Al-Ma'aarij - An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur'an

Table of Contents

15. By no means! It shall be flames of fire.

16. Taking away hands, feet, and head skin!

17. Calling those who turned their backs to Divine Command

18. And those who amassed wealth and concealed it.

Addressing all such desires, the blessed Verse 15 says:

“By no means! No ransom shall be accepted. There shall be burning flames of fire constantly ablaze consuming whatever lies beside it. The blessed Verse 16 says that the flames take away hands, fee, and skin head. The Arabic word latha implies “flame” and it is also one of the names of Hell, both senses are possible in the blessed Verses in question. The Arabic word naza‘a is applied to something which is consecutive. Shawa is used in the sense of “hands and feet and the sides of the body,” though it also connotes broiling; the former sense is herein intended, since when burning flames touch something, they first burn its sides and extremities and take them away.

Some Qur’an exegetes maintain that the word is here in used in the sense of skin (of the body), though some others hold that it is applied to head skin and calf (foot). All these senses are applicable to the context, taking into account the aforesaid broad semantic domain. It would be surmising to note that despite all these afflictions, the victims shall not die.

The blessed Verse 17 makes a reference to those who fall prey to such fire, saying that theses burning flames call unto themselves those who turned away from Divine Commands and disobeyed him.

The blessed Verse 18 says that they amassed wealth and concealed it without expending it in Allah’s Cause. Thus, the burning fire constantly calls unto itself the sinners by the God given verbal or non-verbal language.

The victims shall be those who turned away from faith disobeying God Almighty and His Messenger (S) on the one hand, and were preoccupied with amassing lawful and unlawful wealth and concealing it without according attention to the rights of the needy or even comprehending the reason behind the bestowal of Divine Bounties upon them.