وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلْجِبَالِ فَقُلْ يَنسِفُهَا رَبِّى نَسْفًا · فَيَذَرُهَا قَاعًا صَفْصَفًا · لَّا تَرَىٰ فِيهَا عِوَجًا وَلَآ أَمْتًا · يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَّبِعُونَ ٱلدَّاعِىَ لَا عِوَجَ لَهُۥ وَخَشَعَتِ ٱلْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ فَلَا تَسْمَعُ إِلَّا هَمْسًا
Wa yasʾalūnaka ʿani'l-jibāli fa-qul yansifuhā rabbī nasfā · Fa-yadharuhā qāʿan ṣafṣafā · Lā tarā fīhā ʿiwajan wa lā amtā · Yawmaʾidhin yattabiʿūna'd-dāʿiya lā ʿiwaja lah, wa khashaʿati'l-aṣwātu li'r-Raḥmāni fa-lā tasmaʿu illā hamsā
"They ask you about the mountains. Say: 'My Lord will scatter them utterly. · He will leave their places a level, empty plain. · You will see in it neither a hollow nor a rise.' · On that day they will follow the caller, in whom there is no crookedness. Voices will be hushed before the Merciful; you will hear nothing but the faintest sound."
The root ن-س-ف was treated in the discussion of the ninety-seventh verse, relying on al-Mursalāt on 77/10. And the overlap between the two verses was tabulated there: the same verb, the same object of cognate origin (nasfā), once of the calf and once of the mountains.
I record this as an observation: the answer does not stop at telling what was asked about — it also describes what will be left in the mountain's place. And the description is given in three words.
| Word | Root | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| Qāʿ | ق-و-ع | Flat, empty ground — a plain with no vegetation on it |
| Ṣafṣaf | ص-ف-ف | Perfectly level — like a single rank, no part of it distinct from another |
| ʿIwaj | ع-و-ج | A crookedness that is not visible |
| Amt | أ-م-ت | A rise, a slight swelling |
The word amt occurs only here in the Qurʾān, and the lexicographers explain it as the smallest elevation in the ground.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the fineness of the words: the verse describes the levelness twice positively and twice negatively. And the two things chosen for the negative description are things the eye can barely distinguish: an invisible crookedness and a small rise. That is, the levelness is described from the smallest measure — just as, at Maryam on 19/98, absence is measured from the faintest trace of sound.
The root ع-و-ج was treated at al-Zumar on 39/28 (qurʾānan ʿarabiyyan ghayra dhī ʿiwaj), and it was recorded there: ʿiwaj is used of a crookedness invisible to the eye, ʿawaj of a visible one — the lexicographers record this distinction. The reading recorded at al-Zumar was this: when it would have been enough to say of the text that it is "not crooked", the choice of the word that negates invisible crookedness carries the claim a step further. I rely on that treatment.
What belongs here is that the word occurs twice in this sūra, and the distribution is worth recording:
| Verse | Expression | Whose crookedness |
|---|---|---|
| 107 | Lā tarā fīhā ʿiwajan wa lā amtā | The earth — it will be perfectly level |
| 108 | Yattabiʿūna'd-dāʿiya lā ʿiwaja lah | The caller — there is no crookedness in his call |
Two consecutive verses, the same word. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this adjacency: the verse first removes the crookedness of the ground, then negates the crookedness of the call. That is, on that day there is no place to swerve, neither in the ground nor in the summons.
| Place | What ʿiwaj concerns |
|---|---|
| al-Zumar 39/28 | The Qurʾān — no crookedness in the text |
| Ṭāhā 20/107 | The earth — no crookedness in the ground that day |
| Ṭāhā 20/108 | The caller — no crookedness in the call |
The root ه-م-س — is analysed here for the first time in the series. The sense the lexicographers give: a very faint sound, one heard only with difficulty. The concrete uses of the root are recorded: the rustle a foot makes as it treads the ground, and the sound made by the moving of the lips, in which no word can be made out. Hams — a sound below even a whisper.
And the word rikz was treated at Maryam on 19/98 — the description recorded there: a very faint sound, one heard only with difficulty; a whisper. That too occurs only once in the Qurʾān. I rely on that treatment and compare the two words:
| Rikz — Maryam 19/98 | Hams — Ṭāhā 20/108 | |
|---|---|---|
| The picture in the root | ر-ك-ز: to drive something into the ground, to hide it; rikāz — buried treasure | ه-م-س: the rustle of a footfall, the stirring of lips |
| Its work in the sentence | Aw tasmaʿu lahum rikzā — a question: do you hear a sound from them? | Fa-lā tasmaʿu illā hamsā — an exception: only this is heard |
| What it measures | Absence — no trace at all is left | Presence — this is the only sound remaining |
| Whose sound | Generations destroyed | People on the day of reckoning |
| The verb | Tasmaʿu — the same verb | Tasmaʿu — the same verb |
Both words name the lowest threshold of sound, and both are used with the same verb (tasmaʿu). The difference is in their function in the sentence: rikz is a measure of absence, hams a measure of what remains.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the construction of the two sentences: in Maryam the word draws the limit of the negative — "not even this much is there." In Ṭāhā the word draws the limit of the positive — "only this much is there." The same measure, used from two opposite directions.
The root خ-ش-ع: to be lowered, to bow down and shrink back. The root was treated at al-Muʾminūn on 23/2 (alladhīna hum fī ṣalātihim khāshiʿūn) and at al-Qalam; I rely on those treatments.
A point of word order must be recorded: the subject of the verb is al-aṣwāt (the voices). That is, what is lowered is not the person but the sound itself.
I record this as an observation about the structure, and the same technique has been seen elsewhere in the series: at al-Qaṣaṣ on 28/66 (fa-ʿamiyat ʿalayhimu'l-anbāʾ) the subject of the blindness was made the reports. The same method: the verb is taken from the person and given to what belongs to the person.