15 Preface وَأَلقىٰ فِي الأَرضِ رَواسِيَ أَن تَميدَ بِكُم وَأَنهارًا وَسُبُلًا لَعَلَّكُم تَهتَدونَAhmed AliHe placed stablisers in the earth1 so that while it revolves you live undisturbed, and rivers and tracks so that you may find your way; Stabilisers, rawasi, are actually mountains in the interior of the earth made evident by modern geophysicists who mapped the earth’s interior. At some places they are 6 miles high and 6000 miles wide with a valley as deep and wide, situated between the liquid core and the crust of the earth. Their function is to stabilise the crust and rotation of the earth. (Readers’ Digest, May 1987). This description would apply to underground, ‘stabilisers’ when used with ‘so that while it revolves you live undisturbed, as here and in 21:31, 3:10, and also 77:27. In 13:3, 15:19, 27:61, 50:7 on the other hand, it has been used for mountains as stabilisers. The four spans of earth’s evolution mentioned in this connection at 41:10 are equivalent to the mineral, the vegetable and animal kingdoms, the fourth starting with the placing of man on earth which comes last as is clear from 76:1, who did not evolve from the ape but was created as an independent species like the apes themselves and all other creatures.