Ṭāhā

وَيَسْاَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْجِبَالِ فَقُلْ يَنسِفُهَا رَبّـِي نَسْفاً

فَيَذَرُهَا قَاعاً صَفْصَفاً

لاَّ تَرَي فِيهَا عِوَجاً وَلآ أَمْتاً

105. “And they ask you (O Apostle) about the mountains (on that Day). Say: ‘My Lord will uproot them and scatter them (as dust),”
106. “Then He will leave them (as) a plain, smooth level;”
107. “Wherein you will see no crookedness neither any curving’.”

The Arabic term /nasafa/ means: ‘to destroy from the foundations, uproot’, while the word /qa‘a/ means: ‘a level plain’; and the Qur’anic term /safsaf/ means: ‘a level land, so that all parts of it are in one row and a line’. The Arabic words /‘iwaj/ and /’amat/ are used in the sense of: ‘downs and ups’. And, in view of the fact that in the former verses the words were about the events concerning to the end of this world and the beginning of the Hereafter, here, in these verses, the same subject is followed, too.

The first verse of the abovementioned verses leads us to this meaning that people had asked the Prophet of Islam (S) about the fate of the mountains at the time when this world will end. Therefore, the revelation says:

As for the fate of the mountains, it is understood from the totality of the verses of the Qur’an that they will pass different stages at the threshold of Resurrection. At first, they will quake, and then they will move. In the third stage, they will be burst into a pile of sand, and, at last, in their final stage, winds and storms will scatter them around so violently that they seem as ‘loosened wool’.¹ Then, after destruction of the mountains and their dust being scattered, by the next verses, the Qur’an says:

However, the destruction of the mountains and bringing forth the Hereafter is a manifestation of the Lordship of Allah.