لَا يَذُوقُونَ فِيهَا ٱلْمَوْتَ إِلَّا ٱلْمَوْتَةَ ٱلْأُولَىٰ ۖ وَوَقَىٰهُمْ عَذَابَ ٱلْجَحِيمِ
"There they do not taste death, save the first death. And He has guarded them from the punishment of the blaze."
It was recorded above (at verse 49): dhuq (a command) and lā yadhūqūn (a denial) are from the same root.
| Verse | Verb | Object (stated or implied) |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | dhuq | The punishment — the object is not stated, it comes from the context |
| 56 | lā yadhūqūna | Death — the object is stated explicitly |
And the use of the verb "to taste" of death is settled in the Qurʾān: kullu nafsin dhāʾiqatu'l-mawt — "every soul shall taste death" (Āl ʿImrān 3/185; al-Anbiyāʾ 21/35; al-ʿAnkabūt 29/57).
The finding recorded in al-Nabaʾ works here too: "tasting requires taking in." Death, that is, is named not as an event coming from outside but as a thing taken in.
This exception is one of the places on which the lexicographers dwell most. The reason is plain: with the note fīhā (there) in place, how can a death "they do not taste there" be excepted?
| Reading | What it says | Ground | Objection |
|---|---|---|---|
| A disjunctive exception (istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ) | Illā here has the sense of "but, however": "There they do not taste death; but they had tasted the first death [in this world]" | It is common in Arabic for illā to come in the sense of lākin, and the thing excepted may be outside the set | — |
| Reinforcement of the negation (taʾkīdu'n-nafy) | The exception is there to strengthen the negation: "they never taste death at all" | In Arabic the excepting of something impossible makes the negation absolute | Whether this usage fits the present example is debated |
| A connected exception, reading fīhā broadly | Fīhā covers not only the Garden but the whole process; then the first death is inside the set | It preserves the flow of the sentence | The pronoun fīhā refers to the nearest referent (the Garden); to widen it is forced |
| Illā = baʿda / siwā | "After / other than the first death" | Some lexicographers transmit this equivalent | This sense of the particle is not widespread |
The first reading (disjunctive) is the most widespread in the classical commentaries. I give this as a record of what is widespread, not as a preference.
And a datum must be added to this debate, because the Qurʾān uses the same phrase in another place, from the mouths of the people of the Garden:
"Are we not to die again — save our first death — and are we not to be punished?" (al-Ṣāffāt 37/58-59 — illā mawtatana'l-ūlā)
| al-Ṣāffāt 37/58-59 | al-Dukhān 44/56 | |
|---|---|---|
| Who speaks | The people of the Garden — in the form of a question | The text — in the form of a statement |
| The expression | illā mawtatana'l-ūlā | illā al-mawtata'l-ūlā |
| Definiteness | By a genitive — "our first death" | By the definite article — "that first death" |
I give this as a record of wording: the expression is not a construction peculiar to al-Dukhān, and the occurrence in al-Ṣāffāt may be counted an instance supporting the disjunctive reading — there too those who ask are excepting the death they tasted in this world.
It was recorded above (at verse 35) and is completed here. It is the most striking repetition in the sūra:
| Verse | Expression | Who | What it says |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | in hiya illā mawtatuna'l-ūlā | Those who deny | "There is one death; nothing after" |
| 56 | lā yadhūqūna fīha'l-mawta illā al-mawtata'l-ūlā | The text | "They tasted one death; nothing after" |
The shared part of the two sentences is identical letter for letter: مَوْتَة + ٱلْأُولَىٰ, and both have the exceptive particle illā.
This is a verifiable datum of the text. What is interpretation is this, and I give it as my own reading:
They had said: "There is only one death, that is all." And the fifty-sixth verse says the same thing — but adds one qualification: fīhā.
| The denier's sentence (35) | The text's sentence (56) | |
|---|---|---|
| How many deaths | One | One |
| What comes after | Nothing at all | There is something — and there is no death there |
| The qualification | None | fīhā — "there" |
The difference, that is, is not in the number of deaths but in whether there is anything after death. The denier counted the number rightly, but stopped counting too soon.
And the technique recorded in Qāf works here too: "The sūra takes the word the objector chooses and spreads it over the whole text. And each time it turns its direction."
The whole block had been told in the imperfect (the present/future): yalbasūna (53), yadʿūna (55), lā yadhūqūna (56).
Its explanation is this — I give it as my own reading: the states in the Garden continue (imperfect), but the guarding is a completed work (perfect). If a man is there, the guarding has already happened; it is no longer a process.
And this closes the chain established with the fifty-first verse: muttaqīn (those who guarded themselves) → waqāhum (God guarded them). Both verbs are from the same root; the one is their work, the other His.
ٱلْجَحِيم — the second and last occurrence in the sūra. In the forty-seventh verse it was the place into which a man was dragged; here it is the thing guarded against.