The **Qāri'ah** (The Striking Calamity) is that which strikes people with terrors and horrors, the heaven with splitting and shattering, the earth and mountains with leveling and scattering, and the stars with obscuration and falling out of course.

He said: **{Thamud and 'Ad denied the Qāri'ah}** and did not say, "denied *it*," to indicate that the meaning of "striking" is inherent in the *Hāqqah* (The Inevitable Reality), thus adding to the description of its severity.

When He mentioned and magnified it (the Calamity), He followed that by mentioning those who denied it and what befell them due to their denial, as a reminder to the people of Mecca and a warning to them about the consequence of their disbelief.