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Surah 101 · Makkah · 11 āyāt
Phase 02 · Going public — and the persecution(c. 10–8 BH) — view in timelineAl-QāriʿahThe Calamity (The Striking Hour)
القارعة
A short, thunderous early-Makkan surah named after one of the Qur'an's names for the Day of Judgement: al-Qāriʿah, 'the Striker' — the event that strikes hearts with terror. It opens with three hammering questions, paints the Hour through two similes (scattered moths, carded wool), then divides all of humanity into two outcomes by a single scale: whose deeds weigh heavy, and whose weigh light.
Why it was revealed
There is no reliably transmitted occasion of revelation (sabab al-nuzūl) for Sūrat al-Qāriʿah. No sound report from the Prophet ﷺ or his Companions ties it to a specific incident, and later exegetes such as Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī do not cite one — it should not be invented. Its content and style place it among the early Makkan surahs whose primary concern was establishing belief in the resurrection, the reckoning, and the reality of an afterlife before the Quraysh who denied all three.
Drawn fromṢaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4993 (on the general character of early Makkan revelation); Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 101:6–9; al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr on 101:4–5; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, introduction to al-Qāriʿah
No specific hadith narrates the circumstances of this surah's revelation. What is authentically established instead is the general Makkan pattern: early surahs of this length and rhythm were revealed to shake a people who denied resurrection outright, using vivid, concrete imagery rather than legal detail — a method the Prophet ﷺ himself described when he said the earliest revelations were surahs mentioning Paradise and Hell, 'until, when the people returned to Islam, the verses of the lawful and unlawful were revealed.'
Cited toṢaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4993 (on the general character of early Makkan revelation)
In the Prophet's ﷺ life
Early Makkan da'wah: resurrection as the first battleground
Before matters of law were revealed, the earliest surahs confronted the Makkans' flat denial of being raised after death. Al-Qāriʿah belongs to this stratum: it assumes no prior belief in an afterlife and argues for it through the shock of imagery rather than argument.
Recalled in āyah 1, 2, 3
ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
The Striking Calamity -
مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
What is the Striking Calamity?
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
And what can make you know what is the Striking Calamity?
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, introduction to al-Qāriʿah
- Madd — 2 vowels
- Madd — 2, 4 or 6 vowels
- Madd — 6 vowels (lāzim)
- Madd — 4 or 5 vowels (wājib)
- Ghunnah — 2 vowels
- Qalqalah
- Ikhfāʾ
- Ikhfāʾ shafawī
- Idghām shafawī
- Idghām with ghunnah
- Idghām without ghunnah
- Idghām mutajānisayn
- Idghām mutaqāribayn
- Iqlāb
- Hamzat al-waṣl
- Lām shamsiyyah
- Silent letter
Tajwīd markup and colour convention: Quran.com API (v4) — text_uthmani_tajweed. Recitation audio: Quran.com / Quran Foundation Audio API (v4).
The Striker: a name too large for one line
The surah opens by naming the Day, asking what it is, then confessing that the questioner does not truly know — a rhetorical device used elsewhere in the Qur'an (e.g. al-Ḥāqqah) to signal that human language and imagination fall short of the reality about to be described.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
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The Striking Calamity -
مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
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What is the Striking Calamity?
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
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And what can make you know what is the Striking Calamity?
From the tafsīr
Al-Qāriʿah is one of the names of the Day of Resurrection, because it strikes hearts with terror (taqraʿu al-qulūb bi-hawlihā). The repeated question — 'What is the Striker? And what can make you know what the Striker is?' — is meant to magnify its status before any description is given.
Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
This form of address — naming, questioning, then admitting the listener cannot grasp it — occurs for the greatest matters in the Qur'an, so that the heart is prepared for something beyond ordinary experience before it is told what it is.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- Some realities are introduced before they are explained, so that awe precedes information.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- The Qur'an's rhetorical questions ('what will make you know...') are not requests for an answer but a device to expand expectation.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Naming the Hour 'the Striker' targets the heart, not merely the intellect.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Reflect
What would change in your day if the Hour felt as near as its name suggests?
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Question 1 of 2
Why does the surah ask 'What is al-Qāriʿah?' more than once?
