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USING ONLY ONE WORD, THE QURAN HAS IN GREAT DETAIL DESCRIBED ONE OF THE DESTRUCTIVE PHENOMENA DURING A TIME WHEN NO ONE HAD ANY KNOWLEDGE ABOUT IT.…
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Our Earth seems quiet and peaceful but its core is extremely hot active with collisions. And of Allah's blesses on us that we hardly ever feel the earth's activities in order facilitate stable and quite life that we enjoy. This is a great blessing from Allah The Almighty and we should thank Him for gracing us with it.
Sometimes, some of the earth's activities surface in the form of earthquakes, Tsunami or terrible mudslides and landslides therefore, the earth isn't as quiet and peaceful as we thought it to be. It could even be Man's worse enemy at some point.
Landslides happen because of a flood or a sudden movement of the rocks of a cliff or because of heavy rain in which a part of the earth slides over the other causing this phenomena.
Our earth isn't made of one single mass but from a group of plates or pieces positioned one next to the other and separated by cracks. These plates move few inches every year and even if their movements are very slow and we can't feel them but in years they form great massive pressures as a result of their movement that are focused at their ends or at the cracks area at the points of impact.
Landslides cause huge financial losses in the United States of about 2 billion dollars a year. They are a sudden flow of a part of the soil and rocks of the land with a quake that destroys everything in their way.
One of the phenomena that we see and have been recorded by the cameras of scientists are Landslides. The plates of the earth underneath us are in a slow constant movement and sometimes they collide with each other causing violent waves that move to the surface causing collapses in some parts of the land leading to slides in the land, violent movement of soil and its massive erosion and pass through habituated areas and destroys them in very short time. The most violent of those landslides are those resulting from the movement of a palate and its collision with another leading to one of them diving underneath or being swallowed while the other rises above.
This picture shows the flow of mud that covered some parts of the town which happened during a very short period of time. This is called mudslide which occurs due to heavy rain that mixes with the soil and make a mobile mixture that sweeps away everything in its way.
The characteristics of this phenomena:
When scientists examined landslides, they found that they have a group of characteristics. However, these studies weren't completed until the 20th century and using the laws of physics and mathematics and the usage of Seismometers. Their characteristics are as follows:
1. Flowing: the most important characteristic of landslides is that the soils and rocks flow down an area and destroy everything in their way. This flow is similar to the flow of liquids and fluids.
2. Trembling: landslides are highly unstable for soils and rocks mix and tremble because of the seismic waves resulting from collision of the palates therefore, they are very sudden, violent and unstable.
3. Motion: abrupt, violent and sudden movement of the soil is one characteristic of landslides that cause massive destruction because the collapse of one part of the earth casing it to slide underneath another part causes great pressure that leads to the rapid movement of this part sweeping away rocks and soil.
4. Waves: the seismic movement of the soil is similar to the waves of the sea. All earthquakes, collapses, tsunamis and other destructive phenomena generate massive pressure waves which increases their destructive powers.
5. Running: many landslides occur during the rainy season so the rain mixes with soil forming mud that moves like a liquid and sweeps everything it its path like trees, houses, cattle, power lines, cars and bridges without any warning.
Landslides move very rapidly at times and slowly but sudden at others. The smallest components of soil, rock and mud mix together forming a flowing liquid as tough as sea waves.
Now, let us ask this question: is there a word in the Quran with absolute accuracy? As we know the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century when no one on the face of this earth knew anything about landslides and what causes them. They were only examined scientifically in our modern age after the invention of the appropriate machines, however, the Quran has splendidly described them ….
The Quran talks about landslides
Let us examine this great ayah in which Allah the Almighty has warned us from the collapse of the earth:" Do ye feel secure that
He Who is in Heaven will not cause you to be swallowed up by the earth when it shakes (as in an earthquake)?(Al-Mulk:16). In this ayah a word that represents a scientific miracle which is /tamūr/( translated as "shakes"), so what does this word mean? And could the meaning include all the characteristics of landslides previously discussed? Lets view the Muhit dictionary.
