Surah Al-Qari'ah Word by Word + The Seven-Link Method

Surah Al-Qari'ah is eleven verses and thirty-six words, and it is built almost entirely from images. It names the Day by a sound — a striking, a knocking — asks twice what that is, and then shows you two pictures: people scattered like moths, mountains loose like carded wool. For learners in the UK and the United States it is a favourite early surah because it is vivid, and vivid is exactly what makes it memorable. This guide gives the complete word-by-word meaning of Surah Al-Qari'ah and applies the Seven-Link Method.

📌 At a glance

• Surah: Al-Qari'ah (القارعة, "The Striking Calamity") — number 101

• Length: 11 verses — 36 words in total

• Revealed: Makkah (Makki)

• Structure: a name asked about (1–3), two images (4–5), two outcomes (6–9), one more question (10–11)

• Theme: the Day weighed on a scale, described in pictures rather than arguments

💎 Did you know?

The name al-Qari'ah appears three times in the first three verses and then never again in the surah. Arabic uses that kind of repetition to make a word land — by the time the images arrive in verse 4, the sound of the name is already fixed in the ear.

📖 What is Surah Al-Qari'ah?

Surah Al-Qari'ah (سُورَةُ القارعة) is the 101st surah of the Qur'an. Its name comes from the root ق-ر-ع, which means to strike, knock or bang — the sound of something hitting hard enough to be heard. Al-Qari'ah is one of the Qur'an's names for the Day of Judgement, chosen for what it sounds like as much as for what it means.

The surah works in three movements. First the name is repeated and asked about. Then two images show what the Day does to the two most solid things a person can imagine — crowds of people and mountains. Then the scales appear, and everything narrows to a single question about weight.

It is a short surah with no argument in it at all. Everything is shown, and the reader is left to draw the conclusion.

🕋 The full text and translation

"The Striking Calamity. What is the Striking Calamity? And what will make you know what the Striking Calamity is? The Day people will be like scattered moths, and the mountains like carded wool. Then as for one whose scales are heavy, he will be in a pleasant life. But as for one whose scales are light, his refuge will be an abyss. And what will make you know what that is? A blazing Fire."
(Surah Al-Qari'ah 101:1–11)

🔑 Surah Al-Qari'ah: word by word

Here is every word of Surah Al-Qari'ah in order, with its transliteration and English meaning. Take it a few lines at a time rather than trying to absorb the whole table at once.

👉 Want to hear each word and see its syllables and grammar? Study Surah Al-Qari'ah interactively — with audio for every word — using Eaalim's free Quranic Words tool for Surah Al-Qari'ah.

🎓 Learn this surah with a teacher, not just a table

Reading the meanings is the first half. Hearing your own recitation corrected is the other. Eaalim gives new students two free trial lessons — one-to-one on Zoom with an Al-Azhar certified teacher, never a group class — booked around your own time zone in the UK, the United States or anywhere else. Paid plans start at £9 per hour.

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📜 Surah Al-Qari'ah verse by verse

ٱلْقَارِعَةُ ︑١︒ مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ ︑٢︒ وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلْقَارِعَةُ ︑٣︒

Al-Qāriʿah. Ma l-Qāriʿah. Wa mā adrāka ma l-Qāriʿah

"The Striking Calamity. What is the Striking Calamity? And what will make you know what the Striking Calamity is?"

Three verses, one word doing all the work. The first states it, the second asks, the third says the answer is beyond you — and only then does the surah begin to describe.

يَوْمَ يَكُونُ ٱلنَّاسُ كَٱلْفَرَاشِ ٱلْمَبْثُوثِ ︑٤︒

Yawma yakūnu n-nāsu ka-l-farāshi l-mabthūth

"The Day people will be like scattered moths."

Al-farāsh are the small insects that fly into a flame at night; mabthūth means scattered and spread out. The image is of crowds without direction — movement without purpose.

وَتَكُونُ ٱلْجِبَالُ كَٱلْعِهْنِ ٱلْمَنفُوشِ ︑٥︒

Wa takūnu l-jibālu ka-l-ʿihni l-manfūsh

"And the mountains like carded wool."

