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The Quran and Mountains: Difference between revisions
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'''Transliteration:''' ''Waalqa fee al-ardi rawasiya an tameeda bikum waanharan wasubulan laAAallakum tahtadoona''}}{{Quran|16|15}} uses the word ''ard'' which can be used to describe the Earth, its surface, or the ground in general. Critics argue that the ambiguity of this word is critical to the advocates' argument, as it can be and is adapted to variously refer to anything from the Earth, the crust, the lithosphere, the mantle or any combination of the above, as needed. | '''Transliteration:''' ''Waalqa fee al-ardi rawasiya an tameeda bikum waanharan wasubulan laAAallakum tahtadoona''}}{{Quran|16|15}} uses the word ''ard'' which can be used to describe the Earth, its surface, or the ground in general. Critics argue that the ambiguity of this word is critical to the advocates' argument, as it can be and is adapted to variously refer to anything from the Earth, the crust, the lithosphere, the mantle or any combination of the above, as needed. | ||
Advocates sometimes argue that the Quran deliberately uses in these contexts the word ''tameeda'', which means 'shaking' or 'disturbance', instead of the word ''zalzala,'' which is used elsewhere in the Quran and means ‘earthquake’, to make it clear that the phenomenon the mountains are said to prevent is not, in fact, earthquakes. This argument is generally presented in response to the correlation of mountain ranges with earthquakes across the globe (due to the regular and related occurrence of both at tectonic fault-lines). Critics suggest in response that critics are arbitrarily obscuring the meaning of | Advocates [[The Quran and Mountains#Earthquakes and the meaning of tameeda|sometimes argue]] that the Quran deliberately uses in these contexts the word ''tameeda'', which means 'shaking' or 'disturbance', instead of the word ''zalzala,'' which is used elsewhere in the Quran and means ‘earthquake’, to make it clear that the phenomenon the mountains are said to prevent is not, in fact, earthquakes. Instead, they suggest, it must refer to an unobserved geological phenomenon which takes place on geological timescales (rather than earthquakes, which occur in a much shorter and human timescale). This argument is generally presented in response to the correlation of mountain ranges with earthquakes across the globe (due to the regular and related occurrence of both at tectonic fault-lines). Critics suggest in response that critics are arbitrarily obscuring the meaning of a word and verse whose general meaning, especially when considered in context, is quite clear. | ||
===21:31 & 20:105=== | ===21:31 & 20:105=== | ||
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===Earthquakes and the meaning of ''tameeda''=== | ===Earthquakes and the meaning of ''tameeda''=== | ||
In response to the regular co-occurrence of earthquakes and mountains due to their related presence at tectonic fault-lines, advocates of the miracle sometimes argue that the word (''tameeda'') used in the Quran to describe the phenomenon which mountains, as pegs, prevent describes something altogether different than earthquakes. What this phenomenon is, they suggest, is not known, as it has not been observed, which may be due to the fact that it does not take place on a human timescale but rather, perhaps, a geological timescale. The argument is based upon the alternative meanings that the word ''tameeda'' can have, including 'stagger', 'roll', 'sway', and 'tilt', along with the idea that any geological phenomenon described by these alternative meanings of the word ''tameeda'' would be distinct from the short, sharp shock of an earthquake. | |||
The relevant verses are as follows: | The relevant verses are as follows: | ||