A landslide destroys everything in its way such as trees, cars and houses … as if we were in front of a part of the land that changes suddenly into an unstable mobile fluid. And this is exactly what the word /tamūr/ means. Isn't the Quran a Book of miracles.
Ice areas aren’t an exception for an Avalanche is much more destructive than that of soil because the speed of the flowing ice due to the collapse and slide of some parts is very great even more violent than the power of floods. The same characteristics apply to this phenomena because an avalanche flows, runs and is highly unstable.
The meaning os /tamūr/ has many meanings mainly:
1. Flowing 2. Instability 3. Motion 4. Waves 5. Running
Which are all the characteristics of a landslide. But the meaning of the ayah doesn't stop at this , it also refers to the collapse that results from earthquakes as well as tsunami. These phenomena are described using the word/tamūr/ accurately with great details. In addition, if we examine the dictionary meaning of /khasf/ (translated as "swallowed up") it means:
/khasafa/ means: some of its parts are gone. And /khasafa al makan/ means gone into the earth and /khasafa al shai'/ means to break or cut it. /kusifat al-aein/ means gone and disappeared. And it is said/ Allah collapses the earth with John in it means that He caused him to disappear in it. And /akhaseef/ are elastic lands.
All these meanings together form the characteristics of landslides because the occurrence of a landslide requires the movement of a part of the land causing some parts to disappear and dive under the waves of flowing mud turning that area into a dough-like land which is the meaning of /khasf/.
The Quran indicated that this phenomenon occurs without humans feeling it. And scientists confirm that landslides are unpredictable and can be predicted very short time before they occur; Allah syas:" Do then those who devise evil (plots) feel secure that God will not cause the earth to swallow them up, or that the wrath will not seize them from directions they little perceive?" (Al-Nahl:45).
There is also a Quranic reference of the collapse and movement of the palates of the earth as Allah says:" Do ye then feel secure that He will not cause you to be swallowed up beneath the earth when ye are on land, or that He will not send against you a violent tornado (With showers of stones) so that ye shall find no one to carry out your affairs for you?(Al-Isra'a: 68). The miraculous aspect is clarified in /janib al bar (translated as " when ye are on land" which in Arabic carries a reference to the ends of the palates the dives underneath due to the collision with another palate causing collapses, tsunami and other destructive phenomena.
Some of the gentle references in the Quran
Scientists confirm that the earth has seven layers and the Quran referred to this in a wonderful ayah: " God is He Who Created seven Firmaments And of the earth A similar number. Through the midst Of them (all) descends His Command: that ye may Know that God has power Over all things, and that God comprehends all things In (His) Knowledge."(Al-talaq:12). Strangely enough that the collapse of the earth was repeated in the Quran exactly seven times as the number of the layers of the earth.
Finally
We say praise be to Allah for how could one word /tamūr/ could express all five characteristics of landslides? And how could another word /yakhsif/ to accurately express the nature of the phenomenon and its results? It is indeed the word of Allah that could never be imitated and never altered. This indicates the inimitability of the word of Allah that distinguishes it from the words of man. Human need several words or sentences to express the nature of this phenomenon while the Quran choose of thousands of words the suitable one that give the exact accurate meaning that no other word could express. This shows the inimitability of the Quran and that it is indeed revealed from Allah;" Say: "The (Qur-ān) was sent down by Him Who knows The Mystery (that is) in the heavens and the earth: verily He Is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Al-furqan:6).
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By: Abduldaem Al-Kaheel
References:
Debris Flow Hazards in the United States, http://geology.com/usgs/debris-flow-hazards/
Mass Movement. http://resources.teachnet.ie/ajordan/mm.htm
http://geology.com/usgs/landslides/
http://geology.com/articles/debris-flow/
Landslide, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landslide
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