An Elementary Study of Islam — Page 21
Mirza Tahir Ahmad 21 which is common to both the continuous present and future. So the verse may be translated as: ‘The mountains are moving constantly in a coasting motion without making the least effort on their part. ’ It can also be translated as, ‘The mountains will move as if they were sailing. ’ People of that age might have taken refuge in this second option, but they forgot to take notice of another part of the same verse which says, ‘While you think they are stationary. ’ How could the man of any age think the mountains to be stationary if they suddenly started moving? The description of their movement leaves no room anywhere for anyone to be alive on earth and watch quietly the amazing phenomenon mentioned in the verse. Logically therefore, the only valid translation would be: ‘While you consider the mountains to be stationary, in fact they are constantly in motion. ’ There are many other similar examples which can be quoted from the Quran, but I have already illustrated them in another address of mine entitled Rationality and Revelation in Relation to Knowledge and Truth. Any reader interested in further study could refer to the same. We know for certain that during the remote past when the Vedas were revealed for the benefit of the people of India, the Indians had little knowledge of the worlds lying beyond the seas. Hence there is no mention of any country or people outside India, across the natural boundaries of the Himalayas on the one side and the seas on the other. The silence of the Vedas on the subject may be an appropriate and well understood silence on the part of God. It must be made clear that the facts mentioned in the divine books are of two categories. The first category comprises these worldly facts, which can be understood and verified by all human beings regardless of which religion they belong to. These are the facts that we are referring to in