Al-ʿihn is dyed wool; manfūsh means teased apart into loose fibres. The heaviest thing in the landscape is compared to the lightest thing in a household.

فَأَمَّا مَن ثَقُلَتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ ︑٦︒ فَهُوَ فِى عِيشَةٍ رَّاضِيَةٍ ︑٧︒

Fa-ammā man thaqulat mawāzīnuh. Fa-huwa fī ʿīshatin rāḍiyah

"Then as for one whose scales are heavy — he will be in a pleasant life."

Rāḍiyah is literally "a satisfied life" — the life itself is described as content, which is a stronger way of saying it than "a life he is satisfied with".

وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَفَّتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ ︑٨︒ فَأُمُّهُۥ هَاوِيَةٌ ︑٩︒

Wa ammā man khaffat mawāzīnuh. Fa-ummuhu hāwiyah

"But as for one whose scales are light — his refuge will be an abyss."

The word used is umm, literally "mother" — the place one returns to and is sheltered by. Applied to hāwiyah, a bottomless fall, it is one of the most severe images in the Qur'an.

وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا هِيَهْ ︑١٠︒ نَارٌ حَامِيَةٌۢ ︑١١︒

Wa mā adrāka mā hiyah. Nārun ḥāmiyah

"And what will make you know what that is? A blazing Fire."

The question from verse 3 returns, and this time it is answered — in two words. The surah ends there, with no closing comment.

💡 Understanding the meaning behind the words

A few words carry most of the weight of this surah, and each rewards a closer look.

Al-Qāriʿah — From ق-ر-ع, to strike or knock loudly. The name is chosen for its sound: it is a word you hear before you understand it, which is the effect the surah is after.

Al-farāsh — The insects that gather around a lamp at night and fly into it. The comparison is not flattering and is not meant to be — it describes movement without direction.

Al-ʿihn al-manfūsh — Dyed wool teased apart. Every household knew it. Mountains, the definition of permanence, are compared to the loosest, lightest thing in the room.

Mawāzīn — The plural of mīzān, a balance or scale. The Qur'an consistently describes the reckoning in terms of weight rather than counting, and this surah turns entirely on that one image.

🔗 The Seven-Link Method applied to Surah Al-Qari'ah

Eleven verses, several of them only two or three words long. Short verses are easy to drop, and the two wa mā adrāka questions can pull a reciter back to the wrong place. Seven links prevent both.

Verbal link (1) — the name, and the scales

Al-Qāriʿah appears three times — verses 1, 2 and 3 — and never again. Mawāzīnuh appears twice, in verses 6 and 8, once for each outcome. Wa mā adrāka appears twice, in verses 3 and 10, and marks the surah's two halves.

Phonetic link (2) — the -ah frame with two -ūshs inside it

Verses 1–3 all end on al-Qāriʿah; verses 4 and 5 end on al-mabthūth and al-manfūsh; and from verse 6 to the end the rhyme returns to -ah: mawāzīnuh, rāḍiyah, mawāzīnuh, hāwiyah, hiyah, ḥāmiyah. The two odd endings sit exactly on the two images — the sound itself brackets the pictures.

Thematic link (3) — name, image, weight

Verses 1–3 name the Day; 4–5 show it; 6–9 weigh it; 10–11 answer the question left open at the start. Four blocks, and each has a different job.

Narrative link (4) — a question asked, then finally answered

The wa mā adrāka of verse 3 is not answered when it is asked. The surah goes away, shows you two images and two outcomes, and only returns to the question in verse 10. Once you notice that arc, the order becomes impossible to muddle.

Visual link (5) — two pictures and a balance

Moths pouring around a flame; a mountain coming apart like a handful of wool; and then a set of scales, one pan heavy, one pan light.

Numerical link (6) — what the counts catch

11 verses, 36 words, 3 mentions of al-Qāriʿah, 2 of mawāzīn, 2 of wa mā adrāka, 2 outcomes. The surah is symmetrical: every element in the second half has a partner in the first.

