Mountains As Pegs?
If you look at the flow of the verses, you’ll notice that the whole flow is talking about things that we observe in daily life. [They should behold:] Have We not made the earth a cradle and made the mountains [its] pegs? And not created you in pairs? And not made your sleep a means of comfort [for you]? And not made the night a clothing and the day a time to earn [your] livelihood? And not built above you seven sturdy skies? And not made [in them] a glowing lamp? And not sent down abundant water from dripping clouds that We may bring forth grain and vegetation and gardens of luxurious growth? [All this clearly testifies that] indeed the Day of Judgement has an appointed time. (78:6-17) All of this is observable to human eye and the same has been used to draw our attention toward the signs of God’s creation [1] . Seeing the flow of verses, it would be unjust to say that Quran is only speaking some in-depth geology, which people of Arab somehow knew about at that time. Even today, if you look at earth and the mountains, it would be a great poetic expression of explaining relationship of earth with mountains. It doesn’t mean that it can’t contain any scientific connotations as well along with metaphorical expression of this relationship. But as far as Arabs were concerned, and even for a present day man, this metaphorical relationship would still make sense without need for any in-depth geological phenomenons. ______________________ [1] E xcept for seven skies, whose reality and nature has been described in detail at different places in Quran. A few passages can be seen in the following thread, for example: Discussion 6295