Tafsir of Al-Qari`ah 101:10-11

(And what will make you know what it is? A scorching Fire.)

This is a confirmation of it after its ambiguity, serving to signify that it transcends what is customary, for the sake of magnification and terror. It is mentioned that describing it as such [a "mother"] is due to its extreme depth and the remoteness of its abyss; for it has been narrated that the people of the Fire will fall into it for seventy autumns. Some have specified it to be the lowest gate of Hell. The [term] "abode" (ma'wa) is expressed as "mother" (umm) by way of analogy to her; for the mother is the refuge of the child and his abode. In this, there is also mockery of him. It is also said that the Fire is likened to a mother in that it encompasses him just as the womb of the mother encompasses the child.

From Qatadah, Abu Salih, Ikrimah, al-Kalbi, and others, the meaning is: "His mother is a pit (hawiyah) in the depths of Hell," because he is cast into it headlong. In another narration from Qatadah, it is from their saying when they invoke destruction upon a man: "May his mother fall" (haw-at ummuhu), meaning when he falls and perishes, his mother has fallen in bereavement and grief. From this is the saying of Ka'b ibn Sa'd al-Ghanawi: "May his mother fall, what does the morning send out early? / And what does the night bring back when it returns?" In al-Kashf, it is stated that this is the most excellent [interpretation] so that it corresponds to His, the Exalted’s, saying: In a satisfactory life (fi 'ishatin radiyah), and [to capture] the hyperbole therein. al-Tayyibi said that this is the most apparent, though there is room for debate.

The pronoun in "mahiyah" (what it is) refers to the calamity indicated by the discourse, or, according to what we proposed, to the "Hawiyah" (pit). According to the second view, it is due to what the speech implies, as if it were said: "Then his mother is a pit in a Fire, and what will make you know what it is..."

The "ha" attached in hiyah is the ha of silence (ha al-sakt); it was dropped in the connection [of recitation] by Ibn Abi Ishaq, al-A'mash, and Hamzah, while the majority affirmed it. "Nar" (Fire) is in the nominative case as the predicate of an omitted subject—that is, "It is a Fire." "Hamiyah" (scorching) is an adjective for it, derived from al-humu, the intensification of heat. It is stated in al-Qamus: "The sun and fire became hot (hamiya)... their heat intensified." Some have interpreted it—based on the saying hamiyat al-qidr fahiya mahmiyah (the pot became hot, so it is heated)—as meaning "possessor of heat," but it is as you see.

Talhah recited "f-immuhu" with a kasra on the hamzah. Ibn Khalawayh said that Ibn Durayd reported it as a dialect. As for the grammarians, they say it is not permissible to break (kasr) the hamzah unless preceded by a kasra or a ya. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.