Were mountains created so that earthquakes would not happen?

Dear Brother / Sister,

We Muslims believe that the Quran was revealed by Allah Almighty to His prophet Muhammad Mustafa (pbuh) through a special means of communication called revelation (wahy).

Since Allah revealed the Quran and He knows everything correctly and fully, there cannot be anything wrong in the Quran.

Many people have claimed that the Quran was the word of a human being and that it was transferred from the old religions since the Quran was revealed; however, despite the challenge of the Quran by saying, ”if it is a word of a human being, do the same”, nobody has been able to do so; the claim that it was transferred from the previous religions has not been proved since it is contrary to the historical facts and it is not based on any evidence and documents.

As for the relationship between intellect and science, and the Qur'an:

We, Muslims, believe the following:

It is Allah who sent the Quran, and it is Allah who gave people intellect and asked them to use it. Therefore, there should be no contradiction between the two. One does not say A for the thing that the other says B, but the realm of existence and truth is large enough to exceed science and intellect; and each level of existence has science peculiar to it and special means of this science. The scientist knows his limitations, does not make judgments about the subjects which are not in his field of observation and experimentation; he says, “these issues are outside my field”. Those who make judgments about those issues are not scientists but people who use scientism as an ideology and belief and who act ridiculously by attempting to climb up to the sky by riding a bicycle.

One of those pseudo-scientists tried to silence a young man who objected to him and asked him a question: “Even if there is only a word contrary to science in the Quran, it is sufficient as evidence that it is not divine. The following is stated in the Quran: ‘We created the mountains so that earthquakes would not happen.’ However, this is not true in terms of science. Earthquakes happen in the mountains too.”

Dear Professor.

There is no verse in the Quran meaning “We created the mountains so that earthquakes would not happen.” If you have seen a translation like that, it is wrong. The verses of an-Nahl:16/15, al-Anbiya: 21/31, Luqman 31/10 mean “to establish the balance on earth”.

“Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse, And the mountains as pegs?” (an-Naba: 6-7) As it is stated in the verses above, there are verses stating that mountains are like pegs.

What does science say regarding the issue?

“The main difference between the mountains in the continents and the mountains in the oceans is in the material. Both have roots that support the mountains. In the mountains of the continents, the light and the less dense material extends into the ground as a root. In the mountains of the oceans, there is light matter that supports the mountain as a root. The function of the roots is to support the mountains according to the Archimedes law. The effect of the mountains in ensuring the general balance of the Earth's crust is defined as the isostasy.”

“This concept is explained as follows in Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary: ‘Isostasy is the general equilibrium in the Earth's crust maintained by a yielding flow of rock material beneath the surface under gravitational stress.’ Furthermore, a book titled “Earth”, by Dr. Frank Press, former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which is still used as a textbook in many universities, states that mountains are like stakes, and are buried deep under the surface of the Earth.”

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