ثُمَّ في سِلسِلَةٍ ذَرعُها سَبعونَ ذِراعًا فَاسلُكوهُ
Then, in a chain whose length is seventy cubits, bind him.
EXEGESIS
The word chain is given as silsilah. It shares a root with tasalsul which suggests a trembling and quivering. Chains are named so because they shake and tremble when moved.
Dhirāʿ (cubit) is the distance between an adult’s elbow and the fingertip, no less than 18 inches (45.72 cm) or approximately half a metre. It was a common unit of measure amongst the Arabs. Rāzī has also noted that against the norm of sentence structures in the Arabic language, the subject, a chain whose length is seventy cubits is mentioned first, before the verb bind him. This is to emphasise the nature of the binding, that it should be done with such a chain. Similarly, in the previous verse, instead of ‘then put him into hell’ the Arabic is then into hell put him, to again emphasise that this person should be put into a specific torment: this frightening place in hell that is named al-jaḥīm.
A common notion is that the numbers seventy or seven thousand are often used in classical Arabic as a metonym for a very large, immeasurable number. And this is particularly the case with traditions that mention seventy or seventy thousand angels, the reward of pilgrimages, the forgiveness of sins, and so on, all to indicate enormity or infiniteness. Or, as Rāzī and Ṭabarī have commented, it implies a large number known only to God. Rāzī likens the mention of seventy cubits in this verse to even if you plead forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah shall never forgive them (9:80) to indicate an endless number.
Seventy cubits here is therefore either a metaphor to suggest a very long and heavy chain or it may be literal. But even with a literal meaning, the seventy is amplified such that ‘every cubit is seventy bāʿ and a bāʿ is the distance between Mecca and Kufa’; as are the chain’s size and weight: ‘One link from the chain that God describes in His book is equal to all the iron in the world,’ and the torment it can unleash is unimaginable: ‘All the inmates of hell will be shackled in this one chain and if only one link from this chain was placed on a mountain, it would melt down from its heat.’
It is worthy of note that in the case of the number seven, it is more common for exegetes to take the number literally when interpreting verses like seven heavens (2:29), the seven gates of hell (15:44), or the seven seas (31:27). This is because the traditions and narrations that describe such verses categorically enumerate and list them in their literal sense. Many Islamic rituals legislate acts seven times literally, such as the ṭawāf (circumambulation) around the Kaaba being seven circuits, and the walking back and forth between Mounts Ṣafā and Marwah near the Kaaba also being seven rounds, and the stoning of the pillars during the hajj being with seven pebbles, and so forth. And hence the number seven may hold its own symbolism and meaning, separate from its multiples, such as seventy and seventy thousand. That said, the opinions are not unanimous and some argue that ‘seven’ (when not used to mean unlimited) may represent a meaning of completeness or perfection (rather than literally seven), which can be applied to the verses quoted above (2:29, 15:44, 31:27). See these individual verses for more.
EXPOSITION
The wretched being chained and shackled before being dragged into hell is mentioned frequently in the Quran (13:5, 34:33, 40:71, 76:4), however those described here were already portrayed earlier as being fettered (verse 30) and thrown into hell (verse 31), which as stated here is after they enter hell when they are bound once again in a chain whose length is seventy cubits. Note the use of the conjunction particle thumma (then) that repeats between verses 30-32. It suggests independent events occurring in sequential order rather than the same action being described in more detail. What then is the purpose of a second fettering?
This second fettering with a seventy cubits chain could be a tying of all the inmates of hellfire together, as mentioned in 14:49 and 25:13, and hence its immeasurable length. Some have described this chain as coursing and going directly through their bodies.
The purpose of all this shackling is more than one: it is to mete out deserved punishment and humiliation and to restrict the movement of the wretched in hellfire, but most importantly, it represents the addictions and evil habits that a person allows himself to be held captive by whilst in this world. These habits imprison a soul from journeying towards paradise and they manifest themselves in physical form in hell. Mulla Sadra explains how these shackles are nothing but a corporeal manifestation of what one was ‘chained’ to in this world:
‘As long as the being of man is imprisoned in this world by these internal and external prisons whose inner is full of the Fire of Gehenna, and is imprisoned by the prison of nature … it is not possible for him to ascend to the ‘living abode’ [dār al-ḥayawān – see 29:64] and enter the world of paradises [ʿālam al-jinān] … He will continue to be tormented by the punishment in hell, incinerated by the heat of the boiling water, confined by the chains and fetters like captives and prisoners. His state will be as is made clear by God in His saying: ‘Seize him, and fetter him! Then put him in hell. Then, in a chain whose length is seventy cubits, bind him’ [69:30-32]. That is because of not being liberated from the prison of the body and not perfecting his essence by the knowledge and action [according to knowledge] in order to become like those disengaged [from the matter], the freed ones, having freedom not fettered by the fetter of sensuous appetites, not confined by the confine of caprice and attachments.’
