إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ أَنتُمْ لَهَا وَٰرِدُونَ · لَوْ كَانَ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ ءَالِهَةً مَّا وَرَدُوهَا وَكُلٌّ فِيهَا خَٰلِدُونَ · لَهُمْ فِيهَا زَفِيرٌ وَهُمْ فِيهَا لَا يَسْمَعُونَ
Innakum wa mā taʿbudūna min dūni'llāhi ḥaṣabu jahannam, antum lahā wāridūn · Law kāna hāʾulāʾi ālihatan mā waradūhā, wa kullun fīhā khālidūn · Lahum fīhā zafīrun wa hum fīhā lā yasmaʿūn
"You and what you worship besides God are the fuel of Hell; you will go down to it. · Had these been gods, they would not have gone down to it. And all of them will abide in it. · There they will have a deep groaning, and there they will hear nothing."
Ḥaṣab — root ح-ص-ب. The sense the lexicographers give: what is thrown into a fire — pebbles, wood, an object cast in. Ḥaṣaba — he threw pebbles; ḥaṣbāʾ — small stones.
And the same root was treated in the form ḥāṣib at al-Qamar on 54/34, at al-Mulk on 67/17 and at al-ʿAnkabūt on 29/40: a violent wind that rains down stones. I rely on those treatments.
And the work of the word here must be recorded: the things worshipped are named as fuel — that is, as what feeds a fire, what is thrown into it. The word gives the end of objects once exalted in the language of raw material.
The particle in the verse is mā — not men. And in Arabic mā is used of those without intellect; men is for those possessed of intellect.
This determines the scope of the verse, and it is mentioned in the classical commentaries as an answer to this objection: "In the past there were also beings possessed of intellect who were worshipped — do they too fall under this ruling?" The answer is one of language: the particle mā does not cover them.
I transmit this as a datum of language and add this: the ruling of the verse is directed at the objects worshipped and at those who worship. I record this per the method (Method): what is named here is not a community but an act and its object.
| Verse | The condition | The answer | The axis of the proof |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | law kāna fīhimā ālihatun illa'llāh | la-fasadatā | Order — the breaking down of order |
| 99 | law kāna hāʾulāʾi ālihatan | mā waradūhā | Outcome — their not entering the fire |
The same particle, the same subject, two different proofs. I record this as my own reading, its ground being the shared pattern of the two verses: the sūra tests the claim of godhood from two ends — at the beginning from order, at the end from outcome.
Zafīr — root ز-ف-ر: a rasping breath drawn from deep within, the sound made as the chest expands and contracts.
The word was treated at al-Furqān on 25/12 (samiʿū lahā taghayyuẓan wa zafīrā), and it was recorded there: "both words have to do with sound, and both are sounds belonging to a living thing." I rely on that treatment.
| al-Furqān 25/12 | al-Anbiyāʾ 21/100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who makes the sound | The fire — samiʿū lahā … zafīrā | Those who enter — lahum fīhā zafīr |
| Who hears | Those who enter hear it | lā yasmaʿūn — they do not hear |
The same word, in two sūras, with the parties that make the sound and that hear it exchanged. I record this as an observation about wording.
| View | Sense |
|---|---|
| 1 | They hear nothing at all — they are made deaf |
| 2 | They hear nothing that would gladden them |
| 3 | They do not hear one another — because of the din |
And I record a link within the sūra: in the forty-fifth verse it said wa lā yasmaʿu'ṣ-ṣummu'd-duʿāʾa idhā mā yundharūn — "the deaf do not hear the call when they are warned." The same verb (س-م-ع), the same negation. The sūra matches the sentence about those who do not hear in this world with the sentence about those who do not hear in the hereafter. I record this as my own reading, its ground being the verb the two verses share.