of the earth had been attached together at the initial phases of the
world, but then drifted in different directions and thus separated as they
moved away from each other. Geologists understood that Wegener was right only
in the 1980s.
50 years after his death, discovered as a result of the geological research
carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, this movement of the earth’s
crust is explained by scientists as follows:
“The crust and the uppermost part of the mantle, with a thickness of about 100
kms, are divided into segments called plates. There are six major plates, and
several small ones. According to the theory called plate tectonics, these
plates move about on Earth, carrying continents and ocean floor with them.
Continental motion has been measured at from 1-5 cm per year. As the plates
continue to move about, this will produce a slow change in Earth’s geography.
Each year, for instance, the Atlantic Ocean becomes slightly wider.”
There is a very important point to be stated here: God has referred to the
motion of mountains as a drifting action in the verse. Today, modern scientists
also use the term “continental drift” for this motion.
Unquestionably, it is one of the miracles of the Qur’an that this scientific
fact, which has been recently discovered by science, was announced in the
Qur’an.
