al-Zukhruf

الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ مَهْداً وَجَعَلَ لَكُمْ فِيهَا سُبُلاً لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ

10. Who has made for you the earth a resting place, and has made for you roads therein, in order that you may find your way.

The path to Guidance is a Divine Favor. If the regions of the earth were detached by lofty mountains and deep valleys, mankind would be unable to live on it. Therefore, the possibility of constructing roads is a Divine blessing. Traversing lands and perceiving them may lead man to the path of Guidance. The blessed Verse indicates Divine Unity and His Essential Attributes a posteriori saying that God Whose Existence is acknowledged by you is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

He is the Creator of all things Who has made the earth for you like a cradle through His Grace and Bounty. The similitude of the earth to a cradle is a reference to the rotation of the earth on its axis. The rotary movement of the earth is also discovered by modern science. It is worthy of note that astronomers of the old maintained that the earth is motionless and the sun rotates around the earth once in 24 hours and the existence of nights and days are resulted from the solar rotary movement.

Qur’anic exegets have interpreted the word mahd as peace and rest, but the word means the cradle used for infants as a place of rest. The discovery of the rotary motion of the earth on its axis by modern science bears testimony to one of the Qur’anic miracles and secrets unknown to any anyone in olden times.