'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' Allah, the Exalted, says: "Take him, then shackle him. Then into Hellfire drive him. Then in a chain whose length is seventy cubits, bind him. Indeed, he did not believe in Allah, the Most Great. And he did not encourage the feeding of the needy. So today he will have no friend here. And no food except from the filth. None will eat it except the sinners. So I swear by what you see and what you do not see. Indeed, it is the saying of a noble Messenger." The meaning is that Allah, the Exalted, or the King by His command, says to the keepers of Hell: "Take him, then shackle him," meaning: put a shackle around his neck. Ibn Jarir said: This was revealed about Abu Jahl. And "its length" means: the measure of its length. Allah, the Exalted, has made the seven hundred and seventy and the seven, endpoints for great matters. This is the way of the Arabs and others to make them endpoints. This chain is one of the things in which Allah, the Exalted, has made seventy an endpoint. Al-Suddi read: "Its length is seventy" with a 'yā', and this is based on omitting the news of the subject. People have differed regarding the measure of this cubit. Ibn Abbas, Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, and Ibn Jurayj said: It is by the king's cubit. Nuf al-Bakali and others said: In the cubit, there are seventy arms in every arm, as between Kufa and Mecca. This requires a chain of narration. Some skilled interpreters said: It is by the known cubit from us, and we have been addressed by what we know and can measure. Al-Hasan said: Allah knows by which cubit it is. Suwayd ibn Najih - in the book of Al-Thalabi - reported: I have been informed that all the people of Hell are in that chain. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: If a ring from it were placed on a mountain, it would melt like lead. And His saying: "Then bind him" means: then enter him. From this is the saying of Abu Jaza al-Sa'di describing wild donkeys: Until they entered the shank of them in musk from the offspring of the wanderers of the horizons. And it has been narrated that this chain enters the mouth of the disbeliever and exits from his rear; it is indeed in the reality that it enters him. However, the speech is in the manner of their saying: I put the cap on my head, and my mouth in the stone. It has also been narrated that this chain wraps around the disbeliever until it suffocates him and compresses him. The speech - on this - is in its apparent form, and it is the one that is entered. And His saying: "And he did not encourage the feeding of the needy" means: he did not encourage the feeding of the food of the needy. The addition of the food to the needy is with respect to him having a relation to it. This quality is specifically mentioned about the disbeliever because it is one of the most harmful qualities among people. When it becomes prevalent among a people, their needy perish.

And the interpreters have differed regarding His saying, the Most High: "Hameem." A majority of the commentators said: It is the gentle, affectionate friend. So Allah, the Most High, negated that there would be for the disbeliever there any ally, and He negated that he would have food except from Ghislin. And Muhammad ibn al-Mustaneer said: Hameem is hot water. It is as if He, the Most High, informed that the disbeliever has no water or any liquid or food except from Ghislin. And it is - according to what the linguists said - what flows from wounds when they are washed. Ibn Abbas said: It is the pus of the people of the Fire. And Qatadah and Ibn Zayd said: Ghislin and Zaqqum are the foulest and most repugnant of things. And al-Dahhak and al-Rabi' said it is a tree that the people of the Fire eat. And some of the commentators said: It is something that flows from Dhari' because Allah, the Most High, has informed that they have no food except from Dhari', and in another [verse] except from Ghislin. So they are one thing or two intertwined. And it is possible that the report here is about one group and there about another group, and Ghislin and Dhari' are distinct according to what is understood in the Arabic language. And the report of "not" in "for him," and al-Mahdawi said: And it is not correct that it is "here."

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And that may be correct, if Allah, the Most High, wills.

(p-396) And "the one who errs": is the one who does the opposite of what is correct intentionally for that, and "the one who makes a mistake": is the one who does it unintentionally. Al-Hasan and al-Zuhri read: "the erring ones" with a ya without hamzah. And Talhah, Abu Ja'far, Shaybah, and Nafi' - with a difference from him - read: "the errers" with a dammah on the ta without hamzah.

His saying, the Most High: "So I do not swear," some grammarians said "no" is extra, and the meaning is: So he swore. Others among them said: "no" negates what has preceded from the sayings of the disbelievers, and the beginning is "I swear." And al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan read: "So I will swear" because the lam of the oath with it is the alif of "I swear."

And His saying, the Most High: "By what you see" and "what you do not see," Qatadah ibn Di'ama said: Allah, the Most High, intended to generalize the oath to all His creatures. Others said: He intended the bodies and the souls.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And this is a good general statement. And he said: A good general statement.

And Ibn 'Ata said: What you see of the signs of power and what you do not see of the signs of power. And some people said: By His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "and what you do not see," He intended the angels.

And "the noble messenger" is Jibril, peace be upon him, according to the interpretation of a group of scholars, and Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, according to the saying of others. And the saying was attributed to him because he is the one who recited it and conveyed it.