Question 2 of 2
Why is al-Qāriʿah given as a name for the Day of Judgement?
The unraveling: people like moths, mountains like wool
Two similes describe the Hour: people will be like scattered moths (al-farāsh al-mabthūth), disoriented and thrown about without order, and mountains — symbols of permanence — will become like carded, wind-blown wool.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
يَوْمَ يَكُونُ ٱلنَّاسُ كَٱلْفَرَاشِ ٱلْمَبْثُوثِ
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It is the Day when people will be like moths, dispersed,
وَتَكُونُ ٱلْجِبَالُ كَٱلْعِهْنِ ٱلْمَنفُوشِ
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And the mountains will be like wool, fluffed up.
From the tafsīr
Al-farāsh is the moth that throws itself into fire and light without direction; people on that Day will be similarly scattered and bewildered, going here and there without purpose, from the terror of the Hour.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
Al-ʿihn al-manfūsh is wool that has been carded and pulled apart, then scattered by wind — used for mountains to show that even the most solid, immovable things will lose all structure and weight.
Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- The simile of moths captures panic and loss of direction, not merely fear.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
- If mountains — the Qur'an's recurring symbol of stability — dissolve, nothing built on this earth is a true anchor.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
- The two images move from the smallest, weakest creature to the largest, heaviest object, covering the whole scale of creation.
Drawn fromAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
What in your life do you treat as a 'mountain' — permanent and unshakeable?
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Question 1 of 2
What point is made by comparing mountains to wind-blown wool?
Question 2 of 2
What state does the moth simile describe for humanity?
The scale: two outcomes, one measure
Humanity divides into exactly two groups by the weight of their deeds on the scale (al-mawāzīn): whoever's deeds are heavy attains a pleasant life, and whoever's are light returns to his 'mother' — the abyss, meaning Hellfire.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
فَأَمَّا مَن ثَقُلَتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ
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Then as for one whose scales are heavy [with good deeds],
فَهُوَ فِى عِيشَةٍ رَّاضِيَةٍ
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He will be in a pleasant life.
وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَفَّتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ
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But as for one whose scales are light,
فَأُمُّهُۥ هَاوِيَةٌ
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His refuge will be an abyss.
From the tafsīr
'Fa-ammā man thaqulat mawāzīnuhu' — whoever's good deeds outweigh his bad deeds will be in a life he is pleased with (Paradise); 'wa-ammā man khaffat mawāzīnuhu' — whoever's good deeds are outweighed will have 'his mother' (umm) — meaning the depth he falls into, hāwiyah, a name for the Fire.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
The Arabs used 'umm' (mother) figuratively for a place of refuge or return; here it is a bitter irony — the only 'home' left for such a person is the abyss, since he has no other refuge.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- The Qur'an presents only two final outcomes; there is no described third category in this surah.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
- Weight, not mere quantity, is the standard — a small number of sincere deeds can outweigh a large number of hollow ones.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
- Calling the Fire 'his mother' is a piece of Arabic idiom turned into a warning, not a literal kinship.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
If your deeds were placed on a scale today, which way would it tip — and why?
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Question 1 of 2
What is meant by calling the abyss 'his mother'?
Question 2 of 2
What determines the two outcomes described in āyāt 6–9?
The abyss defined: a raging fire
The surah closes by explaining its own term: 'And what will make you know what it is? A blazing Fire.' The same rhetorical device from the opening — name, question, answer — returns to close the surah with total clarity after the earlier suspense.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا هِيَهْ
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And what can make you know what that is?
نَارٌ حَامِيَةٌۢ
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It is a Fire, intensely hot.
From the tafsīr
'Nārun ḥāmiyah' — an intensely hot fire, its heat having reached its utmost extreme; the surah answers its own rhetorical question directly, unlike the opening, which leaves al-Qāriʿah undefined by name and only described by effect.
Cited toIbn Kathīr
The closing structure mirrors the opening (a name, then 'what will make you know...') to frame the whole surah: it began with a question about the Day in general and ends with the specific fate of the losing group.
