ISLAM

PLACE: Mecca

DATE: 618

NAME: The Holy Quran, Surah An-Naml, verse 88

NEWS : You see the mountains and think they are frozen, but they are moving like clouds. Everything is solid and in its place, the work of Allah. Surely He is aware of what you do.

SCIENCE

PLACE : Germany

DATE : 1915

NAME: Alfred Lothar Wegener

NEWS: Continental drift

The state in which the continents were joined together like an island is called Pangea. The German scientist who discovered this movement of the continents proposed the theory that the existing land masses on Earth were once joined together and later separated in different directions. However, geologists did not initially give credence to this. The validity of the theory that the continents were once a single landmass and that these land masses were part of the South Pole was only accepted in the 1980s.

The Holy Quran informed us 1,297 years ago that the land masses we see as fixed are in fact in motion. In the context of this topic, we need to explain the function of mountains. The Quran states the following on this subject.

ALLAH (swt) says:

He has set firm mountains in the earth, lest it shake with you. ^[226]

The verse informs us that mountains serve to maintain general equilibrium against possible tremors on the earth’s surface. In geology, the maintenance of the general equilibrium of the earth’s crust by mountains, thanks to the gravitational force they create beneath the earth’s surface, is called isostasy.

According to data revealed by geological findings, mountains are formed when two layers collide, causing the more resistant layer to remain below and the other layer to bend upward, rising to the surface. The upper layer curves upward and forms mountains. The lower layer, due to the intensity of the collision, moves underground, showing a downward trend and sinking deeply. The Quran informs us of this visible and invisible aspect of mountains in two ways.

The verse that informs us of the layer that emerges toward the earth’s surface as a result of the breakage is as follows. We have set firm mountains on the earth, lest it shake with them.^[227]The verse that informs us of the layer that sinks deep into the ground as a result of the fracture is as follows: Have We not made the earth a bed? And the mountains as pegs?^[228]

[226] Surah Luqman, Verse 10

[227] Surah Al-Anbiya, Verse 31

[228] Surah An-Naba, Verses 6-7