raised to that awe-inspiring height, and in the space between them and the earth lie tremendous signs: the celestial spheres, the stars, the sun and the moon, the winds and the clouds, and many other tokens of Allah’s power.

Third: “and at the mountains—how they have been set upright.” These massive, solid, towering mountains could never be produced by all created beings together, no matter how great their strength. Even with today’s enormous machinery, when people try to fill in a hollow they manage only a little, and that with tremendous hardship. We must therefore ponder these immovable mountains: how did Allah plant them? He erected them in accordance with far-reaching wisdom, for within the mountains He has placed immense and manifold benefits. Among them is that they act as pegs stabilising the earth and holding it fast so that it does not quake, as Allah says, “He placed in the earth firm mountains lest it should shake beneath you” (al-Nahl 16:15). Without Allah’s anchoring the earth by means of these mountains, it would rock like a ship on a storm-tossed sea; but through these mountains He has made it calm, settled, and free of tremor.

The mountains also shield certain regions from violent, raging winds, protect them from the intense cold that blows from the polar zones, and guard them from searing heat. From their slopes come yet more signs of Allah—vegetation, valleys, and a vast array of minerals—so He said: “and at the mountains—how they have been set upright.”

Fourth: “and at the earth—how it has been spread out.” Allah has made it a level surface, subjugated it to His servants, and rendered it tractable rather than intractable: its soil is neither so loose that people cannot gain a foothold