وَإِذَا الجِبالُ سُيِّرَت

When the mountains are set moving.

EXEGESIS

The passive perfect tense verb suyyirat is defined as: to be caused to move along, to be set in motion,^{‎[1]Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’ānic Usage, p. 472.} and to be driven.^{‎[2]Hans Wehr, p. 447.}

EXPOSITION

The third stupendous event this surah mentions is the fate of the solid mountains. These will be blown away from the face of the earth,^{‎[3]Irshād al-Adhhān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 1/591.} they shall crumble^{‎[4]Fadlallah, 24/89.} and become like scattered dust (56:5-6), and a mere mirage due to the violent shaking of the earth and its impelling propulsions.^{‎[5]Mizan, 20/213.} This violent shaking has been mentioned in 99:1, 89:21, and 73:14. It has also been suggested that the mountains will be plucked from their places and positions and become scattered in the air.^{‎[6]Kashif, 7/524.}

Mountains are created as solid pegs (78:7, 16:15) and are firmly fixed (88:19). They have been created as a provision for mankind and cattle (79:32-33). But prior to the Day of Judgement, indeed as a sign heralding its onset, the earth and the mountains will quake and tremble violently and the mountains will pass away (18:47, 52:10, 78:20), like clouds (27:88), plucked from their very roots (20:105), and the earth will become flattened (18:47), crushed with a single crushing (69:14). The mountains have been described variously as becoming like heaps of sand let loose (73:14, 77:10), like carded wool (101:5, 70:9), and a mere semblance of their original glory (78:20). For the Arabs, mountains symbolised permanence and they referred to them as the khawālid (eternal ones). When the Quranic revelations described the cosmic events of the Day of Judgement, many among them asked incredulously: ‘What about the mountains – will they perish too?’ And the Quran replied that they too would lose their solidity. If such will be the fate of the mountains, then what about the fate of the arrogant and haughty tyrants who can never compete with the solidity and loftiness of the mountains?!^{‎[7]Amthal, 19/342.}

[1] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’ānic Usage, p. 472.
[2] Hans Wehr, p. 447.
[3] Irshād al-Adhhān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 1/591.
[4] Fadlallah, 24/89.
[5] Mizan, 20/213.
[6] Kashif, 7/524.
[7] Amthal, 19/342.