0% studied · Top
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the Prophet ﷺ or his Companions ties it to a specific incident, and later exegetes such as Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī do not cite one — it should not be invented.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.
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.'
Ṣaḥīḥ 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 the Striking Calamity is?
Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, introduction to al-Qāriʿah
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.
ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
The Striking Calamity —
مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
What is the Striking Calamity?
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ
And what can make you know what the Striking Calamity is?
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.
— Ibn 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.
— Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān
Key takeaways
- Some realities are introduced before they are explained, so that awe precedes information.
- The Qur'an's rhetorical questions ('what will make you know...') are not requests for an answer but a device to expand expectation.
- Naming the Hour 'the Striker' targets the heart, not merely the intellect.
Reflect
What would change in your day if the Hour felt as near as its name suggests?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
What does the name al-Qāriʿah signify about the Hour?
Question 2 of 2
Why does the surah ask 'What is al-Qāriʿah?' more than once?
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.
يَوْمَ يَكُونُ ٱلنَّاسُ كَٱلْفَرَاشِ ٱلْمَبْثُوثِ
It is the Day when people will be like moths, scattered about,
وَتَكُونُ ٱلْجِبَالُ كَٱلْعِهْنِ ٱلْمَنفُوشِ
and the mountains will be like carded wool.
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.
— Ibn 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.
— Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
Key takeaways
- The simile of moths captures panic and loss of direction, not merely fear.
- If mountains — the Qur'an's recurring symbol of stability — dissolve, nothing built on this earth is a true anchor.
- The two images move from the smallest, weakest creature to the largest, heaviest object, covering the whole scale of creation.
Reflect
What in your life do you treat as a 'mountain' — permanent and unshakeable?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
Why does the surah liken mountains to carded wool?
Question 2 of 2
What does the simile of al-farāsh al-mabthūth (scattered moths) convey about people on that Day?
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.
فَأَمَّا مَن ثَقُلَتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ
Then as for one whose scales are heavy [with good deeds],
فَهُوَ فِى عِيشَةٍ رَّاضِيَةٍ
he will be in a pleasant life.
وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَفَّتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ
But as for one whose scales are light,
فَأُمُّهُۥ هَاوِيَةٌ
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.
— Ibn 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.
— Al-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.
- Weight, not mere quantity, is the standard — a small number of sincere deeds can outweigh a large number of hollow ones.
- Calling the Fire 'his mother' is a piece of Arabic idiom turned into a warning, not a literal kinship.
Reflect
If your deeds were placed on a scale today, which way would it tip — and why?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
Why is the Fire referred to as 'his mother' (umm) in āyah 9?
Question 2 of 2
By what standard are the two groups in āyāt 6–9 separated?
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.
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا هِيَهْ
And what can make you know what that is?
نَارٌ حَامِيَةٌۢ
A blazing Fire.
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.
— Ibn 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.
— Al-Qurṭubī
Key takeaways
- The surah answers its own suspense by its end — dread is not left permanent, clarity follows it.
- Structural mirroring (opening and closing with the same rhetorical formula) is a mark of the surah's tight composition.
- Naming the destination plainly at the close is itself a mercy: the warning is not left vague.
Reflect
Does knowing the destination named here change any decision you are avoiding?
Saved on this device · included in your printable study sheet
Check yourself
0 / 2 correctAnswer from memory before scrolling back — retrieval is what makes it stick.
Questions and options are reshuffled and reworded each attempt
Question 1 of 2
In what way does the ending's rhetorical question resolve differently than the beginning's?
Question 2 of 2
What does nārun ḥāmiyah describe?
Upload your handwritten notes
Photograph or scan the pages you wrote in class — several at once. Each page is transcribed, translated into English if you wrote in Arabic or Urdu, matched to the theme it belongs to, and added to your notes for this surah.
Up to 3 pages at a time · JPG, PNG or HEIC
10 of 10 free AI pages left today
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.
Full exam — the whole surah, from memory
Every question from every theme, interleaved and reworded. Interleaving is what turns recognition into recall. Each answer updates your review schedule, your mistakes list and your mastery score for that theme.
Al-Qāriʿah — full exam
1 / 8 · 0 correct
8 questions across 4 themes.
Al-Qāriʿah · The Striker: a name too large for one line
Why does the surah ask 'What is al-Qāriʿah?' more than once?
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