Surah Al-Qari'ah 101:1-11 - Quran Translation Commentary

1. Al-Qar` of the original is a firm, powerful strike. In time it began to be used for every event of grave consequences. Allah (swt) said (13: 31):

“Great upheavals (qari`ah) keep striking the unbelievers for what they do” (Razi, Qurtubi).

Al-Qari`ah is another name for the Day of Resurrection, which has also been called as the Overwhelming One, the Demeaning Shout, the Deafening Blast and the Enveloper (Razi, Ibn Kathir, Sayyid Qutb and others).

2. The people have been likened to moths because of their frequent and rapid movements on that fateful Day, their dispersal, their state of total weakness and subjugation, and their response (in waves after waves: Razi) to the Caller rushing from every side on to him like moths falling into fire (Zamakhshari).

As Allah has said in another verse (7 of al-Qamar):

“As if they are scattered moths” (Razi, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

In a hadith of Muslim the Prophet (saws) likened the people of his times to moths. He said:

“My example with you is that of a fire lit by someone. Moths and locusts began to be attracted to it and he began to hold them back from it. I am holding you back by your waists and you are slipping away from my grip” (Qurtubi).

Yusuf Ali adds: “Moths are frail light things. To see them scattered about in a violent storm gives some idea of the confusion, distress, and helplessness in which men will be at first overwhelmed on the Day of Account.”

3. “The mountains are solid things, which seem as if nothing could move them. But in that tremendous cataclysm they will be scattered about like flakes of leased or carded wool. This is a metaphor to show that what we consider very substantial in this life will be as an airy nothing in the next world” (Yusuf Ali).

Sayyid writes: “The surah starts with the single word “Al-Qari`ah” ... It is thrown alone like a shot without any further information or any predicate or adjective. As such it creates through its sound and connotations a feeling of resounding awe. The word is immediately followed by a question suggesting something alarming (What is “Al-Qari`ah”?). It is that dreadful and formidable thing which arouses curiosity and questioning. Then comes the answer in the form of a cryptic exclamation, giving no clear indication: ('Would that you knew what the “Al-Qari`ah” is!'). It is too great to be comprehended or imagined. Then follows the answer which states what takes place in it but refrains from stating its exact nature: 'The day when ...'”

4. Umm could here mean 'mother,’ and `mother’ itself is synonymous to the abode, as a child’s abode is his mother. But the term is variously used. Qatadah has said that when a man faced difficulties people referred to his situation as: hawat ummuhu i.e. he has fallen into hardships. Ash`ash b. `Abdullah reports that when a man dies his soul is taken to the souls of the believers. They say, 'Make it comfortable for your brother for he was in troubles.’ Then they ask him about so and so, as to how he is doing. The man says,'`Well He died. Didn’t he turn up here?’ They say, (since he did not): 'They must have taken him to his abode in the Pit’ (Ibn Jarir).

Ibn Marduwayh has recorded this last report as a hadith related by Anas b. Malik (Ibn Kathir).

The umm of the original has also been interpreted by Ibn `Abbas, `Ikrimah, Abu Saleh and Qatadah as “the head” and alludes, in this context to his falling headlong into the Pit (Ibn Kathir).

5. Sayyid notes: “It is to his mother that a child turns for help and protection as he seeks shelter and security at home. But such people with light scales can turn and resort only to the abyss! The expression is a fine one, beautifully ordered. It has also a shade of obscurity preparing the way for subsequent clarification which adds to the depth of the intended effect.”

6. When Allah said that it is a blazing Fire, it implies that the rest of the fires that we see in this world are in fact cool when compared to this blazing Fire (Razi).

Intensity of the Hell-fire

Bukhari has reported through Abu Hurayrah (ra) that the Prophet (saws) said:

The Hell-fire in which the children of Adam will be roasted will be seventy times hotter than the fire of the sun. They exclaimed, 'Messenger of Allah, even as hot as the sun would have been enough.’ He said, 'But it is sixty-nine times more intense.’ Similar statement is in Muslim. Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah have recorded Abu Hurayrah narrating the Prophet as having said:

“(The fire of Hell) was heated until it became red. Then it was heated until it became white. And then it was heated until it became black so that now it is pitch black.”

Imam Ahmad has reported through Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (saws) said:

“The least punished of the Fire will be he whose brain will be boiling.”

The Sahihayn have reported that:

The Fire complained to its Lord saying: “O Lord. Some of me is eating away some of myself.” So Allah permitted it to take in two breaths: one in winter and another in summer. Therefore, the worst of its cold you taste in winter and the worst of its heat in summer."

According to another hadith, also in the Sahihayn:“When the day gets hot then let it cool down for your Prayers, for its intensity has its origin in Hell-fire” (Ibn Kathir).

With reference to the hadith about the fire being heated to redness, then whiteness and finally to blackness, it might be of interest to note that the burning celestial bodies, like the stars, are also postulated to pass through these phases. Our sun for instance, is one day expected to exhaust its supply of hydrogen fuel. The next stage of solar evolution will be its expansion to the red giant size when its luminosity will be increased by 100 times. It will have an intensely hot core using its nuclear energy to burn. But when all the nuclear energy is used up, the sun will collapse, into a very small, very dense white dwarf. The final stage of the sun will be a black dwarf. The difference between the hadith description and that of modern science is that the scientists postulate that in its final stages the sun will have no heat left, whereas the hadith says that the fire of Hell reduced to a black spot is intensely hot (Au.).