The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Humazah – Verse 7

الَّتي تَطَّلِعُ عَلَى الأَفئِدَةِ

Which will overspread the hearts.

EXEGESIS

Taṭṭaliʿu is a present tense verb and its literal meaning depends on the proposition that comes after it, but it usually means looking at something, or looking forward to something. It could also mean remembering past memories, or missing the days of childhood.‎[1] Its trilateral verb is ṭalaʿa, which also has several meanings depending on the preposition after it. Ṭalaʿa ʿalā, means looked at, raised over, went above on the top, attacked someone, appeared over someone, or came out in front of someone. It is also used for the rising of the sun.

Regarding taṭṭaliʿu in this verse, it may mean it penetrates the hearts,‎[2] overspreading on the hearts, or rising above the hearts,‎[3] i.e. it has the capacity to look at the hearts of the arrogant, leaving some hearts and attacking the hearts of the evildoers – those hearts that held grudges, hatred, and ill feelings, the hearts that were preoccupied with the love of collecting unlawful wealth and hoarding it.

Afʾidah is the plural of fuʾād, which literally has two main meanings: the heart (i.e. the locus of emotions and feelings), and the intellect.‎[4] It has been used in the Quran sixteen times in various forms, mostly indicating the inclinations of the heart and its feelings. However, it has also been used to denote intellect and the intellectual choices or judgments of a person (6:110, 16:78, 17:36, 23:78, 32:9, 46:26, 53:11, 67:23).

EXPOSITION

Ḥuṭamah is a fire that looks at the hearts of the inhabitants of hell, distinguishing the ones with grudges and an obsessive love of wealth. It leaves other wrongdoers for other types of punishments and requital. 

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. The Prophet said: ‘Verily, the fire eats the [flesh] of the people until it rises over their hearts – it comes over it and covers it – then it stops, and once they are recreated, it continues [to burn them] again. And that is the word of God, the exalted, which will overspread the hearts.’‎[5]
  2. Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) said: ‘Verily, this fire of your world is one part of seventy parts of the fire of the hellfire.’‎[6]

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

  1. For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.‎[7]
  2. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast itfrom thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.‎[8]
  3. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.‎[9]
  4. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.‎[10] 
[1] https://www.almaany.com/quran/104/7/2/.
[2] https://corpus.quran.com/wordmorphology.jsp?location=(104:7:2).
[3] Imani, An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur’an, https://www.al-islam.org/enlightening-commentary-light-holy-quran-vol-2.
[4] https://www.almaany.com/quran/104/7/4/.
[5] Zuḥaylī, al-Tafsīr al-Munīr fī al-ʿAqīdah wa al-Sharīʿah, wa al-Manhaj (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1997), 30/403.
[6] Bihar, 8/237, h. 21.
[7] Malachi 4:1.
[8] Matthew 5:29-30.
[9] Matthew 10:28.
[10] Revelation 20:10.