: History of the Earth

Semantic Field: Astronomy—Scientific study of Universe

Contents

1) It was rendered flattened like floor - carpet;

2) It was rendered cool, making it a comfortable abode.

3) The Earth was pulled, elongated, stretched;

4) Like seven skies, the Earth was created in seven layers;

5) It possesses the rifting system;

6) The Earth is being reduced from her edges - circumference

7) Other information relating to Earth-geodetics engineering.

We have earlier studied the creation of the Earth as a component of the Universe.  The Arabic Root that relates to semantic field "Creation" is:  خ ل ق: Creation—Matter and Life. Classical lexicons state that it signifies the act of determining the measures and proportionality of a thing to other things, and then smoothness of the object. The basic perception is that of the idea and intention of giving existence to the intended object. Thus the thing is created and exists firstly in Abstract Realm before it takes existence in the Physical Realm. The words that stem from this Root are result oriented. The irreducible semantic features of this Root are: A living Who is the creator of the object; The will - decision taken by the living to create; Idea - blue print - determination of measures and proportionality of the thing to other things that creates interrelationships before the object takes existence; The purpose the Creator has in mind to create the object; For what or for whom it is meant; The span of time it will continue to exist or live; Assigning a name to the object for its cognition.

The word: stems from Root: ء ر ض. This root signifies one of the major components - Earth of the Universe. Its characteristic  is femininity. Every object has a gender in Arabic, either it has masculinity or femininity. For scientific study - investigation, this aspect is important, not to be overlooked since it is in itself a force.

We will now study the information disclosed about the Earth-geodetics engineering: the scientific discipline that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth. Regarding it the first information given is:

The previous clause also started with the same Relative Pronoun and its reiteration maintains the cohesion of the sentence; and reflects that the following information is relevant to earlier information in a different perspective. In previous clause the linkage verb is: "He created" and here the linkage clause is: a doubly transitive verb, "He rendered". It stems from Root:  ج ع ل which signifies rendering an already existing thing to assign it a different characteristic or state; or inserting something into an object.

The Prepositional phrase: relates to the verb denoting that it was done solely for you people, it was for no other purpose. The delicacy in its objects:   is that the first noun is definite while the second noun is indefinite in absolute state, its sign is Tanween. The second noun depicts the state in which the Earth was rendered. It thus reveals the Earth was originally not in the state as we find and observe it today.

: It stems from Root: ف ر ش. Ibn Faris [died-1005] stated:يدلُّ على تمهيد الشَّيءِ وبَسْطه  That it leads to the perception of preparing, arranging, settling a thing and outstretching, outspreading, flattening it. It thus signifies rendering an object to have a flat open space/surface. Semantically this Root describes only the exterior state of an object —surface, not its interior. The floors also have inner surfaces:

The rendering of the Earth as a floor - carpet again finds mention:

The rendering of the Earth as a floor is related to smoothening and softening:

The Topography - surface features of the Earth is also described by using the words of Roots س ط ح : and  ب س ط; and ذ ل ل and  ك ف ت and of Root  د ح و/ى that reveal its features:

The Earth was rendered to have typical topography -surface features favourable to humanity:

All these process to render the Earth — have peculiar characteristics — were aimed at making it manageable for humanity:

The verb stems from Root: د ح و/ى. Ibn Faris (died 1105) stated in his famous lexicon: "That it leads to the perception of outstretching and softening the ground as a settlement. And from it is the communal pit-settlement of ostrich, a place wherein it spawns, it is so called since he makes the settlement with his feet and afterwards eggs are laid therein. It does not denote "ostrich nest".

Lane's Lexicon has rendered it like this:

The most prominent relationship with this Root is that of ostrich. It is the world's largest and heaviest surviving bird, and so are their eggs largest in the world 5.9 inches long and 5.1 inches wide and weighing in at around 3-5 pounds each.

Because the ostrich has an elongated neck and large protruding eyes shadowed by long lashes, it has been likened to a camel, the most liked mammal of Arabs. (Its scientific name is Struthio camelus!) Ostriches can also withstand hot temperatures and go for long periods of time without water, usually getting enough moisture from the plants they eat.

