Al-Qaria

Sūrat al-Qāriʿah (Arabic: سورة القارعة‎) (The Clatterer, The Stunning Blow, or The Disaster) is the 101st sura of the Qur'an with 11 ayat.

Like many sura, the Quran here introduces a term (Al-Qaria, meaning "the Clatterer"), and asks itself (and the reader) what it means: "The Clatterer! What is the Clatterer? And what shall teach thee what is the Clatterer?". The answer is said to be a specific day, which has not yet come to pass. On that day "men will be like scattered moths, and the mountains shall be like plucked wool". This day is presumably the Day of Judgment. The image is of chaos and collapse, both of the social order of humanity, and of the cosmological order of the universe itself.

The sura continues with this theme of balance The sura ends as it began, asking about how one will learn the meaning of the word "the Pit" - which is explained to be known in "the blazing fire" of Hell.

Translation

The Striking Calamity - (1)

What is the Striking Calamity? (2)

And what can make you know what is the Striking Calamity? (3)

It is the Day when people will be like moths, dispersed, (4)

And the mountains will be like wool, fluffed up. (5)

Then as for one whose scales are heavy [with good deeds], (6)

He will be in a pleasant life. (7)

But as for one whose scales are light, (8)

His refuge will be an abyss. (9)

And what can make you know what that is? (10)

It is a Fire, intensely hot. (11)

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Qur'an - Al-Qaria