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THE HUNDRED-FIRST SŪRAH Al-Qāri`ah (The Sudden Calamity) Mecca Period

AN early Meccan sūrah, most probably revealed after sūrah 95 (At-Tīn).

1

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمـٰنِ الرَّحيمِ القارِعَةُ

OH, the sudden calamity!1

  1. 1.  I.e., the coming of the Last Hour, which will involve a terrifying transformation of the world (see note 63 on 14:48 and note 90 on 20:105).
2

مَا القارِعَةُ

How awesome the sudden calamity!

3

وَما أَدراكَ مَا القارِعَةُ

And what could make thee conceive what that sudden calamity will be?

4

يَومَ يَكونُ النّاسُ كَالفَراشِ المَبثوثِ

[It will occur] on the Day when men will be like moths swarming in confusion,

5

وَتَكونُ الجِبالُ كَالعِهنِ المَنفوشِ

and the mountains will be like fluffy tufts of wool. . . .

6

فَأَمّا مَن ثَقُلَت مَوازينُهُ

And then, he whose weight [of good deeds] is heavy in the balance

7

فَهُوَ في عيشَةٍ راضِيَةٍ

shall find himself in a happy' state of life;

8

وَأَمّا مَن خَفَّت مَوازينُهُ

whereas he whose weight is light in the balance

9

فَأُمُّهُ هاوِيَةٌ

shall be engulfed by an abyss.2

  1. 2.  Lit., "his mother [i.e., goal] will be an abyss", sc., of suffering and despair. The term "mother" (umm) is used idiomatically to denote something that embraces or enfolds.
10

وَما أَدراكَ ما هِيَه

And what could make thee conceive what that [abyss] will be?

11

نارٌ حامِيَةٌ

A fire hotly burning!3

  1. 3.  Lit., "hot fire", the adjective meant to stress the essential quality of fire. It should be borne in mind that all Qur'anic descriptions of the sinner's suffering in the hereafter are metaphors or allegories relating to situations and conditions which can be understood only by means of comparisons with physical phenomena lying within the range of human experience (see Appendix I).
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