Cited toAl-Qurṭubī
Key takeaways
- The surah answers its own suspense by its end — dread is not left permanent, clarity follows it.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
- Structural mirroring (opening and closing with the same rhetorical formula) is a mark of the surah's tight composition.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
- Naming the destination plainly at the close is itself a mercy: the warning is not left vague.
Drawn fromAl-Qurṭubī; Ibn Kathīr
Reflect
Does knowing the destination named here change any decision you are avoiding?
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Question 1 of 2
What is meant by the phrase nārun ḥāmiyah?
Question 2 of 2
In what way does the ending's rhetorical question resolve differently than the beginning's?
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Roots from this surah
Learn the three-letter root and you unlock every word built from it — across the whole Qur'an, not just this surah.
ق ر ع
āyāt 1, 2, 3to strike, knock, or bang against something
- قَارِعَةthe Striker (the Hour)
- قَرَعَhe struck, knocked
- مِقْرَعَةa knocker, striking tool
د ر ي
āyāt 3, 10to know by perception or realisation
- أَدْرَىٰhe made [someone] know
- دِرَايَةknowledge, awareness
- لَا يُدْرَىٰit is not known
ب ث ث
āyāt 4to scatter, spread, or disperse
- مَبْثُوثscattered, spread about
- بَثَّhe scattered, spread
- اِنْبَثَّit dispersed
ن ف ش
āyāt 5to card, tease apart fibres so they lose cohesion
- مَنْفُوشcarded, teased apart
- نَفَشَhe carded [wool]
و ز ن
āyāt 6, 8to weigh, to have measured weight or worth
- مِيزَانscale, balance
- مَوَازِينscales (plural)
- وَزْنweight
ث ق ل
āyāt 6to be heavy, weighty
- ثَقُلَit became heavy
- ثِقْلa heavy load
- أَثْقَالburdens, heavy loads
ه و ي
āyāt 9to fall, plunge downward
- هَاوِيَةan abyss, a bottomless pit
- هَوَىٰhe fell, plunged
- هَوَاءopen air, void
ح م ي
āyāt 11to be intensely hot; to protect fiercely
- حَامِيَةintensely hot
- حَمِيَit became hot
- حِمَايَةprotection
Carry this with you
- The Hour is named before it is explained, so that awe comes first.
- There is no reliable occasion of revelation for this surah — its power lies in its imagery, not in an incident behind it.
- Even mountains, the Qur'an's picture of permanence, will lose all structure that Day.
- Every person's fate is decided by a single measure: the weight, not the count, of their deeds.
- A 'heavy' scale is not about doing the most deeds but the most sincere and consistent ones.
- The Fire is called 'his mother' as a bitter irony — the only refuge left for one with no good to return to.
- The surah closes by naming what it opened by questioning — clarity follows dread, not vagueness forever.
- Belief in the resurrection and the scale was foundational to faith before any law was revealed.
Where this surah connects
Cross-surah threads
Parts of the Qurʾān explain other parts. Each thread below opens the same subject as it is argued across every other surah you have studied, in revelation order.
All threads →Sources behind Sūrah Al-Qāriʿah
Every line of context, tafsīr and takeaway on this page traces back to one of these references. Ḥadīth numbers open on sunnah.com and āyah references open on quran.com, so you can check the claim rather than take it on trust. The Arabic text itself is fetched live from a verified public corpus.
Tafsīr17
- Al-Qurṭubī
- al-Qurṭubī on 101:1–3
- Al-Qurṭubī on 101:9
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
- Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān on 101:6–9
- al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
- Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān on 101:5
- Ibn Kathīr
- Ibn Kathīr on 101:1
- Ibn Kathīr on 101:10–11
- Ibn Kathīr on 101:11
- Ibn Kathīr on 101:4
- Ibn Kathīr on 101:4–5
- Ibn Kathīr on 101:6–9
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
- Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, introduction to al-Qāriʿah
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Al-Qāriʿah · The unraveling: people like moths, mountains like wool
What point is made by comparing mountains to wind-blown wool?
Arabic (Uthmānī script) and the Ṣaḥīḥ International translation are fetched live from the Quran.com API (v4), sourced from the King Fahd Complex muṣḥaf — api.quran.com API docs · Translation: Ṣaḥīḥ International · Integrity & testing protocol