إِذا أُلقوا فيها سَمِعوا لَها شَهيقًا وَهِيَ تَفورُ
تَكادُ تَمَيَّزُ مِنَ الغَيظِ ۖ كُلَّما أُلقِيَ فيها فَوجٌ سَأَلَهُم خَزَنَتُها أَلَم يَأتِكُم نَذيرٌ
When they are thrown in it, they hear it blaring, as it seethes,
almost exploding with rage. Whenever a group is thrown in it, its keepers will ask them: ‘Did there not come to you any warner?’
EXEGESIS
Shahīq: blaring, roaring, loud noise. There is an element of being high and evident in its root. Shahīq denotes deep, noisy, and heavy breathing with a loud extended sigh. It refers to inhalation as opposed to zafīr which indicates exhalation. Another meaning is that shahīq is the sound of heavy breathing in the chest, while zafīr is the sound of such breathing in the throat. Thus, hell takes in the disbelievers as air or fuel. Of course, the inmates of hell shall also experience the dreadful exhalation of the hellfire as well: Indeed you and what you worship besides Allah shall be fuel for hell, and you will come to it – had they been gods, they would not have come to it – and they will all remain in it [forever]. There they shall have wailing [zafīr], and they will not hear anything therein (21:98-100). Overall, shahīq and zafīr as used elsewhere in the Quran (11:106, 25:12) refer to the moaning and wailing sounds of pain and anger that are heard from hell, and/or from the inmates of hell.
Tafūru is from the root fawr, meaning intense agitation and boiling.
Tamayyaza means to separate, break, or tear apart something from something else. It is to distinguish between one thing and another. Here it means that the fire is so agitated and fervent that it is about to burst and explode into pieces.
Ghayẓ: intense anger, rage, and fury.
EXPOSITION
How are the disbelievers thrown into the hellfire? This dreadful scene has been depicted elsewhere in the Quran, in a moving way that makes the reader tremble and reduce his heedlessness: Then they will be cast into it on their faces – they and the perverse, and the hosts of Iblis all together (26:94-95); And whoever brings vice – they shall be cast on their faces into the fire [and told:] ‘Shall you be requited except with what you used to do?’ (27:90).
Their pitiful punishment of being cast into the fire is reminiscent of how they treated the book which God had sent as mercy to everyone: And when there came to them an apostle from Allah, confirming that which is with them, a part of those who were given the book cast the book of Allah behind their back, as if they did not know [that it is Allah’s book] (2:101); they cast it behind their backs and sold it for a paltry gain – how evil is what they buy (3:187). It is because they cast away their covenants and have no commitment to what they promise: Is it not that whenever they made a covenant, a part of them would cast it away? Rather, the majority of them do not have faith (2:100). Thus, their punishment is in accordance with their own deeds (78:26, 6:160, 10:27). Rather, it is their selfsame deeds the reality of which they shall face (28:84). This is the manifestation of setting partners for God: Whoever ascribes partners to Allah is as though he had fallen from a height to be devoured by vultures, or to be blown away by the wind far and wide (22:31); He will surely be cast into the crusher (ḥuṭamah) (104:4).
Describing their entrance into hell as being thrown and flung into the fire shows how they are treated with disgrace and dishonour. It is also reminiscent of how one would throw fuel and firewood into a fire. Indeed they are the fuel and firewood of the hellfire: Indeed you and what you worship besides Allah shall be fuel for hell, and you will come to it (21:98); As for the perverse, they will be firewood for hell (72:15).
In verse 8, hell is described by the quality of rage. One may ascribe rage to something that has no life, feeling, or understanding only as a figure of speech, but not literally. We may metaphorically talk about a furious ocean or a raging storm, but this is not the case with hell. According to the Quran, hell sees, hears, responds, and shows anger: We have prepared a blaze for those who deny the hour. When it sights them from a distant place, they will hear it raging and roaring. And when they are cast into a narrow place in it, bound together [in chains], they will pray for [their own] annihilation (25:11-13); The day when We shall say to hell: ‘Are you full?’ It will say: ‘Is there any more?’ (50:30).
