The Mountains Blown Away

After this, however, come some beautiful verses — their sound and their rhythm perfectly matched to their content — which give a graphic description of the Day of Judgement. Allah says, in verse 105:

It begins with the description of the mountains, because the mountains were the greatest of things. For that reason the people of Makkah would say: oh, when your qiyāmah comes, do not worry, we will go up on top of the mountain. They had never seen anything destroy a mountain — no flood, nothing. Hence Allah says: they ask you about the mountains; say that they will be blown apart, and scattered. They will become, in other words, like cotton wool. Nothing.

The land will then be seen to be totally flat: no ʿiwaj will be seen in it, no amt — no crookedness whatever, no rise and no fall. Were it measured with a mechanical instrument, it would prove to have become completely flat. It will then be the day of great humility: the eyes will be downcast, and the description continues in that vein. It is an extremely graphic description of the Day of Judgement.