Al-Jaathiya (Crouching)

7. Woe to every sinful liar.

8. Who hears the Verses of Allah being recited to him, yet persists arrogantly as if he heard them not. So announce to him a painful torment!

The present participle affak derived from ifk denotes “one who tells many lies.” Athim derived from ithm signifies “one who is very sinful.” Wayla, recurring in the Qur’an 27 times is used in the sense of “woe to,” this word too refers to intellectual traitors who author false claims and attribute them to God; (“Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say, ‘This is from Allah,’”)1 .

It also denotes those who do wrong in their business transactions, like

“Those who give less in measure and weight”2 .

The word Wayla refers to ideological deviants, such as disbelievers¹ and polytheists² and also to slanderers and backbiters³ .

Divine Chastisement is consistent with the offenses committed. One who hears the words of the Prophet (S) but ignores them and as such offends him will be chastised by a severe torment and that of one who slanders others mockingly will be punished by a humiliating torment.

According to some exegetes wayla used in the sense of ‘woe’ connotes warning to very sinful liars. Some have also said that it is the name of a well in the lowest level of the hell and the dwelling place of disbelievers and the damned in the sight of Allah.

It is also said that the antecedent of the pronoun of yasma’u “hears” is Nadhr ibn Harith; “Who hears the Verses of Allah recited to him, yet persists with arrogance as if he heard them not. So announce to him a painful torment!”6

Whoever might be the antecedent of the pronoun, the Verse refers to anyone ignoring the Qur’anic Verses as Divine Revelation for whom severe punishment is in store.

It is worthy of note that the word bishara is used in the sense of good tiding; however, it had hoc signifies Divine Retribution that is in store for disbelievers, as if the good tiding for contesters is the warning of torment.