What is "al-haaqqa"

Sūrat al-Ḥāqqah is the 69th sura of the Qur'an with 52 ayat. There are several English names under which the surah is known. These include “The Inevitable Hour”, “The Indubitable”, “The Inevitable Truth”, and “The Reality”. These titles are derived from alternate translations of al-Ḥāqqa, the word that appears in the first three ayat of the sura. “al-Ḥāqqa! What is al-Ḥāqqa? What will explain to you what al-Ḥāqqa is?” Though each of these titles may sound very different, each one alludes to the main theme of the sura – the Day of Judgment.

Respected Islamist scholar Sayyid Qutb makes a very interesting observation on the actual sound of al-Ḥāqqa, “The very sound of the word imparts a feeling of decisiveness, seriousness, and a grounding stability. It sounds like a heavy object being lifted some considerable distance before being placed firmly into position. The strongly aspirated ‘h’ sound appears to be lifted by the elongated ‘a’ before it is firmly placed at the doubled ‘q’ and then finally stabilized with the final ‘h’ sound.”