Overview

(Verse 21)

The Influence of the Qur'an

The surah now adds a powerful note that shakes hearts to the core. It portrays what effect the Qur'an would have had on solid rocks had it been so sent down:

Had We brought down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humble itself and break asunder for fear of God. We put such images before people so that they may reflect. (Verse 21)

This image reflects the truth. This Qur'an has such weight, power and shaking influence that is absolutely irresistible when we receive it as it truly is. `Umar ibn al-Khattab had such an experience when he overheard a reciter reading the opening of Sarah 52: "By Mount Sinai; by a scripture inscribed on unrolled parchment; by the much-visited House; by the vault raised high; by the swelling sea; your Lord's punishment will indeed come to pass. Nothing can stop it..." (52: 1-8) As he listened, he leaned on a wall nearby. He then went back home and felt ill. People kept visiting him for a month, enquiring after his health.

The moments when a person is fully receptive of some truth contained in the Qur'an will see him shake and shudder. He will experience such changes that are best represented in the physical world by the effects of magnetism and electricity or even stronger. God, the Creator of the mountains who bestowed the Qur'an from on high, says: "Had We brought down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humble itself and break asunder for fear of God." (Verse 21) Anyone who has had some experience of the Qur'an touching their inner souls will appreciate this truth in a way that cannot be otherwise expressed. "We put such images before people so that they may reflect." (Verse 21) Such an image should keep hearts thinking and reflecting.