هٰذا نُزُلُهُم يَومَ الدّينِ
Such will be the hospitality they receive on the Day of Retribution.
EXEGESIS
Nuzul is what is prepared for one’s guests and is offered to them as they arrive. It is the first food or drink offered to a guest, the beginning of the host’s hospitality toward that guest, and a welcoming act of kindness and courtesy. It is from the same root as nazala (to descend), because the host sets and spreads the nuzul down in front of the guest. It is used in this meaning in the Quran for both the rewards of heaven and the punishments of hell.
The usage of the Day of Retribution in particular clarifies that all of these punishments are only the retribution of their own acts and according to what they had earned.
EXPOSITION
This and the preceding few verses are among the heaviest verses of the Quran, which make the hearts tremble and the bodies shiver. It is an overwhelming feeling to be attacked by these vehement condemnations by the all-merciful Lord or His angels. May God give us protection against His wrath. ‘That is naught but Thy displeasure, vengeance and wrath, which even the heavens and the earth cannot stand; so how should I, my master, endure it, while I am Thy weak abject poor pleading little servant?’ ‘May I be in the hereafter freed by Thy magnanimity, just as in this world I grew up on Thy bounty.’
O Lord, do not cut off our tie;
We are Thy lovers; don’t make us cry.
Make the garden of our hearts foster and grow;
The birds of the garden, don’t make them fly.
We are Thy servants, in poverty and need;
The gates of Thy mercy, don’t shut in good-bye.
Thy mercy is a rope to which we have clung;
This rope is our hope, on which we rely.
The worst thing ever is to be cut off from Thee;
Do what Thou wish, but don’t cut our tie.
There is a set of very similar verses in chapter 37. There, after describing the lofty rewards of the chosen servants of God, it says: Is this a better hospitality, or the zaqqūm tree? Indeed We have made it a punishment for the wrongdoers. Indeed it is a tree that emerges from the depths of hell. Its spathes are as if they were devils’ heads. Indeed they will eat from it and gorge with it their bellies. Indeed, on top of that they will take a solution of scalding water. Then indeed their retreat will be toward hell (37:62-68). As if they were devils’ heads indicates the aspect of misery and misfortune in their punishment, which complies with the description of the people of the left hand as the people of misery.
Another set of relevant verses are found in chapter 44: Indeed the tree of zaqqūm will be the food of the sinful. Like molten copper it will boil in the bellies, boiling like boiling water. ‘Seize him and drag him to the middle of hell, then pour over his head the punishment of boiling water.’ ‘Taste! Indeed you are the [self-styled] mighty and noble!’ (44:43-49). Indeed you are the [self-styled] mighty and noble is similar to verse 56 here: Such will be the hospitality they receive on the Day of Retribution. What is first offered to a guest as a show of hospitality (nuzul) is supposed to be a means of honouring the guest. However, the defiant sinful deniers are ‘honoured’ by such a grave punishment which is only a means of humiliation and a sign of their ignobility. Also, when their first treatment or ‘appetiser’ is such an excruciating punishment (zaqqūm and ḥamīm), one should only imagine what their ‘main course’ will be.
Their food in hell will be extremely hot, coarse, and without any good taste or smell. It will not satiate their hunger and will only add to their thirst. But then their thirst shall be ‘quenched’ by such boiling water, with which their skins and entrails will be fused (22:20). They will have no food except cactus, neither nourishing, nor availing against hunger (88:6-7). My wealth did not avail me. My authority has departed from me (69:28-29); So he has no friend here today, nor any food except pus, which no one shall eat except the iniquitous (69:35-37). Let them taste it: scalding water and pus (38:57). Like those who abide in the fire and are given to drink boiling water which cuts up their bowels (47:15).
Their place and food is so hot in hell that they will rush toward the only water available to them, like thirsty camels that have gone out of control and run around wildly and aimlessly. It might be that they drink from the ḥamīm voluntarily and thirstily due to the extreme annoyance created in their bellies by the zaqqūm. Hence, the verses may suggest that the inhabitants of hell eat from the zaqqūm and drink from the ḥamīm willingly and eagerly. They are stirred to it by their thirst and hunger as they were stirred towards sin in this world by their lustful desires. These punishments and humiliations are what they created with their beliefs and actions in this world and carried with themselves to the hereafter. Enter it, and whether you are patient or impatient it will be the same for you. You are only being requited for what you used to do (52:16). It is the same to us whether we are restless or patient: there is no escape for us (14:21).
That food or drink is nothing to be swallowed easily. It is put down their throat by force: he shall be given to drink of a purulent fluid, gulping it down, but hardly swallowing it (14:16-17). Therefore, drinking like thirsty camels only serves to show the extent of their misery, thirst, and punishment. It shows that their share of the hot boiling water will not be small, but will be abundant, just as their share of sins and arrogance was abundant.
The reality of a human being is the person’s eternal soul. However, the people of the left hand ignore this reality and identify themselves with their bodies and their transient life in this world. They spend their days rushing toward that which does not satiate the immaterial soul that longs for eternal bliss, and does not quench the thirst of the soul for the vision of its Lord. They have an insatiable greed for material possessions and achievements which they strengthen and intensify throughout their life. Therefore, eating greedily from zaqqūm and drinking thirstily from ḥamīm is only the manifestation of their lifestyle, greed, and indulgence in this world. Leave alone those who take their religion for play and diversion and whom the life of this world has deceived … They are the ones who perish because of what they have earned; they shall have boiling water for drink and a painful punishment because of what they used to defy (6:70); As for the faithless, they enjoy and eat just like the cattle eat, and the fire will be their [final] abode (47:12).
Further, God has created His servants free from every obligation to any other god or master. He has sufficed them from worshipping, obeying, or bowing down in front of any other force or power. Yet, some people choose the degradation of slavery toward other goals, forces, and objects. They subjugate themselves to deities other than God, such as material well-being, political power, or other human beings such as bosses, managers, government authorities, corporations, shareholders, and worse than all: one’s own desires and temptations. These are all the armies and subsidiaries of Satan. They are the traps by which he enchains the servants of God so that they follow him and not God: ‘Did I not exhort you, O children of Adam, saying: “Do not worship Satan. He is indeed your manifest enemy. But worship Me; that is a straight path”? Certainly he has led astray many of your generations. Did you not use to apply reason? This is the hell you had been promised! Enter it today, because of what you used to defy’ (36:60-64). ‘Honour yourself from every base quality even if it takes you to desirable things, for indeed you can never be compensated for a loss of your self. And do not be a slave of someone else while God has made you free.’ One who dishonours himself like that in this world will face the humiliation of the hereafter.
[1] Raghib; Tahqiq, under n-z-l.
[2] Qaraati, 9/432.
[3] Duʿāʾ al-Kumayl by Imam Ali (a); Ṭūsī, Miṣbāḥ al-Mutahajjid wa Silāḥ al-Mutaʿabbid, 2/847.
[4] Part of a supplication by either Imam al-Bāqir (a) or Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) in the month of Ramadan. Ṭūsī, Miṣbāḥ al-Mutahajjid wa Silāḥ al-Mutaʿabbid, 2/568.
[5] Rūmī, Dīwān-e Kabīr, ghazal 2020, lines 1-3 and 8-9.
[6] Alusi, 14/147.
[7] Furqan, 28/80-81.
[8] Furqan, 28/81.
[9] Murtaza Alidina, series of lectures on the exegesis of Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah, available at <http://www.dartabligh.org >.
[10] Nahj, letter 31.