قَالَ ٱدْخُلُوا۟ فِىٓ أُمَمٍ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِكُم مِّنَ ٱلْجِنِّ وَٱلْإِنسِ فِى ٱلنَّارِ كُلَّمَا دَخَلَتْ أُمَّةٌ لَّعَنَتْ أُخْتَهَا حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا ٱدَّارَكُوا۟ فِيهَا جَمِيعًا قَالَتْ أُخْرَىٰهُمْ لِأُولَىٰهُمْ رَبَّنَا هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ أَضَلُّونَا فَـَٔاتِهِمْ عَذَابًا ضِعْفًا مِّنَ ٱلنَّارِ قَالَ لِكُلٍّ ضِعْفٌ وَلَٰكِن لَّا تَعْلَمُونَ · وَقَالَتْ أُولَىٰهُمْ لِأُخْرَىٰهُمْ فَمَا كَانَ لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا مِن فَضْلٍ فَذُوقُوا۟ ٱلْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْسِبُونَ
Qāla'dkhulū fī umamin qad khalat min qablikum mina'l-jinni wa'l-insi fi'n-nār, kullamā dakhalat ummatun laʿanat ukhtahā, ḥattā idha'ddārakū fīhā jamīʿan qālat ukhrāhum li-ūlāhum rabbanā hāʾulāʾi aḍallūnā fa-ātihim ʿadhāban ḍiʿfan mina'n-nār, qāla li-kullin ḍiʿfun wa lākin lā taʿlamūn · Wa qālat ūlāhum li-ukhrāhum fa-mā kāna lakum ʿalaynā min faḍlin fa-dhūqu'l-ʿadhāba bimā kuntum taksibūn
"He says: 'Enter the Fire among communities of jinn and men that have passed away before you.' Every time a community enters, it curses its fellow. Then, when they have all caught up with one another there, the last of them will say of the first: 'Our Lord! These led us astray; give them a double punishment of the Fire.' He says: 'For each there is double, but you do not know.' · And the first of them will say to the last: 'You have no advantage over us; taste then the punishment for what you earned.'"
A point of word order must be recorded: the verse does not say "it curses the one before it", it says "ukhtahā" — "its sister".
In Arabic a thing's like, one of the same kind, is called its ukht (hādhihi ukhtu hādhih — "this is the like of this"). The word states not kinship but likeness.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of the word: the side cursed is the like of the side that curses. And the thirty-ninth verse will say this outright: fa-mā kāna lakum ʿalaynā min faḍl — "you have no advantage over us."
The sense of the root: to catch up, to reach, to overtake. Iddāraku is originally tadāraku (Form VI); the tāʾ has been assimilated into the dāl. Form VI states reciprocity: "they caught up with one another".
And the same root was treated at 27/66 in al-Naml (bali'ddāraka ʿilmuhum fi'l-ākhira); I rely on that treatment.
| Who | To whom | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| The last (ukhrāhum) | Of the first (ūlāhum) | Hāʾulāʾi aḍallūnā — these led us astray; give them double punishment |
| God | — | Li-kullin ḍiʿfun — for each there is double |
| The first (ūlāhum) | To the last (ukhrāhum) | Fa-mā kāna lakum ʿalaynā min faḍl — you have no advantage |
And the form of the answer must be recorded: the request was "give them double"; the answer becomes "for everyone there is double".
Wa lākin lā taʿlamūn — "but you do not know." That is, the one who makes the request does not know that what he asks for takes him in as well.
I record this as an observation: in the scene a transfer of responsibility is attempted and refused. And the same attempt will be repeated in the hundred and seventy-third verse of the sūra: innamā ashraka ābāʾunā min qablu wa kunnā dhurriyyatan min baʿdihim, a-fa-tuhlikunā bimā faʿala'l-mubṭilūn. The two scenes do the same work: laying the load on the past.
| Verse | Who | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| 7/38 | Those who came later | Hāʾulāʾi aḍallūnā |
| 7/173 | Those who came later | Innamā ashraka ābāʾunā min qablu |
The root ض-ع-ف carries both the sense "weakness" and the sense "fold, multiple". Ḍiʿf means "as much again of a thing"; it is understood as "double" or as "many times over".
The lexicographers have disagreed over the exactness of the quantity; I build no claim about a number. What I record is that the answer corrects not the quantity but the distribution: li-kullin — "for each".