7وَالجِبالَ أَوتادًاAli UnalAnd the mountains as masts?1This verse means the following, as Said Nursi explains it: “I have made mountains like masts and stakes for your earth.” Ordinary people see mountains as if they have been driven into the ground and, thinking of the benefits and bounties thereof, thank the Creator. Poets imagine the earth as a land upon which the dome of the heaven has been pitched, in a sweeping arc, as a mighty blue tent adorned with lamps. Perceiving the mountains that surround the base of the heaven as tent pegs, they worship the Majestic Creator in amazement. The literary people of the deserts imagine the earth as a vast desert, and its mountain chains as many nomads’ tents. They perceive these as if the soil were stretched over high posts and the pointed tips of the posts had raised the “cloth” of the soil, the home for countless creatures. They prostrate in amazement before the Majestic Creator, Who placed and set up such imposing and mighty things so easily. Geographers with a literary bent view the earth as a ship sailing in the ocean of air or ether, and the mountains as masts that give balance and stability to the ship. Before the All-Powerful One of Perfection, Who has made the earth like a well-built orderly ship on which He makes us travel through the universe, they declare: “Glory be to You! How magnificent Your creation is!” Philosophers or historians of culture see the earth as a house, the pillar of whose life is animal life that, in turn, is supported by air, water, and soil (the conditions of life). Mountains are essential for these conditions, for they store water, purify the atmosphere by precipitating noxious gases, and preserve the ground from becoming a swamp and being overrun by the sea. Mountains also are treasuries for other necessities of human life. In perfect reverence, they praise the Maker of Majesty and Munificence, Who has made these great mountains the pillars for the earth, the house of our life, and appointed them as keepers of the treasures necessary for our life. Naturalists say: “The earthquakes and tremors, which are due to certain underground formations and fusions, were stabilized with the emergence of mountains. This event also stabilized the axis and orbit of the earth. Thus, its annual rotation is not affected by earthquakes. Its wrath and anger is quieted by coursing through mountain vents.” They come to believe and declare: “There is wisdom in everything God does.” (The Words, “The 25th Word,” 410–411)