فَلَيسَ لَهُ اليَومَ هاهُنا حَميمٌ

So he has no friend here today.

EXEGESIS

The verb ḥamma means to heat something. Ḥamīm (friend) is therefore a ‘warm’ friend, a very close comrade that one can rely on for help at the most difficult of times, and one who, when he cannot help at all, would empathise with and grieve for his friend.^{‎[1]Raghib, ḥ-m-m.} Or as al-Thaʿlabī puts it, someone whose heart would ‘boil’ or ‘heat up’ for you.^{‎[2]Thalabi, 10/32.}

Ḥamīm is also used with its literal meaning as hot water,^{‎[3]Hans Wehr, ḥ-m-m.} and the term is used in the Quran repeatedly with both meanings, friend and sympathiser (40:18, 70:10), as well as hot scalding water that the inmates of hell will be forced to drink (6:70, 22:19, 37:67, 38:57, 47:15, 56:42, 78:25). See also the Exegesis of 88:4 for the meaning of ḥāmiyah (scorching).

EXPOSITION

Nasr points out that though all human beings stand together on the same plain for the reckoning (18:47, 20:106, 79:14), the experience of the reckoning is a solitary one (19:80). Everyone will be too consumed with his or her own state to ask about that of another (70:10, 80:34-37) [Though] they will be placed within each other’s sight (70:11). This will, however, be all the more severe for the disbelievers who will have no one upon whom they can rely, since the folly of everything upon which they had relied is now exposed and all recourse will be cut off from them (2:166).^{‎[4]Nasr, 69:35.}

With no friend here today, the guilty will disown one another (2:166-167), blaming and cursing each other (34:31-33, 41:29, 50:27-28). Having no sympathiser (ḥamīm) or interceder (40:18), they will wish they could ransom their family and those that had cared for them in the world so they might, perchance, escape the punishment (70:10-14).

To this we may add, for the mystics and those who sought enlightenment and the purification of their soul whilst in this world, the journey was already a solitary one even whilst in this world, despite being surrounded by relatives, friends, and others. This is because, for one who was such, his or her greatest preoccupation was the struggle to surrender one’s self-will to God and dissolve the illusory egoic self. That was their primary concern. The relationship with God was what mattered the most. Therefore, their experience on the Day of Reckoning is not a solitary one. Not only will they find a friend in God and His angels but they are with those whom Allah has blessed, including the prophets and the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous, and excellent companions are they! (4:69), and they shall be admitted into paradise with their loved ones, from their forefathers, their spouses, and their descendants (13:23, 40:8, 52:21).

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. Imam Ali (a) has said: ‘And the trumpet will be blown, then every living being will die, every voice will mute, high mountains and hard rocks will crumble so that their hardiness will turn into shifting sand until their bases are levelled. [On that day], there will no [unauthorised] intercessor to intercede and no close friend (ḥamīm) to benefit from, and no excuse will be of avail.’^{‎[5]Nahj, sermon 195.}

[1] Raghib, ḥ-m-m.
[2] Thalabi, 10/32.
[3] Hans Wehr, ḥ-m-m.
[4] Nasr, 69:35.
[5] Nahj, sermon 195.