They generally live together in small groups led by a dominant male and a dominant female. After copulation, the male creates what is known as a communal pit in the Earth; 12–24 inches deep and almost 10ft wide. The dominant female then lays her eggs first before being followed by others in the group.

It is thus evident that if the subject of verb with suffixed pronoun for the Earth is the male Ostrich, it will exclusively signify the aforementioned act and the affect upon Earth.

Therefore, the irreducible semantic feature of this root is the setting of Earth as a settlement for spawning: to produce offspring in large numbers, and its communal aspect.

Grand Qur’ān has used many Roots for explaining the distinct-unique features and information about the Earth—geodetics engineering. Although there may seemingly be some overlapping aspects while transferring their concepts in English language, but every Root has unique features of its own.

Ostrich communal pit in the land results in multiplication of their number into numerous. Likewise the Earth has communal aspect for humanity and their multiplication in number:

This phenomenon of multiplication will not be possible in off-Earth environment, even if the fiction of permanent human habitation on a planetary body other than the Earth becomes a reality.

2) It was rendered cool, making it a comfortable abode.

Why was the Earth rendered floor - carpet like? It was for reason:

It is inverted nominal sentence. And further information that was given to Man at the time of departure from extra terrestrial domain is:

: Noun locative on the pattern of Passive participle: Indefinite; masculine; singular; nominative; [Form-X]; مصدر-اَسْتَقْرار Verbal noun.  Form-X verbs usually carry the meaning of seeking or aspire for the meanings of its Form-I. Was the Earth such a dwelling place right from its origin? No it was so rendered

The verbal Noun: stems from Root: ق ر ر. Ibn Faris [died 1005] stated:

Semantic components: Breaking down-basic elements into which the meaning of a word can be decomposed into components; semantically the term component refers to irreducible feature in terms of which the sense of lexical items can be analyzed.

In keeping with the basic perception, the irreducible features that can be sensed in the words stemming from this Root are:

(i) Coolness, another Root for this feature is: ب ر د

(ii) Comfort, and

(iii) Safety.

It is known that the words stemming from a Root necessarily contain the basic semantic element of the Root, that is their irreducible semantic feature. It is thus clear that the Earth originally was hot and later rendered cool to make its surface a safe and comfortable living place for Man. The coolness yields calmness, tranquillity and comfort.

This Root is also used to refer crystal:

The word "crystal" is derived from an ancient Greek word that means both "ice" and "rock crystal".

3) The Earth was pulled, elongated, stretched;

We have earlier read that Allah the Exalted had rendered the Earth as carpet - floor. Obviously, to render it as such the Earth would have needed to be stretched. It is explained:

The object of verb is the Earth. The perfect verb stems from Root: م د د.  Learned Ibn Faris in his famous lexicon stated "That it leads to the perception of pulling, dragging, stretching a thing in length, and adjacency of a thing with another longitudinally."

Both the component units of the Universe will be folded on the Day of Standing

4) Like seven skies, the Earth was created in seven layers;

Earlier we have studied that the Earth was rendered: : which signifies rendering an object to have a flat open space/surface. Semantically it describes only the exterior state of an object, not its interior. The floors also have inner surfaces:

Here the verb used is "He created" for Seven Skies which was originally One Sky and then layered into seven; similarly the Seven layered Earth was created originally from one Earth. What it shows is that when the Sky and the Earth had opted to join in the manner of mutual attraction, where after the Sky was stretched to create seven skies and the Earth was also made to become seven layered.

The conjunction particle links the following entities to the preceding verb which is a prepositional phrase meaning "from the Earth".

The direct object of elided verb denoting creation of seven layers from the Earth is: which is a possessive phrase. The possessive pronoun third person feminine plural is referent for seven skies, and the first noun signifies similarity, identicalness, and semblance in the creation of both entities. The creation of Seven Skies is by placing them: one over the other, vertically layered This verbal noun signifies a state when things are placed one above the other in such manner that each is commensurate therewith. The information given is that the Earth has seven vertical layers. This verbal noun stems from Root: ط ب ق. Ibn Faris (died 1005) stated in his famous lexicon:

يدلُّ على وضع شيء مبسوط على مِثله حتى يُغطِّيَه

That it leads to the perception of placing a thing spread upon another similar thing until it encases the other - is concentric to it - exactly overlaps it.

