The Quran and Mountains: Difference between revisions

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 Critics note that rather than being confined to a closed period, mountain formation began early in Earth's history due to the process of [[w:Plate techtonics|plate tectonics]] (with accompanying earthquakes), has continued for billions of years, and continues to do so now and into the future. With each plate collision mountains keep on rising higher little by little. And when the plates start to move away from each other, then these mountains start to erode until after millions of years, they completely disappear. On a geological timescale, mountains are not "firmly set", but rather they rise and fall, and are replaced by other mountain ranges over time. For example, there existed no Mount Everest 250 million years ago. The Himalayan mountain range began to grow when two continental plates collided, which will eventually separate again and Everest will gradually erode and disappear completely.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/science/mountain-landform/Tectonic-processes-that-create-and-destroy-mountain-belts-and-their-components Tectonic processes that create and destroy mountain belts and their components] - Britannica.com</ref>
-A hadith, {{Muslim|39|6707}}, has Muhammad elaborating that mountains were created on the second day (Sunday), which represents an even more specific interpretation. In his exegesis for {{Quran|22|47}} ("a day with your Lord is like a thousand years"), Ibn Kathir includes a report of Ibn 'Abbas stating that each of the six days in which Allah created the heavens and the earth was a thousand years.<ref>Ibn Kathir writes under the commentary of this verse 22:47:
+A hadith, {{Muslim||2789|reference}}, has Muhammad elaborating that mountains were created on the second day (Sunday), which represents an even more specific interpretation. In his exegesis for {{Quran|22|47}} ("a day with your Lord is like a thousand years"), Ibn Kathir includes a report of Ibn 'Abbas stating that each of the six days in which Allah created the heavens and the earth was a thousand years.<ref>Ibn Kathir writes under the commentary of this verse 22:47:
 {{Quote|1=[https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=7&tSoraNo=22&tAyahNo=47&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1 Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Verse Quran 22:47]|2=قال ابن أبي حاتم حدثنا الحسن بن عرفة، حدثني عبدة بن سليمان عن محمد بن عمرو عن أبي سلمة عن أبي هريرة أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال " يدخل فقراء المسلمين الجنة قبل الأغنياء بنصف يوم خمسمائة عام " ورواه الترمذي والنسائي من حديث الثوري عن محمد بن عمرو به، وقال الترمذي حسن صحيح. وقد رواه ابن جرير عن أبي هريرة موقوفاً، فقال حدثني يعقوب، حدثنا ابن علية، حدثنا سعيد الجريري عن أبي نضرة عن سمير بن نهار قال قال أبو هريرة يدخل فقراء المسلمين الجنة قبل الأغنياء بمقدار نصف يوم، قلت وما مقدار نصف يوم؟ قال أو ما تقرأ القرآن؟ قلت بلى، قال { وَإِنَّ يَوْماً عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ }. وقال أبو داود في آخر كتاب الملاحم من سننه حدثنا عمرو بن عثمان، حدثنا أبو المغيرة، حدثنا صفوان عن شريح بن عبيد عن سعد بن أبي وقاص عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أنه قال " إني لأرجو أن لا تعجز أمتي عند ربها أن يؤخرهم نصف يوم " قيل لسعد وما نصف يوم؟ قال خمسمائة سنة. وقال ابن أبي حاتم حدثنا أحمد بن سنان، حدثنا عبد الرحمن بن مهدي عن إسرائيل عن سماك، عن عكرمة عن ابن عباس { وَإِنَّ يَوْماً عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ } قال من الأيام التي خلق الله فيها السموات والأرض. ورواه ابن جرير عن ابن بشار عن ابن المهدي، وبه قال مجاهد وعكرمة، ونص عليه أحمد بن حنبل في كتاب الرد على الجهمية، وقال مجاهد هذه الآية كقوله{ يُدَبِّرُ ٱلاَْمْرَ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ إِلَى ٱلاَْرْضِ ثُمَّ يَعْرُجُ إِلَيْهِ فِى يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ } السجدة 5.
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 {{Quote|Tabatabaʾi, Mohammad A.; Mirsadri, Saida, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24811784 "The Qurʾānic Cosmology, as an Identity in Itself"], Arabica 63 (3/4): 201-234, 2016|One important feature of the earth, in the eyes of the Qur'ân, is its tranquility against sudden motions, for God has put it stable (Kor 27, 61; 35, 41). This stability is due to the massive corpuses, namely mountains, which are put upon the earth (Kor 41,10; 88,19), like pegs (Kor 78,7), in order to fix the earth into its place. It is why the Qur'ân in ten places (Kor 13,3; 15,19; 16,15; 21,31; 27,61; 31,10; 41,10; 50, 7; 77, 27; 79, 32) describes them as rawäsi or räsiyät, both plural forms for râsiya, which stands for something which is fastened to the earth due to its heaviness. So, according to the Qur'än, mountains are the heavy masses upon the earth which like pegs are hammered to it, lest it would shake.}}
-Incidentally, the first two verses state that Allah created mountain passes for the benefit of humans. Critics would observe here that many mountain ranges are inconvenient for humans to traverse, with large detours necessary, and show no sign that they were designed with passes perfectly suited to human needs.
+Incidentally, the first two verses state that Allah created mountain passes for the benefit of humans. Critics observe here that many mountain ranges are inconvenient for humans to traverse, with large detours necessary, and show no sign that they were designed with passes perfectly suited to human needs.
 ===Refers to the earth as a whole===
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 Commenting on one such verse (Q 16:15), al-Tabari notes that this verb tamīda was also used for ships swaying to one side and leaning, with the noun al-maīd from the same root meaning seasickness.<ref>[https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=1&tSoraNo=16&tAyahNo=15&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=1 Tafsir al-Tabari for 16:15] - altafsir.com</ref> Thus, the Quranic imagery may be connected with the idea that the Earth rests on water as suggested by Ibn Kathir's commentary in the previous section, and as seen in the Zayd b. 'Amr creation poem discussed above ("He spread it out and when He saw that it was settled upon the waters, He fixed the mountains upon it").
-It is clear that the author of the Quran sought to describe some purposeful benefit for which he supposed mountains had been created. This desire is fulfilled by such a (mistaken) conception of mountains. Other interpretations which seek to interpret mountains as protecting humans from the effects of plate tectonics or earthquakes falter when one considers that an all-powerful creator of the heavens and earth would have been capable of actually ending all dangerous geological activity before humans arrived on the scene. Instead, some mountain ranges are in regions that are still geologically active, while other mountain ranges are in parts of the world which ceased being geologically active hundreds of millions of years before humans arrived (for example the highlands of Scotland).
+The author of the Quran sought to describe some purposeful benefit for which he supposed mountains had been created. This desire is fulfilled by such a (mistaken) conception of mountains. Other interpretations which seek to interpret mountains as protecting humans from the effects of plate tectonics or earthquakes are questioned by critics considering that an all-powerful creator of the heavens and earth would have been capable of actually ending all dangerous geological activity before humans arrived on the scene. Instead, some mountain ranges are in regions that are still geologically active, while other mountain ranges are in parts of the world which ceased being geologically active hundreds of millions of years before humans arrived (for example the highlands of Scotland).
 ===The relationship between mountains and earthquakes===