al-Ṭūr 52:9-10

Yawma tamūru's-samāʾu mawrā · Wa tasīru'l-jibālu sayrā "The day the sky heaves with a heaving, and the mountains walk with a walking."

The two verses are exactly the same in structure:

The absolute object is the repetition of the verb's verbal noun for the sake of emphasis; it was treated in the section on al-Mursalāt. In English it is met with something like "it will heave and heave".

And the use of the same structure in both verses sets up a pairing: what happens in the sky and what happens on earth are named with the same pattern.

Note: both are active. The sky heaves, the mountains walk — nothing is being done to them, they themselves are moving.

And this sets up a contrast with the oath. The five oaths had been sworn by objects that stand and to which something has been done (passive participle). In the ninth and tenth verses the objects move and are in the active pattern.

That is, the sūra swears by things that stand and then says that they will move.

And this increases the force of the oath: the fixity of the things sworn by is beyond dispute; and on that day that fixity will end.

I record this as my own reading. But the difference of pattern between the two sections was given in a table above and is plain in the text.

Root: م-و-ر. And the lexicographers record several things about the meaning of the word:

• مَارَ — it went to and fro, it heaved, it surged.
• مَوْر — a thing's swift and irregular going back and forth; a swell.
• And one use of the root: the turning motion of dust or of water.

And the word occurs in one more place in the Qurʾān: "That day the sky heaves with a heaving" — this place; and the same root "We shall leave them that day surging against one another" (al-Kahf 18/99) — wa taraknā baʿḍahum yawmaʾidhin yamūju fī baʿḍ; no, the root there is م-و-ج (wave), it is not this root. The two roots must not be confused: م-و-ر (to heave) and م-و-ج (to surge) are separate roots.

I enter this record because the nearness of meaning between the two words is misleading.

And what does the sky's "heaving" mean? Several explanations are transmitted in the classical sources: its being moved from its place, its texture being spoiled, its order being scattered. I do not impose a preference.

But this can be recorded: the verbs the Qurʾān uses for the sky at the resurrection show a pattern, and they were gathered in several places in this commentary — inshaqqat (it split, al-Inshiqāq 84/1), furijat (it was parted, al-Mursalāt 77/9), kushiṭat (it was stripped off, al-Takwīr 81/11), infaṭarat (it was cleft, al-Infiṭār 82/1). In the section on al-Mursalāt the three verbs of splitting (farj, faṭr, shaqq) were compared.

ٱلْمَوْر adds something separate to this list: not splitting but heaving. That is, the sky is not being broken into pieces; its consistency is going.

And this sets up a contrast with the fifth verse of the sūra: there the sky was al-saqfu'l-marfūʿ — the raised roof. What makes a roof a roof is its being flat and fixed. A heaving roof ceases to be a roof.

I record this as a link within the sūra.

Root: س-ي-ر. To walk, to travel. Sayr, sayyāra (a travelling caravan / a planet), sīra (a person's walk, his life story) are from the same root.

And this verse has been cited twice in this commentary.

In the section on al-Qāriʿa the descriptions the Qurʾān uses of the mountains at the resurrection were given in a table and this verse was placed in the list. In the section on al-Ḥāqqa it was also recorded: "In the Qurʾān's scenes of the resurrection the mountains are generally transformed in place: they are made to walk (al-Ṭūr 52/10), they are scattered (Ṭāhā 20/105), they become like carded wool (al-Qāriʿa 101/5), they become dust (al-Wāqiʿa 56/6)."

And in the section on al-Nabaʾ a feature of this verse was recorded separately: "al-Ṭūr 52/10 was cited there… There the verb is active; here it is passive."

That is, at al-Nabaʾ 78/20 the mountains are suyyirat (they were made to walk — passive), at al-Ṭūr 52/10 tasīru (they walk — active).

I do not repeat it here. What is to be added here: the choice of the active pattern in this sūra agrees with the ninth verse. Both verses are active; both show the objects' own movement.

And the active pattern has a consequence: the walking of the mountains is presented not as a force applied from outside but as a change in the mountains' nature. A mountain that walks is no longer a mountain — because the definition of a mountain is that it does not move from its place.

I record this as my own reading.

And a ring with the first verse: the sūra opened by swearing by a mountain (wa'ṭ-Ṭūr). In the tenth verse the mountains walk.

The genus of the thing sworn by scatters ten verses later. I record this as a link within the sūra.