Why does the Quran order us to look at the camel, the sky, the mountain and the earth? They are the things that we all see and know.

Why does the Quran order us to look at the camel, the sky, the mountain and the earth? They are the things that we all see and know.

Dear Brother / Sister,

Author: Alaaddin Başar (Prof.Dr.)

In many verses, the Quran teaches man not to be indulged in the world of emotions but to look at the realm of wisdoms. The Quran draws the attention of man to the wonderful works that he always sees, that he is accustomed to and that he neglects to contemplate.

One example:

Man is asked to look at the creation of man, the camels, the skies, the mountains and the earth in the chapter of al-Ghashiya:

Do they not look at the Camels, how they are made?― And at the Sky, how it is raised high? And at the Mountains How they are fixed firm?― And at the Earth, how it is spread out?
(al-Ghashiya, 17-20)

We will refer the vast meanings of the verses to tafsir books and point briefly to the similarity in the shapes of those beings that we are asked to contemplate.   

The one who placed the hump on the back of the camel is the same being who placed the mountains on the back of the earth like humps. The sky looks like a complete hump.

In the verse, the attention of the people is drawn to the camel first, to the sky then, to the mountains after that and to the earth in the end. This order is a rhetorical miracle on its own. Draw an imaginary line from the eye of the man to the hump of the camel; then draw a line from there to the sky; then lower that line to the mountain and to the earth. You will see another hump or the shape of a mountain.   

The following is stated in verse 88 of the chapter an-Naml:

Thou seest the mountains and thinkest them firmly fixed: but they shall pass away as the clouds pass away.

The movement of the hump means the walk of the camel; this verse informs us 1400 years earlier that the world is not fixed but that it moves.

This verse and many similar verses teach man to move to the doer from the work, that is, the creator of the work and to contemplate his soul and the realm with wisdom and by taking lessons. Those who take this lesson of contemplation from the Quran do not die like an ignorant Bedouin without watching the camel as it is necessary or like an astronomer without contemplating the sky.

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