هٰذا فَوجٌ مُقتَحِمٌ مَعَكُم ۖ لا مَرحَبًا بِهِم ۚ إِنَّهُم صالُو النّارِ
‘This is a group plunging [into hell] along with you.’ ‘May wretchedness be their lot! They will indeed enter the fire.’
EXEGESIS
Fawj (group) refers to a group that is moving somewhere in a hurry.
Muqtaḥim (plunging) is to enter into something with force.
Marḥaban is a statement made to welcome a traveller, indicating that where they are coming to is spacious for them. It has been combined with lā (no) to make it into a negative statement, meaning ‘may they not be welcome’. It is also said that quite literally hell will not be spacious and that the people will be piled upon each other and stacked. It is reported that Prophet Muhammad (s) said: ‘The fire will constrict them like the tightening of the spear tip in its place.’ This might also be alluded to at the end of this surah: I will surely fill hell with you and all those who follow you (verse 85), and the verse, when they are cast into a narrow place in it, bound together [in chains], they will pray for [their own] annihilation (25:13), and perhaps verse 50:30 as well.
EXPOSITION
The description of hell now moves on to talk about the relationship of its inmates with each other. This is related to the surah’s theme of defiance, or divisive nature, which we discussed in the commentary of verse 2, and is meant to show that their divisive attitude is not limited only to their opposition to the believers, but is part of their nature. Even amongst each other they quarrel and are in enmity; you suppose them to be a body, but their hearts are disunited (59:14). This is because they are ruled by their conceit and ego and cannot truly accept other than themselves.
We know that people will enter hell not all at once, but in groups, whenever a group is thrown in it (67:8). The first to enter hell are the leaders and vanguards of evil. When the next group then enters it, the angels guarding hell say to the forerunners of wickedness that other groups will be joining them in the fire: This is a group plunging [into hell] along with you.
When those chieftains of sin witness the newcomers, they cry out: May wretchedness be their lot! The newcomers also curse their unwelcoming kin, every time that a nation enters [hell], it will curse its sister [nation] (7:38), as we shall also read in the next verse. This hateful and unwelcoming attitude is very different to the peaceful greetings and camaraderie that exists between the dwellers of paradise, They will not hear therein any vain talk or sinful speech, but only the watchword, ‘Peace!’ ‘Peace!’ (56:25-26).
This is the lot of the evildoers, They will indeed enter the fire. It could be that this statement is made by the inmates of hell, or the angels, or perhaps God.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Ṭūsī says the other group entering hell are the children of Iblīs, meaning the evil jinns. There is no need for this specification though, as there is nothing in the verse or its context to indicate that.
[1] Raghib, p. 646.
[2] Razi, 26/404; Mizan, 17/219.
[3] Zamakhshari, 4/102; Razi, 26/404; Qurtubi, 15/223; Mizan, 17/219.
[4] Tabrisi, 8/753-754.
[5] Tabrisi, 8/754; Razi, 26/404; Qurtubi, 15/223; Mizan, 17/219. Some, like Tabari, 23/115, say it is God who is addressing the inmates of hell.
[6] Tibyan, 8/575; Mizan, 17/219.
[7] Tibyan, 8/575.