The Scientific Miracles in the Holy Qur’an (2)

 B) The Qur’an on Mountains:

A book entitled Earth is a basic reference textbook in many

universities around the world. One of its two authors is Professor

Emeritus Frank Press. He was the Science Advisor to former

US President Jimmy Carter, and for 12 years was the President of

the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC. His book

says that mountains have underlying roots. These roots are

deeply embedded in the ground, thus, mountains have a shape

like a peg (see the following figures 7, 8, and 9).

This is how the Qur’an has described mountains. God has said

in the Qur’an:

{ Have We not made the earth as a bed, and

the mountains as pegs? } (Qur’an, 78:6-7)

Figure 7:

Mountains

have deep

roots under the

surface of the

ground. (Earth,

Press and

Siever, p. 413.)

Figure 8: Schematic section. The mountains, like pegs, have deep roots embedded in

the ground. (Anatomy of the Earth, Cailleux, p. 220.)

Figure 9: Another illustration shows how the mountains are peg-like in shape, due to their

deep roots. (Earth Science, Tarbuck and Lutgens, p. 158.)

Modern earth sciences have proven that mountains have deep

roots under the surface of the ground (see figure 9) and that these

roots can reach several times their elevations above the surface of the ground. So the most suitable word to describe mountains on the basis of this information is the word ‘peg’, since most of a properly set peg is hidden under the surface of the ground. The history of science tells us that the theory of mountains having deep roots was introduced only in 1865 by the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy. Mountains also play an important role in stabilizing the crust of the earth. They hinder the shaking of the earth. God has said in the Qur’an:

{And He has set firm mountains in the earth

So that it would not shake with you...}

(Qur’an, 16:15)

Likewise, the modern theory of plate tectonics holds that

mountains work as stabilizers for the earth. This knowledge about

the role of mountains as stabilizers for the earth has just begun to

be understood in the framework of plate tectonics since the late

1960’s. Could anyone during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

have known of the true shape of mountains?

Could anyone imagine that the solid massive mountain which he sees before him actually extends deep into the earth and has a root, as

scientists affirm? Modern geology has confirmed the truth of the Qur’anic verses.

C) The Qur’an on the Origin of the Universe:

The science of modern cosmology, observational and theoretical,

clearly indicates that, at one point in time, the whole universe

was nothing but a cloud of ‘smoke’ (i.e. an opaque highly dense

and hot gaseous composition). This is one of the undisputed

principles of standard modern cosmology. Scientists now can

observe new stars forming out of the remnants of that ‘smoke’ (see

figures 10 and 11). The illuminating stars we see at night were,

just as was the whole universe, in that ‘smoke’ material. God has

said in the Qur’an:

{Then He turned to the heaven when it was

smoke...} (Qur’an, 41:11)

Because the earth and the heavens above (the sun, the moon,

stars, planets, galaxies, etc.) have been formed from this same

‘smoke’, we conclude that the earth and the heavens were one

connected entity. Then out of this homogeneous ‘smoke,’ they

formed and separated from each other. God has said in the Qur’an:

{Have not those who disbelieved known that

the heavens and the earth were one connected

entity, then We separated them?...} (Qur’an,

21:30)

Dr. Alfred Kroner is one of the world’s renowned geologists.

He is Professor of Geology and the Chairman of the Department

of Geology at the Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg

University, Mainz, Germany. He said: “Thinking where Muhammad

came from . . . I think it is almost impossible that he could

have known about things like the common origin of the universe,

because scientists have only found out within the last few years,

with very complicated and advanced technological methods, that

this is the case.” Also he said: “Somebody who did not know"

  

 Figure 10: A new star

forming out of a cloud

of gas and dust (nebula),

which is one of

the remnants of the

‘smoke’ that was the

origin of the whole

universe. (The Space

Atlas, Heather and

Henbest, p. 50.)

Figure 11: The Lagoon nebula is a cloud of gas and dust, about 60 light years in diameter.

It is excited by the ultraviolet radiation of the hot stars that have recently formed within

its bulk. (Horizons, Exploring the Universe, Seeds, plate 9, from Association of Universities

for Research in Astronomy, Inc.)

something about nuclear physics fourteen hundred years ago could

not, I think, be in a position to find out from his own mind, for

instance, that the earth and the heavens had the same origin.”