Furthermore, in many traditions, misplaced lust and anger are described as the ‘heat’ of hellfire. One must therefore free oneself from captivity here, and cool the heat of uncontrolled desire and anger in this world to rid oneself of the chains and fetters of hellfire in the next. All this is further supported by the Quran’s assertion that even in this world the faithless have iron collars around their necks, which are up to their chins, so their heads are upturned [in defiance and arrogance] (36:8). And a primary mission of the Apostle of God was to relieve people of their burdens and the shackles that were upon them (7:157).
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- From the Prophet: ‘If one cubit from the chain that Allah has mentioned in His book was placed on all the world’s mountains, they would melt down from its heat.’ A very similar tradition is also reported from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a).
Note: This is a very common idea found in numerous traditions concerning matters of the hereafter. For example, one hair from a maiden of paradise suspended on this world would blind all who behold it; a drop of the putrid pus or stench from the food of hellfire would destroy all life on earth, and so on. (See, for example, Insights from Hadith for 88:6 and the Insights from Hadith for verse 36 of this surah). Such traditions suggest a disparity in how the two worlds operate and the realities they each represent and are, perhaps, intended to reflect the frailty and temporal nature of this realm as a mere reflection and shadow in comparison to the solidity and reality of the world to come.
- From the Prophet: ‘If a [piece of] lead like this,’ and he pointed to a [ball or bowl the size of a] skull, ‘were to fall from the heavens to the earth – and it is a distance of five hundred years travel – it would reach the earth before night. [But] if it were to fall from the top of the chain [of hell], it would travel forty autumns [i.e. years], night and day, before it reaches its base or origin!’
Notes: 1. The words ‘before it reaches its base’ are understood as the bottom and pit of hell and not the end of the chain, but it implies the chain is stretched out to its full length, from the bottom of hell upwards. This is because ‘its base’ is given as qaʿrihā, and qaʿr is bottom, depth, pit, hole, or a hollow cavity. Min al-qaʿr ṣāʿidan is an expression for ‘from the ground up’ and that is what is implied here. 2. The number forty as well, is very symbolic in Islamic understanding. It marks the age of full maturity for man (46:15) and various reports relate this to be the age after which one’s rebellion against God is inexcusable. The fact that it takes forty years for the piece of lead to drop to the bottom of hell is very telling and reminiscent of the report that the Prophet was once seated with his companions when a loud, disturbing sound was heard by all. The Prophet explained that a rock had fallen into hell seventy years ago and has been falling since. It had just landed at the bottom of hell and hence the loud noise. And before he completed saying this, voices of wailing were heard from a house in Medina because a well-known hypocrite had just died – at the age of seventy. ‘Allāhu akbar!’ exclaimed the Prophet when this news was brought to him, and the learned from his companions knew that the rock that had landed in the pit of hell after seventy years was in fact this hypocrite, who died at the age of seventy. After quoting this report and the verse, Indeed the hypocrites will be in the lowest reach of the fire (4:145), Fayḍ Kāshānī adds that paradise and hellfire can be witnessed in this world by the enlightened. This is because every person is already in paradise or hell due to their actions. But they do not realise their true state and condition as they are veiled by their outer, corporeal forms.
[1] Raghib.
[2] Razi, 30/631.
[3] Razi, 30/631; Tabari, 29/40.
[4] Razi, 30/631.
[5] Tabrisi, 10/522; Nawawi, 2/558; Suyuti, 6/262; Tabari, 29/40; Razi, 30/631.
[6] Suyuti, 6/262; Ibn Kathir, 8/231-2.
[7] Tabrisi, 10/522.
[8] Baghawi, 5/148; Ibn Kathir, 8/232; Razi, 30/631.
[9] By ‘internal prison’ he means faculties and powers like rationality, imagination, lust, and anger when misplaced; and by ‘external prison’ he means the five sense perceptions when misused.
[10] Mulla Sadra, Spiritual Psychology (ICAS), pp. 690-691.
[11] Burhan, 5/478, h. 11046, from al-Durr al-Wāqiyah by Ibn Ṭāwūs.
[12] Nur, 5/408, h. 44.
[13] Tabari, 29/40-1; Ibn Kathir, 8/232, quoting from Ahmad and Tirmidhi (h. 5688) who, Ibn Kathir says, mentions this hadith’s authenticity as good (ḥasan).
[14] Kāshānī, Kalimāt al-Maknūnah, p. 171 (kalimah 65). The first part of this prophetic tradition concerning the loud noise and rock that tumbled and slipped down hell until it landed seventy years later is also given in Muslim (h. 6813).
[15] Kāshānī, Kalimāt al-Maknūnah, p. 171 (kalimah 65).