This complies with the philosophical principle that anything that has a share of existence has a share of life, knowledge, and power. Of course, a being’s share of life, knowledge, and power is a function of its existential capacity and breadth, but to say that there is some existent – whether material or immaterial – that has no share of life, knowledge, or power is a contradiction. This applies to every perfection and existential quality that is an essential attribute of absolute simple being. In other words, existence is a simple reality that is never devoid of certain essential qualities, and from which every perfection is derived and deduced. Thus, every degree of existence is accompanied by its corresponding degrees of those essential qualities. It is in this regard that in many places in the Holy Quran, the actions and qualities of living things have been ascribed to things that are apparently inanimate (2:74, 13:13, 17:44, 21:79, 33:72, 41:11).
This explanation complies with many narrations that describe paradise and hell as obedient followers of the Prophet and his family – for example, it is reported that Imam Ali (a) will address hell and say: ‘This person is mine, and the other one is yours.’ There is no reason to assume that the real subject of the verse has been omitted, and that is the keepers of hell. That cannot be the case because the verse talks about the keepers of hell with their own account.
If anything in the universe is blind and mute it is mankind, who is immersed in the heedlessness of his daily life and worldly affairs; and the other creatures are actually resentful of this ‘life’:
The earth, the fire, the water and the air,
Are dead with us, but with God they are aware.
We are the opposite, aware of all events,
But heedless of the Truth and the warners that He sent.
They say, ‘We detest their life, it’s full of dread;
‘They are living with their likes, but with God they are dead.’
In short, anything in the universe is a manifestation of God, for He has manifested Himself through His creation, and whichever way you turn, there is the face of Allah (2:115). Then, given that He is an absolute simple reality without any parts, and that His essential attributes are not separate from His essence, when He manifests He would manifest with all of His attributes. Thus, every creature is a manifestation of all of God’s essential attributes.
According to this verse, the disbelievers are thrown in the fire in groups (fawj). There are other verses that confirm and expand on this idea. People are resurrected and summoned in groups according to their character, and each group has a separate account and book of deeds (78:18, 89:7, 45:28, 37:22-23, 39:71, 38:59, 7:38, 19:68-69). They are gathered together and thrown in the fire in groups because they were the members of the same convoy in this world. There is a real congruity between them in terms of being evil: So that Allah may separate the bad ones from the good, and place the bad on one another, and pile them up together, and cast them into hell. It is they who are the losers (8:37).
When a group of people are thrown in the fire, it makes the keepers ask them: Did there not come to you any warner? This may suggest that if a warner comes to a people, they would not be thrown into fire. But the next verse would qualify this statement as follows: if a warner comes to a people, they would not be thrown into fire only if they accept his call. Thus, the question of the keepers of hell would be out of surprise.
However, it is more likely (based on the other verses of the Quran) that their question serves as a blame and rebuke for the disbelievers and is a part of their spiritual punishment. It means that you deserve to be thrown into hell and have no excuse because a warner came to you. Hence, there is an implicit assumption behind their question: no one is thrown in hell unless there has been some warner sent to him. This has been explicitly established elsewhere in the Quran: We do not punish [any community] until We have sent [it] an apostle (17:15); Your Lord would not destroy the towns until He had raised an apostle in their mother city to recite to them Our signs. We would never destroy the towns except when their people were wrongdoers (28:59).
In fact, God has given mankind the right to receive guidance and warners from God, and has made it unjust for Himself to punish a people without warners: Apostles, as bearers of good news and warners, so that mankind may not have any argument against Allah, after the [sending of the] apostles; and Allah is all-mighty, all-wise (4:165); Had We destroyed them with a punishment before it [that is, before the revelation of the Quran], they would have surely said: ‘Our Lord! Why did You not send us an apostle so that we might follow Your signs before we were abased and disgraced?’ (20:134); We have not destroyed any town without its having warners, for the sake of admonition, and We were not unjust (26:208-209).
