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6251 The Day of Noise and Clamour is the Day of Judgment, when the whole of the present order of things will be
overthrown with a tremendous convulsion. Cf. n. 6235 to xcix. 1, and n. 6096 to lxxxviii. All our present landmarks will
be lost. It will be a stunning experience to begin with, but it will inaugurate a new world of true and permanent values,
in which every human deed will have its true and just consequences, as if weighed in the balance. See verses 6-11
below. (101.1)
101:2 - What is the (Day) of Noise and Clamor?
101:4 - (It is) a Day whereon Men will be like moths Scattered about 6252
6252 Moths are frail light things. To see them scattered about in a violent storm gives some idea of the confusion, distress,
and helplessness in which men will be at first overwhelmed on the Day of Account. Old memories will be like a book
almost blotted out. New hopes will be vague in a new world just rising on the horizon. But it will be a perfectly just
world, and no good action will be lost and no evil one but will have its compensating value estimated. (101.4)
44:10 - Then watch thou for the Day that the sky will bring forth a kind of smoke (or mist) plainly
visible. 46954696
4695 What Day is this? It obviously refers to great calamity, and from the wording it is to be a great calamity in the future,
seen with the prophetic eye. The word yagsha in verse 11 may be compared to gashiya in lxxxviii. 1, which obviously
refers to the final Day of Judgment. But verse 15 below ("We shall remove the Penalty for a while") shows that it is not
the final Judgment referred to here, but some calamity that was to happen soon afterwards. Perhaps it was a famine,
about which see the next note. (44.10)
4696 The "smoke" or "mist" is interpreted on good authority to refer to a severe famine in Makkah, in which men were so
pinched with hunger that they saw mist before their eyes when they looked at the sky. Ibn Kathir in his Tarikh
mentions two famines in Makkah, one in the 8th year of the Mission, say the fourth year before the Hijra, and another
about the 8th year after the Hijra. But as either or both of these famines lasted as many as seven years, the dates are
to be taken very roughly. It is even possible that the two famines were continuous, of varying severity from year to
year. Bukhari mentions only the post-Hijrat famine, which was apparently so severe that men began to eat bones and
carrion. Abu Sufyan (about 8 A.H.) approached the holy Prophet to intercede and pray for the removal of the famine,
as the Pagans attributed it to the curse of the Prophet. Sura xxiii., which is also Makkan, but of later date than the
present Sura, also refers to a famine: see xxiii. 75, and n. 2921. As Suras were not all revealed entire, but many came
piecemeal, it is possible that particular verses in a given Sura may be of different dates from the Sura as a whole.
(44.10)
44:11 - Enveloping the people: this will be a Penalty Grievous.
52:9 - On the day when the firmament will be in dreadful commotion. 5043
5043 The Day of Judgment is typified by two figures. (1) "The firmament will be in dreadful commotion." The heavens as we
see them suggest to us peace and tranquillity, and the power of fixed laws which all the heavenly bodies obey. This
will all be shaken in the rise of the new world. Cf. Matt. xxiv. 29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days...the
powers of the heavens shall be shaken." For (2) see next note. (52.9)
25:25 - The Day the heaven shall be rent asunder with clouds and angels shall be sent down
descending (in ranks) 3082
18:47 - One Day We shall remove the mountains and thou wilt see the earth as a level stretch and
We shall gather them all together nor shall We leave out any one of them. 2388
2388 On the Day of Judgment none of our present landmarks will remain. (18.47)
20:105 - They ask thee concerning the mountains: say "My Lord will uproot them and scatter them
as dust;" 26302631
2630 In the last verse, it was the deceptiveness and relativity of Time that was dealt with. Here we come to the question of
space, solidity, bulk. The question was actually put to the holy Prophet: what will become of the solid Mountains, or in
the English phrase, "the eternal hills"? They are no more substantial than anything else in this temporal world. When
the "new world", (xiii. 5) of which Unbelievers doubted, is actually in being, the mountains will cease to exist. We can
imagine the scene of judgment as a level plain, in which there are no ups and downs and no places of concealment.
All is straight and level, without corners, mysteries, or lurking doubts. (20.105)
2631 The one word nasafa carries the ideas of (1) tearing up by the roots, (2) scattering like chaff or dust, and (3)
winnowing. Its twofold repetition here intensifies its meaning. (20.105)
20:106 - "He will leave them as plains smooth and level;"
52:10 - And the mountain will fly hither and thither. 5044
5044 (2) The mountains are a type of firmness and stability. But things that we think of as firm and stable in this material life
will be shaken to pieces, and will be no more substantial than a mirage in a desert. Cf. lxxviii. 20. (52.10)
56:5 - And the mountains shall be crumbled to atoms 5224
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