Tectonics Miracle in the Quran
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WikiIslam Archive,
Archives of the first iteration of WikiIslam, prior to acquisition and revamp by Ex-Muslims of North America
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The Quran doesn't explain tectonics.
Contents
"Miracle"
Earth's crust has been slowly moving for billions of years. Not only mountains are slowly moving but also whole continents.
50 years ago, "continental drift" was a fringe hypothesis rejected by most geologists. Today the theory of plate tectonics (which includes continental drift) is universally accepted as true, and unifies once-separate areas of geology under one grand banner. There are mountains of evidence (literally) that plate tectonics has taken place in our planet's past. National Geographic, How Do We Know The Continents Are Moving?, 2014
Whole contionents are moving. This was known recently. But 1400 years ago the Quran said that mountains move:
[Quran 27.88] You see the mountains and think they are firmly fixed: but they are moving away just like the clouds are moving away: (such is) the artistry of Allah, Who disposes of all things in perfect order: for He knows all what you do.
How could an illiterate man who lived 1400 years ago have known that mountains move?
The verse
From the context we can see, that the verse is not describing what happens in nature, but it describes supernatural events that will happen on the Day of Judgement:
27:87 And [warn of] the Day the Horn will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth will be terrified except whom Allah wills. And all will come to Him humbled.
27:88 And you see the mountains, thinking them rigid, while they will pass as the passing of clouds. [It is] the work of Allah, who perfected all things. Indeed, He is Acquainted with that which you do.
27:89 Whoever comes [at Judgement] with a good deed will have better than it, and they, from the terror of that Day, will be safe.
- It's about supernatural events on the Day of Judgement, not about nature [1]
- It doesn't say that continents will move. Only mountains.
And even if it was about today's nature, "mountains are passing like clouds" is not a good description of the movement of tectonic plates. It's not so fast as clouds and it's not a movement of mountains. Mountains are by-products of the movements of the plates.
See also
References
- ↑ From tafsir Al-Jalalayn: "And you see the mountains you notice them at the moment of the Blast"
