al-Wāqi‘ah

وَبُسَّتِ الْجِبَالُ بَسًّا

فَكَانَتْ هَبَاء مُّنبَثًّا

5. And the mountains shall be powdered to dust.

6. Therefore, they shall become scattering dust particles.

The blessed Verses 5 and 6 are saying that the earthquake shall be so enormous that it shall pulverize mountains into scattering dust particles. The Arabic word bussat derives from b-s-s denoting "grind by water." The Arabic words haba’ and munbath denote

"dust"

and

"scattered"

respectively. By haba’ minute dust particles are intended which scatter and suspend in the air and are normally invisible unless one looks at them in sunlight penetrating into some dark place. Now one may understand that the earthquake and the explosion are so enormous that they may pulverize colossal mountains proverbial for solidity into scattered dust particles and the shout heard from such enormous explosion shall be even more horrible. In short, Qur’anic Verses present different depictions as to different stages of the enormous explosion of mountains.

It is needless to say that only God Almighty is All-Aware of the course of such events which may not be describable in our own terms. However, such meaningful allusions all reflect the enormity of such enormous explosion. It is worthy of note that the earth which is our abode and resting place on which we strive to make our sustenance shall be perturbed and restless on that Day such that an unprecedented earthquake shall severely agitate the earth and.

The same motif is to be found elsewhere in the Holy Qur’an⁵ as well:

"O mankind! Fear Lord and be dutifully to Him! Indeed, the earthquake of the Hour [of Resurrection] shall be a terrible thing."

Thus, we are supposed to obedient and do righteous good deeds such that we may restrain ourselves from committing sins in order to avoid entanglement in torment on such Day.

Footnotes

1. 5. 22:1