THE MOUNTAINS CREATED AS PEGS (OR PICKETS)

THE MOUNTAINS CREATED AS PEGS (OR PICKETS)

"Have We not made the earth as a bed, And the mountains as pegs?"

(Surat An-Naba' (The Great News): 6-7)

By: Dr. / Zaghloul El-Naggar

Literally,
the word “mountain” (Latin Montanus) is described as “a landmass that
projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a
hill.”

The
Dictionary of Geological Terms defines a mount or a mountain as a high
bill (but mount is always used instead of mountain before a proper
name). A mountain is also defined as a tract of land considerably
elevated above the adjacent country, and is usually found connected in
long chains or ranges, but sometimes can be in the form of single,
isolated eminences. From the point of view of physical geography, the
same dictionary adds that any portion of the Earth’s crust rising
considerably above the surrounding surface is described as a mountain.
The term is usually applied to heights of more than 610 meters, all
beneath that amount being regarded as hills, and when of considerable
heights, hillocks. Nevertheless, in the same issue, a hill is defined as
“properly restricted to more or less abrupt elevations of less than 305
meters, all altitudes exceeding this being mountains.”

Indeed,
in many of the American references, elevations above 300 meters are
considered mountains. A mountain range is defined as a single, large
mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain
ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction,
formation and age. A mountain range is a component part of a mountain
system or a mountain chain. The former is defined as “several more or
less parallel ranges grouped together," while the latter is described as
“a complex, connected series of several, more or less parallel mountain
ranges and mountain systems grouped together without regard to
similarity of form, structure or origin, but having “a general
longitudinal arrangement or well-defined trend . .

”
In other words, a mountain range is a series of more or less parallel
ridges, all formed from rocks deposited in a single sedimentation basin,
while a mountain system is composed of a number of parallel or
consecutive ranges, formed from the sediments of different basins, but
of approximately the same age of folding.

A
mountain chain consists of two or more mountain systems of the same
general trend and elevation, while a cordillera is formed of several
chains in the same part of a continent.

In
“A Dictionary of the Natural Environment," Monkhouse & Small (1978)
define the term “mountain” as follows: “A markedly elevated landform,
bounded by steep slopes and rising to prominent ridges or individual
summit-peaks. There is no specific altitude, but usually taken to be
over 600 meters (2000 ft.) in Britain, except where eminences rise
abruptly from surrounding lowlands, e.g. Conway M. In such a case, the
term Mount is sometimes used . . .

The
New Encyclopedia Britannica defines a mountain "as an area of land that
is relatively much higher than the land surrounding it” and adds “thus,
the so-called hills associated with great ranges such as the Himalayas
would be mountains in a less formidable setting."

Similarly,
the Encyclopedia Americana defines a mountain as “a portion of the
Earth’s surface that rises above the surrounding region” and adds that
“Generally, a mountain range decreases in height in stages, with a
transition through hills to lower regions called plains. However, in
some cases the transition is extremely rapid. Mountains occur worldwide,
in both continental and oceanic regions.”

From
the above survey, it becomes obvious that all current definitions of
mountains, both literal and scientific, restrict themselves to the
conspicuous protrusion of such landforms above their surroundings, their
high peaks and steep sides, as well as to their presence in either
complex ranges, systems, chains, and cordilleras that run more or less
parallel to each other or in single prominences. In other words, all
current definitions of mountains are only confined to the outer
morphology of such landforms, without the slightest notion to their
subsurface extensions which have been lately proved to be several times
their outward heights.

However,
the Qur’an consistently describes mountains as stabilizers for the
Earth’s surface which hold it firmly lest it should shake with us, and
as pickets (or pegs) for the Earth that hold its surface (i.e. the
Earth’s lithosphere) down as a means of fixation. So, the Qur’an—in very
simple words—described the outward protrusion of mountains on the
Earth’s surface, emphasized their great downward extensions within the
Earth’s crust, and defined their exact role as pickets and means of
fixation for that crust. Such knowledge was revealed more than 12
centuries before man started to wonder whether or not mountains could
have roots below its outcropping parts, and before he could realize any
value for the existence of mountains on the surface of our globe, a
value that is only being currently conceived by a very limited number of
specialists in the field of Earth Sciences.

"Have We not made the earth as a bed, And the mountains as pegs?"(Surat An-Naba' (The Great News): 6-7) Here, I shall comment only on "And the mountains as pegs?" (Surat An-Naba' (The Great News): 7), despite the fact that the preceding one "Have We not made the earth as a bed, (Surat An-Naba' (The Great News): 6), is of great geologic interest, but should be treated in another context...

The
description of mountains as pegs (or pickets) clearly implies that such
striking geomorphologic features are not just the lofty elevations that
are seen on the surface of the Earth (as most current glossaries and
encyclopedias define them), but their downward extensions in the Earth’s
lithosphere is highly emphasized. In as much as most of the picket (or
peg) is hidden. in either soil or rock, and its function is to hold one
end of the tent to the ground surface, modern Earth Sciences have just
proved that mountains possess very deep roots that stabilize
lithospheric plates. What we see of mountains above the ground surface
is nothing but the tops of great masses of rocks that penetrate the
lithosphere and float in a more dense substratum (the asthenosphere) as
icebergs float in water, with downward extensions below the ground
surface that are 10 to 15 times their outward elevations (depending on
the average density of the rocks of which the mountain is formed and
that of the material in which its root is immersed). A mountain mass
with an average specific gravity of 2.7 (that of granite) can sink into a
layer of plastic simatic rock (with an average specific gravity of 3.0)
until the range is floating with a submerged part (or root) of about
nine-tenths, and a protrusion of one tenth its total length. Thus, we
can see that by one word (awtad =
pegs or pickets) the Glorious Qur’an describes both the outward lofty
elevations of mountains, their very deep, downward extensions (to much
greater depths than their elevations) and their function as a means of
fixation for the whole planet as well as for its continental plates. The
term “picket” or “peg” which is used by the Glorious Qur’an to describe
mountains, is both literally and scientifically more precise than the
term “root” which is currently used to describe the hidden, downward
extension of mountains.

The
fact that mountains have deep, downward extensions below the ground
surface and that their main role is to stabilize the Earth as a planet,
and its outer rocky layer (particularly that constitutes continental
plates) have only been discerned by the specialists very recently,
although scientists have pondered about the possibility of mountains
having roots as early as the second half of the nineteenth century.
However, the process of formation of such downward extensions as well as
their role in halting the sudden, jerky movements of the planet and of
its lithospheric plates have only begun to be understood in the
framework of modern astronomy and of the very recent concept of plate
tectonics (late 1960s and early 1970s). The precedence of the Glorious
Qur’an with more than 14 centuries in describing mountains as pegs (or
pickets) and in defining their main role as stabilizers for the Earth,
lest it should shake with us is a clear testimony that the Qur’an is the
work of the Creator, and that Muhammad (pbuh) is His final Messenger.

الموضوع الأصلي : THE MOUNTAINS CREATED AS PEGS (OR PICKETS)

المصدر : ملتقى الجزائريين والعرب