مَا الْقَارِعَةُ
What is the overwhelming calamity? (101:2)
Mā is interrogative. An ordinary question might request the definition of an unknown object; here the principal rhetorical effect is magnification and awe. The question alerts the hearer that this event exceeds familiar experience.
The question does not introduce a disconnected subject. It returns to the very designation already announced, now converting it into an urgent object of attention. The sequence generates anticipation before the description appears.