النّارِ ذاتِ الوَقودِ

The fire, abounding in fuel.

EXEGESIS

Waqūd (fuel) denotes any combustible material that sustains fire, derived from the verb waqada (to ignite or burn). However, it can also signify the fire itself or an intense blaze.^{‎[1]Tibyan, 10/317.}

The word nār (fire) has taken kasrah here because of its relationship to the word ukhdūd (ditch) in the previous verse in what is grammatically termed as badal al-ishtimāl (inclusion apposition).^{‎[2]Zamakhshari, 4/731; Qurtubi, 19/287.} Unlike regular badal (where the two terms refer to the same thing, such as ‘Zayd the scholar’), badal al-ishtimāl shows a part-whole or container-contained relationship. The implied meaning is, ‘the ditch with its fire’. So it is continuing to describe the Men of the Ditch of the previous verse, as if to further explain ‘which ditch?’, the answer being ‘the ditch of fire filled with fuel’.

EXPOSITION

The fire is described as abounding in fuel to emphasise its terrifying reality and scale. It specifies an actual, sustained blaze requiring constant fuel. The intensive construction dhāt al-waqūd (possessor of abundant fuel) serves two purposes: 1. It highlights the persecutors’ deliberate cruelty in maintaining such genocidal fires. 2. It foreshadows the Quran’s later depictions of hellfire in verse 10 fuelled by sinners’ actions (2:24). This phrasing transforms the ditch from mere historical account to timeless warning – the tools of oppression (fire/fuel) becoming emblems of divine justice against tyrants. The translation abounding in fuel best captures this layered meaning of systematic, overflowing destruction. Alternatively, it can be hinting at the type of fuel the fire had, namely that it was fuelled by burning corpses.^{‎[3]Tibyan, 10/317.}

[1] Tibyan, 10/317.
[2] Zamakhshari, 4/731; Qurtubi, 19/287.
[3] Tibyan, 10/317.