wa-mā adrāka mā — "And what has made you realize what... is?"
وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا
wa-mā adrāka mā — And what has made you realize what ... is?
A fixed interrogative frame that opens a named entity to definition, with fillers that are days, a night, events, sijjīn and ʿIlliyyūn, a night-visitor, and a steep ascent. In every case the frame withholds comprehension of the filler and marks it as something whose full nature exceeds ordinary knowledge.
The frame wa-mā adrāka mā ("and what has made you realize what ... is?") occurs eleven times, in surahs 69, 77, 82, 83, 86, 90, 97, 101 and 104, always immediately after the filler has been named (noting that 82:18 repeats the frame directly after 82:17). The verses show a consistent discourse pattern: the frame names the filler and asks what could make one realize it, giving no description itself. In (101:3) the filler is al-Qāriʿah; the same construction holds for al-Ḥuṭamah (104:5), al-Ḥāqqah (69:3), the Ṭāriq (86:2), and al-ʿAqabah (90:12). The frame thus functions as a gate: it separates the naming of a thing from its description, and asserts that the name alone does not convey the thing. The fillers fall into identifiable sets: days of separation or judgment (77:14; 82:17; 82:18), named eschatological events (101:3; 104:5; 69:3), sijjīn (83:8) and ʿIlliyyūn (83:19), a steep ascent (90:12), a night (97:2), and a night-visitor (86:2). The frame itself gives no description of the filler. Its rhetorical force is uniform: it denies that the addressee's ordinary experience can furnish the standard of comparison, and thereby marks the filler as something whose full nature must be disclosed rather than inferred.
Where it occurs
- 101:3 Gates the description of the Striker after its naming in the preceding verses.
- 104:5 Gates the description of al-Ḥuṭamah.
- 69:3 Gates the description of the Inevitable Reality.
- 77:14 Gates the description of the Day of Separation.
- 82:17 First of two consecutive uses gating the Day of the Judgment.
- 82:18 Repeats the frame with thumma, intensifying the withholding before describing the Day of the Judgment.
- 83:19 Gates the description of ʿIlliyyūn.
- 83:8 Gates the description of sijjīn, paired with ʿIlliyyūn in the same surah.
- 86:2 Gates the description of the night-visitor.
- 90:12 Gates the description of the steep ascent.
- 97:2 Gates the description of the Night of Determination.
All Qur'anic expressions