101
اَلْقَارِعَةِ
The Stunning [Blow]
(or The Disaster)

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ۔

اَلْقَارِعَةُ۔ مَا الْقَارِعَةُ۔ وَ مَآ اَدْرٰىكَ مَا الْقَارِعَةُ۔ؕ يَوْمَ يَكُوْنُ النَّاسُ كَالْفَرَاشِ الْمَبْثُوْثِ۔ وَ تَكُوْنُ الْجِبَالُ كَالْعِهْنِ الْمَنْفُوْشِ۔ؕ فَاَمَّا مَنْ ثَقُلَتْ مَوَازِيْنُهُ۔ فَهُوَ فِيْ عِيْشَةٍ رَّاضِيَةٍ۔ؕ وَ اَمَّا مَنْ خَفَّتْ مَوَازِيْنُهُ۔ فَاُمُّهُ هَاوِيَةٌ۔ وَ مَآ اَدْرٰىكَ مَاهِيَهْ۔ؕ نَارٌ حَامِيَةٌ۔

In the name of God—the most compassionate, the most merciful.

The stunning [blow]! What is a disaster? What will make you realize something is going to stun [you]?

Some day mankind will act like scattered moths and the mountains seem like tufts of yarn! So anyone whose scales are weighted down [will land] in pleasant living; while whoever's scales are light will have a Pit to mother him.

What will make you realize what this will be like? Scorching fire!

Its theme is apocalyptic and also composed in “true prophetic style”, to quote Nicholson in his Literary History of the Arabs, p. 167.

The turmoil of Doomsday will smash everything. People will completely lose their bearings. Thereafter a new world will come into existence where only Truth will carry weight. All falsity will be set at naught.

In the present world, the approval of the people prevails. Here things carry weight according to the likes and dislikes of men. The world of the Hereafter is the world of God, where everything will be subservient to His will.

In the present world the deeds performed are judged according to their appearance. In the Hereafter deeds will be judged according to their inner reality. The more sincere a man’s deeds, the more importance they will be given. The deed which is devoid of sincerity will carry absolutely no weight in the Hereafter, however significant it might have seemed to the superficial people of the present world.