Qur'an Verse of the Day

As-Sa‘ah (the Hour), or al-Qiyamah, is used in three senses: (a) Death of a great and famous person (as-Sa‘atus-Sughra); (b) a national calamity (as-Sa‘atul-Wusta): (c) the Day of Judgment (as-Sa‘atul-Kubra). The word has been used in the Qur’an in the last two senses. The context shows that here it has been used in the sense of a national calamity that shakes the very foundations of a people. It may have particular reference to the impending doom of the Arabs when Mecca, the citadel of their political power, was to fall and their political power and their social system were to break and crumble; or it may refer to a terrible calamity that would overtake mankind in the form of a global war and would bring calamitous changes in its wake. The present verse, read along with 2:213, lends further support to the inference that the words “the Hour” or “the Day of Judgment” used in the Qur’an generally signify a great national calamity that overtakes a whole people.