On Earth and Geology

On the mountains he quotes the Quran: "They ask thee concerning the Mountains: say, `My Lord will uproot them and scatter them as dust.'" Explosions will take place in Judgment day in the mountains. These "explosions" also are mentioned in the Bible: "He removes mountains, and they do not know when he overturns them in his anger." (Job 9:5). Again, Job (Ayub) said all that thousands of years before. Other verses on mountains by Job: "But as a mountain falls and crumbles away, and as a rock is moved from it's place; as water wears away stones, And as torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man." (Job 14:18-19). Job not only mentions mountains, but spoke about erosion. Is this a scientific breakthrough? I say no. They already knew about erosion, that's why they use rock supports around agricultural land in the east. Now we could lookup an encyclopedia on erosion and expound like our friends, then, Walla !!! a scientific miracle. No offense on the (Walla) it has nothing to do with the name of God (Allah) it's just like saying (Wow).

More on Job: "He puts his hands on the flint; He overturns the mountains at the roots." (Job 28:9c). "The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord." (Psalms 97:5). In another Quranic verse we read concerning man's creation: "We have created man in the best of molds, then do we abase him to be the lowest of low" (Al-Tin[95]:4-5). In the Bible we read: "My frame was not hidden from you, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." (Psalms 139:15). Mr. Mahmud comments that the Quran calls the mountains pillars: "He created the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; He set on mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with you; And He scattered through it beasts of all kinds." (Luqman[31]:10). And in other verses mountains are described as "pillars". He explains: "that the mountains act as weights that holds the crust of the earth on it's place, not allowing it to slide over the flaming sea inside the earth.

" One wonders how would Mr. Mahmud interpret the Bible verse: "The Earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; I set up its pillars firmly" (Psalms 74:3). Or another verse from the Bible: "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." (Psalms 46:2-3). The explanation that Mr. Mahmud wanted to conclude from the Quranic verse was already in the Bible. Yet he never quoted the Bible, Why? On the creation of the Earth, Mr. Mahmud comments on the verse "And afterwards stretched forth the earth", to conclude that the Quran knew a major scientific discovery concerning the earth. He says; "This agrees with the most modern views on astronomy of the shape of the earth, since the word "Duhia" means "egg." What Mr. Mahmud concludes is that earth is more flat on the north pole, than the south poll, making earth in the shape of an egg. Again he twisted the words around to fit his aim, and again we have to go to the "Word for Word" translation:

Arabic:               Wa-lardu                ba'ada           thalika              dahaha                         

English:              and earth               after              that                  he extended               

This has nothing to do with eggs. the word "Dahaha" and "Duhia" are not the same. In fact both translators of the Quran I have, agree with my "word for word" translation. J. M Rodwell translates it: "And afterwards stretched forth the earth". Mr. Ali translates it: "And the earth moreover, hath He extended (to a wide expanse)" parenthesis his. We remind our Muslim friends that the Bible already made very clear the shape of the earth: "And he (God) stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing." (Job 26:7). "It is he who sits above the circle of the earth" (Isaiah 40:22). The Bible has the missing word that Mr. Mahmud was looking for. Why didn't he borrow Bible verses to prove his point? Again, which is more accurate, the Bible or the Quran? Another question; When was Isaiah born? I will help you since you have enough homework. Isaiah was born about 700 years before Christ, which makes this about 1400 years before the Quran...no more questions! On another verse of the Quran were Allah says, "Coils the day upon the night and the night upon the day", which is a definite proof to a Muslim that the earth is round, since darkness moves over the light and light moves over the darkness with the word "coil" has to refer to a round shape it's moving over. Although one could see that the word coil can be referred to coiling over a flat surface, like coiling wire over a flat board. Another important factor needs not to be ignored is that in the Quranic verse it refers to the night moving and the day (light) moving around the earth, which does not necessarily mean the earth is round, since you can run around the Kaaba and it's square and stands still while you go around. The fact is, it's the earth is rotating around itself. The word "yukawir" (rotates) was used in the ancient for an example of rolling the turban around your head "yukawir", and you do not normally rotate your head to roll the turban around. It is obvious that the writer of the Quran thought that the sun and the moon coil around the earth as it concludes in the verse after; "the sun and the moon moves".

 

However, in the Gospel of Luke he describes the coming of Christ in the daytime: "Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." While in the few verses that follows Luke describes that Christ will come in the night (Luke 17:34). This was criticized for hundreds of years as a contradiction, how could a single event come to be at both day and night. This does prove that earth had a side which would be night and another which would be day. In the last few centuries many Bible critics denounced some verses concerning the movement of the sun. In Psalm 19:6, King David (Daud) by the inspiration of God writes concerning the sun: "Its rising from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end, And there is nothing hidden from its heat." The accusation was that the Bible claimed that the sun moved in an orbit around the earth. This ancient false claim was not made by the Bible, since the words used "in his circuit unto the ends of it (the heavens)." It was not known until the Hubble Telescope confirmed the accuracy of the Bible as scientists proved that the sun moves through space in a circuit covering an enormous orbit that lasts over two hundred and sixty million years.

 

Modern western and Muslim critics alike falsely accused the Bible of referring to a flat earth in Isaiah 11:12 and Revelation 7:1, as the expression "four corners of the earth" refers to a flat surface. However, this expression was always considered "colloquial". It referred to the four extremities of the globe from a central position, as God referred to a globe. "It is He who sits on the circle of the earth..." (Isaiah 40:22a), clearly confirming modern science, as in another verse by the prophet Job: "hangs the earth on nothing." Job also confirms a very modern scientific known fact not known in the Quran when he refers to the area on the north of the axis of the earth towards the polar star is almost empty of stars, this "hole in the space" of a 300 million light-years gap has taken cosmologists by surprise and is different than the rest of the other directions which are full of stars, as God through Job declares: "He stretches out the north over empty space" (Job 26:7). For more on this refer to Mitchell Waldrop, "Delving the Hole in space, Science magazine, Nov. 27, 1981).

Abrahamic Faith