Similar-verse link (7) — two look-alikes worth separating

• The wa mā adrāka formula appears here twice and also in Al-Humazah 104:5 (mā l-ḥuṭamah) and Al-Qadr 97:2 (mā laylatu l-qadr). Same words, different nouns.
• The two similes of ruin — ka-l-ʿihni l-manfūsh belongs to the mountains here, while ka-ʿaṣfin ma'kūl belongs to the elephant army in Al-Fil 105:5. Keep each with its own scene.

🎥 The visual film

Run this sequence in your mind twice after Fajr and twice before sleep — one image per stage:

1. Verses 1–3 — a name repeated in the dark, three times, before anything is shown.

2. Verse 4 — the air full of moths around a flame, going nowhere.

3. Verse 5 — a mountain lifting and dispersing like teased wool.

4. Verses 6–7 — a scale tipping down, and a life at ease.

5. Verses 8–9 — the other pan rising, and a fall with no floor.

6. Verses 10–11 — the question from the beginning, answered in two words.

📚 How to learn Surah Al-Qari'ah word by word

1. Day 1 — verses 1–5. The three-times name, then the two images. Learn farāsh and ʿihn properly.

2. Day 2 — verses 6–9, the two outcomes. They are built identically, so learn them as a pair: heavy first, light second.

3. Day 3 — verses 10–11, and then join the whole surah, noticing where the rhyme leaves -ah and comes back.

A qualified teacher shortens all of this: correct Tajweed, honest feedback on the verses you only think you know, and answers to the questions that come up once you start understanding the words.

🇬🇧 🇺🇸 Studying Surah Al-Qari'ah from the UK or the United States

Most people reading this guide are not learning Arabic in an Arabic-speaking country. They are fitting the Qur'an around school runs in Birmingham, shift work in Manchester, or an evening after the commute home in Chicago or Toronto — and the practical problem is rarely motivation. It is finding a teacher who will correct one surah properly, at a time that actually exists in your week.

That is the gap Eaalim Institute was built for. We are a London-based institute teaching English-speaking Muslims across Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe:

• One-to-one, never group. Every lesson is private on Zoom, so the whole session is spent on your recitation rather than waiting your turn in a halaqa.

• Al-Azhar certified teachers. Male and female teachers, matched to the student — which matters for families booking for children.

• Scheduled around your time zone. Evening and weekend slots, arranged around school hours and prayer times rather than against them.

• Two free trial lessons before you pay anything, and plans from £9 per hour after that.

If you have read this far into a word-by-word guide, you are already doing the hard part. A teacher simply makes it faster — and stops you memorising a mistake.

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🎓 Learn it properly with Eaalim

The two halves of this guide match two Eaalim courses. Our Quranic Words Course teaches Qur'anic vocabulary word by word to English-speaking students across the UK, the United States and worldwide. Our Qur'an Memorisation (Hifz) Course applies the Seven-Link Method surah by surah with Al-Azhar certified teachers, one to one.

Start with 2 free trial lessons →  |  Explore the Quranic Words Course →

✨ Key takeaways

• Surah Al-Qari'ah is 11 verses and 36 words, named after a sound: something striking hard.

• The name is repeated three times in the first three verses and never again.

• The two images — moths and carded wool — sit exactly where the rhyme changes.

• The question of verse 3 is left unanswered until verse 10, which fixes the whole order.

• Keep ka-l-ʿihni l-manfūsh (101:5) apart from ka-ʿaṣfin ma'kūl (105:5).

Continue with Surah Al-Humazah word by word + the Seven-Link Method, which uses the same wa mā adrāka formula, or with Surah Al-Fil.

✨ Conclusion

Thirty-six words and not a single argument — only a name, two pictures and a set of scales. Learned word by word — qāriʿah, farāsh, ʿihn, mawāzīn — Surah Al-Qari'ah stops being a sequence of dramatic sounds and becomes what it is: a question about weight, asked in advance.

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