101
Muhammad Asad
AL-QARIAH (THE SUDDEN CALAMITY)
THE HUNDRED-FIRST SURAH
Total Verses: 11
Introduction
AN early Meccan surah, most probably revealed after surah
95 (At-Tin).
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) OH, the sudden calamity! 1
(2) How awesome the sudden calamity!
(3) And what could make thee conceive what that sudden
calamity will be?
(4) [It will occur] on the Day when men will be like moths
swarming in confusion,
(5) and the mountains will be like
fluffy tufts of wool. . . .
(6) And then, he whose weight [of good deeds] is heavy in
the balance
(7) shall find himself in a happy'
state of life;
(8) whereas he whose weight is
light in the balance
(9) shall be engulfed by an abyss.
2
(10) And what could make thee conceive what that [abyss]
will be?
(11) A fire hotly burning! 3
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1 1 I.e., the coming of the Last Hour, which will involve a
terrifying transformation of the world (see note 63 on
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.
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).