Al-Hashr · Madani · ayah 21 of 24

Al-Hashr 59:21

لَوْ أَنزَلْنَا هَـٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍ لَّرَأَيْتَهُۥ خَـٰشِعًا مُّتَصَدِّعًا مِّنْ خَشْيَةِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَتِلْكَ ٱلْأَمْثَـٰلُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

“If We had sent down this Qur’ān upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and splitting from fear of Allāh. And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will give thought.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Rock would bow and crack under this Book; the parable is aimed at the one listener who can hear it unmoved.

A reflection

The mountain is excused; we are not

A mountain is the Quran's own picture of what does not move. It has stood through every storm the earth has had. Nothing a human being can say will so much as scratch it.

And this ayah says: had this Quran been sent down upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled, splitting apart from awe of Allah. The hardest thing on earth would bow, and then crack.

The commentaries draw the conclusion immediately. If a mountain, for all its thickness and hardness, understood this Quran and reflected on it, it would be humbled and split. So how is it fitting for human beings that their hearts do not soften, when they have understood His command and pondered His Book? An early commentator said it sharply: Allah excused the deaf mountain, and did not excuse the wretched son of Adam. Have you ever seen anyone whose ribs cracked from awe of Allah?

This is a blow aimed directly at the ego. Pride imagines itself as solid, self-contained and unmoved, a little like a mountain. The ayah agrees that we are hard, and then shows that our hardness is worse than stone's. Stone, given understanding, would yield. A proud heart, given understanding, often does not.

The majesty here belongs to the Speaker. The weight of the words is the weight of the One who spoke them. To hear them and feel nothing is not strength. It is a hardness that even rock would be ashamed of.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.