Commentary
(p-290) His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿Is that better as a hospitality or the tree of Zaqqum?﴾ ﴿Indeed, We have made it a trial for the wrongdoers.﴾ ﴿Indeed, it is a tree that emerges from the bottom of Hellfire.﴾ ﴿Its fruits are like the heads of devils.﴾ ﴿So indeed, they will eat from it and fill their bellies with it.﴾ ﴿Then indeed, for them is a mixture of scalding water upon it.﴾ ﴿Then indeed, their return will be to the Hellfire.﴾ ﴿Indeed, they found their forefathers astray.﴾ ﴿So they will hasten in their footsteps.﴾ The 'alif' in His saying, exalted and majestic is He: ﴿
'And 'al-shawb' means mixing and blending, as said by Ibn Abbas and Qatadah. Shayban the grammarian read it with a dammah on the sheen. Al-Zajjaj said: The opening of the sheen is the source, and its being closed is the name. 'Al-hameem' is very hot water and similar, and here it refers to their drink, which is the mud of misguidance, their pus, and what flows from them. This is the saying of a group of the commentators.
And His saying, exalted is He: 'Then indeed their return' is possible that they will have a transition of bodies at the time of eating and drinking, then they will return to the majority of Hellfire. This was mentioned by al-Rummani, and it is likened to His saying, exalted is He: 'They will circulate between it and between a boiling hot drink' [Ar-Rahman: 44]. It is also possible that the return is only from the state of that torturous eating to the state of burning without eating, and in every possibility, it is said. In the Mushaf of Ibn Mas'ud: '[And that their return is to Hellfire]', and in the book of Abu Hatim from him: 'Their resting place', from the resting.
And His saying, exalted is He: 'Indeed, they found' until the end of the verse is a parable for Quraysh. 'They rush', Qatadah, al-Suddi, and Ibn Zayd said: Its meaning is: they hurry as if they are driven with urgency. This is their earning of disbelief and their eagerness for it. Al-ihra'a is intense movement, said Mujahid, like the state of rushing in it resembling thunder, and it is also like the movement of the frightened.
Explore Other Scholars on This Verse
Compare different scholarly perspectives on Surah As-Saffat verse 64