سورة النحل

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): وَأَلْقَی فِی الأَرْضِ رَوَاسِیَ أَن تَمِیدَ بِکُمْ [And He has cast great mountains in the earth lest it might be convulsed with you] means mountains. وَأَنْهَارًا وَ سُبُلًا [and rivers and roads] means roads. لَّعَلَّکُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ [that you may go aright] means so that you may be guided.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): The Throne of Allah was upon the water, and He had not created anything before the water. When He willed to create creation, He brought forth smoke from the water and placed it above the water, and for this reason He named it sama (that which is above — the heaven). Then He dried the water and made it a single piece of earth. Then, in two days — Sunday and Monday — He split it apart and made it seven earths, and He placed the earth on the back of a fish. This is a reference to the very saying of Allah: ن وَ الْقَلَمِ [Nun, by the Pen]. The fish is in the water upon a hard, thick rock, and the rock is upon an angel, and the angel is upon a boulder, and the boulder is upon the wind. And that boulder is the one which Luqman mentioned (in Surah Luqman) — it is neither in the heaven nor in the earth. [Then] the fish moved and the earth trembled, so [in order to still the earth] He set the mountains as anchors of the earth until it became still. And this is the saying of Allah the Exalted: وَ أَلْقی فِی الْأَرْضِ رَواسِیَ أَنْ تَمیدَ بِکُمْ [And He has cast great mountains in the earth lest it might be convulsed with you]. Then the mountains and the foodstuffs of the earth's inhabitants and everything else that was suitable for creation, He created in the two days of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): If the Imam were not on the earth for a single hour, the earth would swallow up its inhabitants, just as the sea drowns a person in its raging waves.