The irreducible semantic feature of this Root is the placement of one thing above another in such manner that it encases the other; the edges of both facing each other in exact equivalence.

How the Skies and the Earth are layered is further explained by telling that you will not notice any gap - opening between the surfaces of two layers. The lower part of the upper layer completely covers the upper part of the lower surface leaving no uncovered opening- edge.

It is for experts to see and determine the boundaries of seven layers and whether or not two layers are placed upon each other exactly in the state described by the verbal noun: which is distinct from another noun: that signifies vertically stacking, piling of things.

5) It possesses a rifting system;

A peculiar characteristic of the Earth disclosed in Grand Qur’ān is:

The verbal noun: stems from Root: ص د ع. The basic perception and signification infolded in the Root, in the words of Ibn Faris [died:1005], is this:

           يدلُّ على انفراجٍ فى الشىء

That it leads us to a perception and visualization of an act of divergence, rifting; the mechanism of moving apart; appearance of an opening and intervening space, gap, or breach having occurred within an object.

The learned scholar facilitated his readers to perceive a near exact image of the object by using the word: انفراجٍ made from Root: "ف ر ج" and by disclosing that this phenomenon occurs within a thing/object. This Root, too, signifies divergence and intervening space and specifically refers to the "bulge between the legs, pudendum" of man and woman; sensitive starting point from where the divergence and rift appears between two legs at sensitive and delicate moments of extreme excitement.

لسان العرب :الصَّدْعُ: الشَّقُّ في الشيءِ الصُّلْبِ Cleavage within a solid/hard thing/object.

English Lexicons:

The Earths is: : It is a Possessive Phrase. The first feminine noun means: holder of, possessor; and is a Verbal Noun: Definite; genitive, relating to صَدَعَ-يَصْدَعُ transitive verb. Verbal noun signifies the action indicated in the verb that is derived from it. Another peculiarity of Verbal Noun is that if the verb is transitive, likewise the Verbal noun will be transitive. Verbal noun only refers to an act, activity, mechanism, or process without signifying the time-line. It means "Rifting". The peculiar feature of the Earth is stated as "the Possessor of the Rifting mechanism/Rift".

This is rather interesting and strange coincidence that the British explorer John Walter Gregory gave the name "The Great Rift Valley"  in the late 19th century to the continuous geographic trench, approximately 6,000 kilometres (3,700 mi) in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa.

6) The Earth is being reduced from her edges - circumference

Another information about the Earth mentioned in Grand Qur’ān is regarding observable changes:

The information is given in question format using the verbs signifying seeing - noticing indicating that what follows is an observable phenomenon. The verbal sentence: , comprising of verb - subject - object is the predicate of verb-like particle, stands as direct object of preceding verb "seeing, noticing, observing". The First person plural/Majestic singular imperfect verb in indicative mood stems from Root: ء ت ى which has in its ambit the meanings of "to yield" and overpowering something. After the question about the Earth, another question uses the word: the dominant, those who overpower.

The observable information about the Earth is: : "Our Majesty keep reducing her from her edges". The verb stems from Root: ن ق ص and signifies the act of reducing, decreasing, diminishing. The area of effect of verb is mentioned by a prepositional phrase coupled with possessive phrase: with pronoun referring the Earth. The noun is feminine broken plural noun. It denotes plural number of edges, corners and thus by itself reveals the sphericity of the Earth.

The Earth scientists can better explain the phenomenon and the force that causes this reduction - shrinkage. Reflecting on the use of verbal sentence: which could have been omitted and yet the information would have been complete, it seems it has some relationship with the phenomenon of expanding the Sky:

7) Other information relating to Earth-geodetics engineering.

About other information relating to wherewithal of the Earth, like Mountains, Water, Plant Kingdom, Death and its rejuvenation, mentioned in Grand Qur’ān, we will study each as a separate subject, Allah the Exalted so willing.

     Mountains - Anchors inserted in the Earth