In one of the verses, we are informed that the mountains are not motionless as they seem but that they are in constant motion:
(You will see the mountains you reckoned to be solid going past like clouds. Such is the artistry of God, who disposes of all things in perfect order; surely He is Aware of what you do.) (Surat an-Naml, 88)
This motion of the mountains is caused by the movement of the earth’s crust that they are located on. The earth’s crust sort of floats over the mantle layer, which is denser.
It was at the beginning of the 20th century when, for the first time in history, a German scientist by the name of Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents of the earth had been attached together at the initial phases of the world, but then drifted in different directions and thus separated as they moved away from each other. Geologists understood that Wegener was right only in the 1980s.
50 years after his death, discovered as a result of the geological research carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, this movement of the earth’s crust is explained by scientists as follows:
“The crust and the uppermost part of the mantle, with a thickness of about 100 kms, are divided into segments called plates. There are six major plates, and several small ones. According to the theory called plate tectonics, these plates move about on Earth, carrying continents and ocean floor with them. Continental motion has been measured at from 1-5 cm per year. As the plates continue to move about, this will produce a slow change in Earth’s geography. Each year, for instance, the Atlantic Ocean becomes slightly wider.”
There is a very important point to be stated here: God has referred to the motion of mountains as a drifting action in the verse. Today, modern scientists also use the term “continental drift” for this motion.
Unquestionably, it is one of the miracles of the Qur’an that this scientific fact, which has been recently discovered by science, was announced in the Qur’an.