The keepers of hell ask the disbelievers: Did there not come to you any warner? because it is an established custom and tradition of God to send a warner for every nation, the last of which is the nation of Prophet Muhammad (s): Indeed We have sent you with the truth as a bearer of good news and as a warner; and there is not a nation but a warner has passed in it (35:24); The faithless among the People of the Book and the polytheists were not to be left off until the proof came to them, an apostle from Allah reciting impeccable scriptures, wherein are upright writings (98:1-3).
There may very well be certain tribes and communities that have not had a warner amongst them (34:44, 36:6), but the message of truth should be available to anyone who seeks it. A nation could comprise many tribes and communities, and may span over many centuries and countries, but what makes them a single nation is the applicability, necessity, and availability of a single religion to all of them.
According to these verses, the sealing of the hearts, ears, and eyes in this world, and the punishment of the blaze in the hereafter, are only decreed after the sending of warners and prophets and their rejection by the people. Otherwise, God excuses those who have no means of seeking the truth: Except the abased among men, women, and children, who have neither access to any means nor are guided to any way. Maybe Allah will excuse them, for Allah is all-excusing, all-forgiving (4:98-99).
A warner (nadhīr) could be any means by which God sends a message of guidance. Thus, it need not be limited to one form or another. Based on verse 10, one’s ʿaql (reason, intellect) is also a warner that has been placed by God within His servants. However, based on verse 9, warner here denotes the specific sense of the term, which is a God-sent prophet.
Of course, the prophets not only warn their people of punishment, but also give tidings of reward to the righteous believers (4:165). However, here they have only been referred to as warners because the addressee in these verses are the disbelievers in particular.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
There are a few possibilities and explanations for ascribing rage to fire: 1. Exploding with rage is a metaphorical expression that refers to the abrupt and roaring flames of hell. 2. The real and primary subjects of rage are the guardian angels of hell, and that is what is meant by this ascription. 3. It is an exaggeration to express the intensity of their punishment. 4. God may endow the hellfire with understanding and anger and give it life if He wills. 5. It has also been argued that there is no problem with ascribing rage to hell because the verse says almost (takādu) exploding with rage. Hence, it does not establish the act of exploding with rage for the fire. Ālūsī has mentioned and rejected this view, because the verse nevertheless establishes the possibility and the appropriateness of such an ascription. If something does not even have the capacity and potential to show rage, it would be inappropriate to say almost exploding with rage. None of these five views does justice to the word of God. The explanation and justification of this ascription was mentioned earlier under Exposition.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
[1] Tahqiq, under sh-h-q.
[2] Some have defined them exactly oppositely; see Lisan, under z-f-r.
[3] Tibyan, 10/62.
[4] Raghib, under f-w-r.
[5] Raghib; Tahqiq, under m-y-z.
[6] Raghib; Tahqiq, under gh-y-ẓ.
[7] Qaraati, 10/151.
[8] Zamakhshari, 4/578; Razi, 30/586.
[9] See Ḥusaynī Tehrānī, Ufuq-e Waḥy, p. 47ff.
[10] The same is true about many narrations and supplications, for example, Imam al-Sajjād (a) addresses and talks to the moon in Sahifah, supplication 43.
[11] Bihar, 7/336.
[12] Qummi, 2/389.
[13] Rūmī, Mathnawī, vol. 2, lines 2378-2379 and 2381.
[14] Nahj, sermon 108.
[15] Jawādī Āmulī, Tasnīm, 14/703.
[16] Razi, 30/587.
[17] Razi, 30/587.
[18] Razi, 30/587.
[19] Razi, 30/587; Alusi, 15/12.
[20] Alusi, 15/12.
[21] Matthew 13:50.