Al Qariah 411

[Manases Blakemore]

Alhamdulilahall praise and thanks to God, almost 5.5 million recitations of Qariah have been played all around the globe in almost every country of the world. Qariah currently hosts the full Quranic recitations of two women, Hajjah Maria Ulfah and Shaykha Zaynab Talha. These are currently the only two women who have finished publishing entire recording of the Quran in the world.

Qariah has been asked a number of times why we do not have full recitations. The answer is because they do not exist yet. We are actively working with our Qariahs to encourage their recordings, but many of them work full time to support their families and are very busy with their other jobs, families and responsibilities.

Qariah wants to change this. We want to be able to provide Qariahs on Qariah App with grants to support their work in recording the entire Quran. We want to be able to flood our app with full recitations so that women around the world can choose the many different styles of recitation and sounds of voices with what works best for their own Quranic connection.

We want Qariah to open the doors for women to record and be able to continue to provide for their families or any other responsibility they have to step away from in order to complete the entire Quran.

If you would like to invest in this vision, please donate today. God willing, your donation will be an incredible sadaqa jariya, a continuous charity, for you. inshAllah as the recordings of women are played all around the world, over the space of time and centuries inshAllah, inshAllah we pray you will benefit from the investment you've made in helping increase Quranic access and literacy for women throughout the globe!

Women all around the world have contacted Qariah to share their stories of trying to read the Quran out loud for the first time in decades, of reciting the Quran out loud with their grandmothers and mothers, and of embarking on a journey to memorize the Quran for the first time in their lives.

We feature over 60 women representing cultures all around the world: from Tanzania to Indonesia, Australia to Spain, Morocco to Somalia, Canada to Pakistan, Algeria to Malaysia, the Philippines to The Gambia, Singapore to Palestine, Nigeria to Finland, the United States to Egypt, Yemen to Mauritania and more.

Qariah: The Women Quran Reciters App, joins together over 60 reciters from all over the world. Qariahs who are born Muslim and converts, typically abled Qariahs and Qariahs with disabilities. Qariah also includes historic recitations of women who have passed away from the early 1900s. Every Qariah on the app has either memorized the Quran, has ijaza of Quran, or is an international Quran winner of Quran competitions globally. Join the community of over 5 million globally streamed recitations for free by downloading Qariah today on Google Play or Apple stores: www.qariah.app

Qariah is free and we want to keep it free! But we want to support the Qariahs who take time away from work and family and life to record for the app. Can you help support women recording the entire Quran?

Al-Qaria or The Calamity[1] (Arabic: القارعة, al-Qāriʻah, also known as The Striking),[2] is the 101st chapter (sūrah) of the Quran, with 11 āyāt or verses. This chapter takes its name from its first word "qariah",[3] referring to the Quranic view of the end time and eschatology. "Qariah" has been translated as calamity, striking, catastrophe and clatterer.[4] According to Ibn Kathir, a traditionalistic exegete, Al-Qariah is one of the names of the Day of Judgement, like Al-Haaqqa, At-Tammah, As-Sakhkhah and others.[5]

After a picturesque depiction of judgement day in first 5 verses,[7] next 4 verses (ayat) describe that God's Court will be established and the people will be called upon to account for their deeds. The people whose good deeds will be heavier, will be blessed with bliss and happiness, and the people whose good deeds will be lighter, will be cast into the burning fire of hell.[8]

The last 2 verses describe Hwyah[9] in a similar emphatic[10][11] way as Al-Qariah was emphasized[12][13] in the beginning. According to the Papal translator, Ludovico Marracci, the original word Hwiyat is the name of the lowest dungeon of hell, and properly signifies a deep pit or gulf.[14] Jewish to Muslim convert, Muhammad Asad comments here: Lit., "his mother [i.e., goal] will be an abyss" (of suffering and despair). According to Quranite translator, Sam Gerrans, the term "mother" (umm) is used idiomatically to denote something that embraces or enfolds.[15]

Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti, co-author of the classical Sunni tafsīr known as Tafsir al-Jalalayn, suggests that some of the sūrahs have been named using incipits (i.e. the first few words of the surah). Hamiduddin Farahi a celebrated Islamic scholar of Indian subcontinent is known for his groundbreaking work on the concept of Nazm, or Coherence, in the Quran. He writes that Some sūrahs have been given names after some conspicuous words used in them.[16] The Surah takes its name from its first word al-qariah. This is not only a name but also the title of its subject matter, for the Surah is devoted to the day of Resurrection -Abul A'la Maududi.[17]

