39:5 He created the heavens and the earth truthfully. He rolls the night over the day, and rolls the day over the night. He committed the sun and the moon, each running for a finite period. Absolutely, He is the Almighty, the Forgiving.
The Arabic for “He rolls” (Yukawwir / يُكَوِّرُ) is derived from the Arabic word for “ball” (kurah / كرة). This verse clearly informs us that the earth is round. Since the Earth is not exactly round, a specific reference to its shape is given in Sura 79, verse 30. The Arabic word used to describe the Earth in this verse is daḥāhā ( دَحَاهَا), which is typically translated as “egg-shaped” or “spread.”
The word daḥāhā ( دَحَاهَا) comes from the following root ( د ح و) with the following derivative meanings.
Today in Western culture, if we think of an egg, we typically think of a chicken egg, but the chicken was not introduced to the Arabian Peninsula until after the revelation of the Quran. Instead, the common bird and egg at that time would have been the Arabian ostrich. Unfortunately, this bird went extinct in the 20th century.
The connection between the word daḥāhā ( دَحَاهَا) and the Arabian ostrich becomes more apparent by understanding how the ostrich would lay its eggs by spreading out the sand before laying on top of it. This is why the root word has the meaning to spread and that of an egg.
Despite the animal being extinct, God has blessed us with an egg that has been discovered and preserved. Below is an image of the Arabian ostrich egg gifted from the poet C.M. Doughty to archeologist T.E. Lawrence.
If we look at the shape of the Earth from space, we see that it flattened at the poles and bulged at the Equator, forming the shape described as an oblate spheroid. The radius of the earth from the center to the North Pole is 6356.752km, while the radius of the center of the earth to the equator is 6378.137km. This makes the distance from the center to the Equator ~0.33% longer than the distance from the center to the North Pole.
When we compare the shape of the Earth to that of the Arabian ostrich egg, we see that out of all eggs, this shape is the closest egg to an oblate spheroid. But there is more to this description.
If we were able to do a cross-section of the Earth, we could divide the Earth into four parts.
Earth’s inner core is the innermost geologic layer of the Earth. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 kilometers (760 miles), which is about 20% of the Earth’s radius. We have no samples of the Earth’s core available for direct measurement, but from the analysis of seismic waves and the magnetic field, the inner core is believed to be composed of an iron-nickel alloy with some other elements. The temperature at the inner core’s surface is estimated to be approximately 5700 K (5430 °C or 9806 °F), which is about the temperature at the surface of the Sun.
Earth’s outer core is a fluid layer of about 2,400 km (1,500 mi or 40% of Earth’s radius) thick and composed of mostly liquid iron and nickel. Its outer boundary lies 2,890 km (1,800 mi) beneath Earth’s surface. The transition between the inner core and outer core is located approximately 5,150 km (3,200 mi) beneath the Earth’s surface.
Earth’s mantle: The mantle is the mostly-solid bulk of Earth’s interior. The mantle lies between Earth’s dense, super-heated core and its thin outer layer, the crust. The mantle is about 2,900 kilometers (1,802 miles 40% of Earth’s radius) thick, and makes up a whopping 84% of Earth’s total volume.
The Earth’s crust is a thin shell on the outside of the Earth, accounting for less than 1% of Earth’s volume. The Earth’s crust ranges from 5–70 kilometers (3.1–43.5 mi) in depth.
While we do not have a cross-section of an Arabian Ostrich egg to compare this against if we compare this structure to a chicken egg. Upon doing so, we see more similarities between the Earth and an egg.
But the word daḥāhā ( دَحَاهَا), as mentioned, has another meaning as well as egg-shaped; it also means to spread. So how does this relate to the makeup of the Earth?
In the following verse, God describes the mountains in the following way:
27:88 When you look at the mountains, you think that they are standing still. But they are moving, like the clouds. Such is the manufacture of GOD, who perfected everything. He is fully Cognizant of everything you do.
One of the incredible facets of planet Earth is plate tectonics. The Earth has seven major plates that form the Earth’s crust. Each of these plates floats on the Earth’s mantle. Each year each plate moves about an inch. When these plates collide with one another, the plate that is stronger moves below, and the plate that is weaker moves on top. Then over millions of years, this accumulation of moving causes the formation of mountains.
88:17 Why do they not reflect on the camels and how they are created? 88:18 And the sky and how it is raised. 88:19 And the mountains and how they are constructed. 88:20 And the earth and how it is built.
If we wanted to describe a model of the Earth’s plates, a standard model is to imagine an egg that is cracked yet not broken, where each of the remaining pieces would be floating on top of the contents of the egg with the ability to collide with one another. Because Earth’s crust is less dense than the mantle below, the crust “floats” on the mantle as it “spreads”.
So when the Quran describes the Earth as دَحَاهَا, not only is it describing the physical shape of the Earth, but also it is providing a depiction of the cross-section of the Earth, as well as describing that it is being spread in the form of continental drift.
Additionally, the Quran describes the mountains as pegs or stakes in the following verse, as they hold the plates of the Earth in place when they collide with one another.
78:6 Did we not make the earth habitable? 78:7 And the mountains pegs (stabilizers)?
While in other verses, the Quran describes the mountains as stabilizers when it uses the term rawāsiya ( رَوَاسِيَ). This word comes from the root ر س و, which means stabilizing or setting an anchor.
16:15 And He placed stabilizers (mountains) on earth, lest it tumbles with you, as well as rivers and roads, that you may be guided.
21:31 A nd we placed on earth stabilizers, lest it tumbles with them, and we placed straight roads therein, that they may be guided.
31:10 He created the heavens without pillars that you can see. He established on earth stabilizers (mountains) lest it tumbles with you, and He spread on it all kinds of creatures. We send down from the sky water to grow all kinds of beautiful plants.
It is interesting that again in this verse, it uses the term madadnāhā ( مَدَدْنَاهَا) to describe the Earth or, more specifically, the land of the Earth. This word means to spread, just as the plates of the Earth are spread out over the surface of the Earth. Secondly, it uses the term wa-alqaynā ( وَأَلْقَيْنَا) to indicate that the mountains are cast down (into the Earth) and finally uses the term rawāsiya ( رَوَاسِيَ) in reference to the mountains as stabilizers. God be glorified.
*If you want to learn more about these kinds of findings in the Quran, check out the following article regarding iron and the Quran.*