20 Sura Taha

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْجِبَالِ...   

20: 105. They ask thee concerning the mountains:

C2630. In the last verse, it was the deceptiveness and relativity of Time that was dealt with. Here we come to the question of space, solidity, bulk.

The question was actually put to the holy Prophet: what will become of the solid Mountains, or in the English phrase, "the eternal hills"?

They are no more substantial than anything else in this temporal world. When the "new world", (13:5) of which Unbelievers doubted, is actually in being, the mountains will cease to exist.

We can imagine the scene of judgment as a level plain, in which there are no ups and downs and no places of concealment. All is straight and level, without comers, mysteries, or lurking doubts.

...فَقُلْ يَنسِفُهَا رَبِّي نَسْفًا ﴿١٠٥﴾

say,

"My Lord will uproot them and scatter them as dust;"

C2631. The one word nasafa carries the ideas of:

-         tearing up by the roots,

-         scattering like chaff or dust,

-         and winnowing.

Its twofold repetition here intensifies its meaning.

فَيَذَرُهَا قَاعًا صَفْصَفًا ﴿١٠٦﴾

20: 106. "He will leave them as plains smooth and level;"

لَا تَرَى فِيهَا عِوَجًا وَلَا أَمْتًا ﴿١٠٧﴾

20: 107. Nothing crooked or curved wilt thou see in their place."

يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَّبِعُونَ الدَّاعِيَ ...   

20: 108. On that Day will they follow the Caller (straight):

C2632. The Caller: the angel whose voice will call and direct all souls. (R).

... لَا عِوَجَ لَهُ...

no crookedness (can they show) him:

...وَخَشَعَت الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَنِ ...

all sounds shall humble themselves in the presence of (Allah) Most Gracious:

C2633. A beautiful personification of hushed Sound. First there is the loud blast of the Trumpet. Then there is the stillness and hush of awe and reverence: only the tramp of the ranks marching along will be heard. (R).

... فَلَا تَسْمَعُ إِلَّا هَمْسًا ﴿١٠٨﴾

nothing shalt thou hear but the tramp of their feet (as they march).

Others version:

20:105 [Taha, Mecca 45]

AND THEY WILL ask thee about [what will happen to] the mountains [when this world comes to an end]. Say, then: "My Sustainer will scatter them far and wide,

(20: 106) and leave the earth 8 ' level and bare,

(20:107) [so that] thou wilt see no curve thereon, and no ruggedness."'

20:108 On that Day, all will follow the summoning Voice from which there will be no escape;" and all sounds will be hushed before the Most Gracious, and thou wilt hear nothing but a faint sough in the air

[[Asad’s note - 90 In the eschatology of the Qur'an, the "end of the world" does not signify an annihilation - i.e., reduction to nothingness - of the physical universe but, rather, its fundamental, cataclysmic transformation into something that men cannot now visualize. This is brought out in many

allegorical allusions to the Last Day, e.g., in 14:48, which speaks of "the Day when the earth shall be changed into another earth, as shall be the heavens".

91 Lit., "the caller in whom there will be no deviation (la 'iwaja lahu)" - i.e., the summons to

the Last Judgment. ]]