Regarding the timing and contextual background of the supposed revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), Al-Qāriʻah is a Meccan surah.[18] Meccan suras are chronologically earlier surahs that were revealed to Muhammad at Mecca before the hijrah to Medina in 622 CE. They are typically shorter, with relatively short ayat, and mostly come near the end of the Qur'an's 114 sūwar. Most of the surahs containing muqattaʿat are Meccan. Theodor Nldeke and William Muir[19] alike assign this surah a place among the earliest revelations of the Qurn -George Sale.[20] In accordance with the western exegesis mentioned, the Muslim tafsirs [21] also exert that the contents of this surah show that this is one of the earliest Surahs to be revealed at Makkah.

The surahs of the Qur'an are not haphazardly compiled as is generally thought. They have been arranged in a specific order by the Almighty[citation needed], and like the arrangement of the verses within a surah, the arrangement of the surahs within the Qur'an is very apt and meaningful with relation to the topic they discuss. In a nutshell, as per this arrangement, the Qur'an is divided in seven distinct groups and the surahs within each group occur in pairs.[22] This pairing of the surahs is on the basis of the topics discussed, and each member of a pair has a complementary relation with one another. Some surahs are an exception to this scheme like Surah Fatihah, which is like an introduction to the whole Qur'an. Some other surahs have come as an appendix or as a conclusion of a group. The idea of textual relation between the verses of a chapter has been discussed under various titles such as nazm and munasabah in non-English literature and coherence, text relations, intertextuality, and unity in English literature. Hamiduddin Farahi, an Islamic scholar of the Indian subcontinent, is known for his work on the concept of nazm, or coherence, in the Quran. Fakhruddin al-Razi (died 1209 CE), Zarkashi (died 1392) and several other classical as well as contemporary Quranic scholars have contributed to the studies.[23]

This surah belongs to the seventh and final group of surahs, which starts from Surah Al-Mulk (67) and runs to the end of the Quran. The theme of the seventh group is to warn the leadership of the Quraysh of the consequences of the Hereafter, to communicate the truth to them to the extent that they are left with no excuse to deny it, and, as a result, to warn them of a severe punishment, and to give glad tidings to Muhammad of the dominance of his religion in the Arabian peninsula. Briefly, this can be stated as delivering warning and glad tidings.[24]

Al-Qariah form a pair with next surah At-Takathur in regards to their subject-matter. The first surah warns its addressees of the situation that will arise on the Day of Judgement, while the second, with reference to this situation warns them of their attitude of indifference -Javed Ahmed Ghamdi.[25] Regarding its message, this surah forms a group of four similar surahs along with two previous and one next surah which depicts judgement day with picturesque description and concludes the topic of every person's deeds being weighed and thus resulting in either heaven or hell allotted to the according person. -Dr.Israr Ahmed.[26]

The theme of this surah is resurrection and the hereafter; a scene explaining the day of judgement. At the outset, the people have been aroused and alarmed, saying: "The Great Disaster! What is the Great Disaster? And what do you know what the Great Disaster is?" Thus, after preparing the listeners for the news of the dreadful calamity, Resurrection has been depicted before them in two sentences, saying that on that Day people will be running about in confusion and bewilderment just like so many scattered moths around a light, and the mountains uprooted, will their cohesion and will fly about like carded wool. Then, it has been said that when God's Court is established in the Hereafter and the people are called upon to account for their deeds. The people whose good deeds are found to be heavier than their evil deeds, will be blessed with bliss and happiness, and the people whose good deeds are found to be lighter than their evil deeds, will be cast into the deep pit full of burning fire.[17] Sale divides the contents of the surah in three principal subjects[20]

Ayat 1-5: The day of judgment a day of striking.

Ayat 6-9: The good and bad shall be judged according to their works.

Ayat 10,11: Hwyah described.

1. Qariah literally means the striking one. Qar is to strike one thing upon another so severely as to produce a noise. In view of this literal meaning, the word qariah is used for a dreadful disaster and a great calamity. At another place in the Quran this word has been used for a great affliction befalling a nation. In (Surah Ar-Raad, Ayat 31), it has been said: As for the disbelievers, because of their misdeeds, one affliction or the other does not cease to visit them every now and then.

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