An-Naml 27:88
The verse opens with a correction of perception: "taḥsabuhā jāmidatan" — you suppose them to be frozen / fixed.
وَتَرَى ٱلْجِبَالَ تَحْسَبُهَا جَامِدَةً وَهِىَ تَمُرُّ مَرَّ ٱلسَّحَابِ ۚ صُنْعَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَتْقَنَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ خَبِيرٌۢ بِمَا تَفْعَلُونَ
And you see the mountains, and imagine them fixed, yet they pass, as the passing of the clouds—the making of God, who has perfected everything. He is fully Informed of what you do
An-Naml 27:88 · Translation: talal-itani
Image
The stillness caught by the eye is real enough from one angle — but it is not the only perspective. The verse at once adds: "wa hiya tamurru marra-s-saḥāb" — yet they pass by as the clouds pass. The word choice is careful: "jāmida" is used not for motionlessness but for "apparent stillness." The verse paints a reality bound to the scale of looking.
Observation
The primary context of the verse in classical tafsīr is eschatological — it is read as the dissolving / walking of the mountains on the Day of Resurrection. Modern earth science calls to a similar observation on a different scale: continental masses move a few centimetres a year; mountain ranges rise, erode, and are transported over millions of years. These two perspectives — the cosmic transformation of the end and the long timescale of geology — do not require the verse to be read as a one-to-one scientific claim; but the language of the verse, through the principle that "what you see is not as fixed as it seems," stands alongside both windows.
Exegesis
Classical exegetes read the verse as the dissolving of the mountains on the Day of Resurrection — al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, and al-Qurṭubī converge on this reading. Al-Zamakhsharī observes that the simile "tamurru marra-s-saḥāb" (they pass by as the clouds pass) is striking: the passing of cloud is both gentle and unnoticed. The verse says that what is taken to be fixed is in fact in a passage — a vision that fits both the scene of resurrection and the illusion of perception in this world.
Sources
Tafsīr: al-Ṭabarī · Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr · Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm; al-Zamakhsharī · al-Kashshāf.