Allah says to His Messenger Muhammad : "Say to the people, `What I have
brought to you from your Lord is the truth, in which there is no confusion or
doubt.'''
[فَمَن شَآءَ
فَلْيُؤْمِن وَمَن شَآءَ فَلْيَكْفُرْ]
(Then whosoever wills, let him believe; and whosoever wills, let him
disbelieve.) This is a type of threat and stern warning, after which Allah says,
[إِنَّآ
أَعْتَدْنَا]
(Verily, We have prepared), meaning made ready,
[لِّلظَّـلِمِينَ]
(for the wrongdoers,) meaning those who disbelieve in Allah, His Messenger
and His Book,
[نَارًا أَحَاطَ
بِهِمْ سُرَادِقُهَا]
(a Fire whose walls will be surrounding them.) Ibn Jurayj said that Ibn
`Abbas said,
[أَحَاطَ بِهِمْ
سُرَادِقُهَا]
(a Fire whose walls will be surrounding them.) "A wall of fire.''
[وَإِن
يَسْتَغِيثُواْ يُغَاثُواْ بِمَآءٍ كَالْمُهْلِ يَشْوِى الْوجُوهَ]
(And if they ask for drink, they will be granted water like Al-Muhl, that
will scald their faces.) Ibn `Abbas said; "Al-Muhl is thick water which is
similar to the sediment in oil.'' Mujahid said, "It is like blood and pus.''
`Ikrimah said, "It is the thing that is heated to the ultimate temperature.''
Others said: "It is everything that is melted.'' Qatadah said, "Ibn Mas`ud
melted some gold in a grove, and when it became liquid and foam rose to the top,
he said, this is the thing that is most like Al-Muhl.'' Ad-Dahhak said: "The
water of Hell is black, and it itself is black and its people are black.'' There
is nothing contradictory in these comments, for Al-Muhl includes all of these
unpleasant characteristics, it is black, evil-smelling, thick and hot, as Allah
said,
[يَشْوِى
الْوجُوهَ]
([it] will scald their faces.) meaning because of its heat. When the
disbeliever wants to drink it and brings it close to his face, it will scald it
so that the skin of his face falls off into it. Sa`id bin Jubayr said, "When the
people of Hell get hungry, they will ask for relief from it, and they will be
given the tree of Zaqqum from which they will eat. The tree will tear off the
skin of their faces, and if anyone who knew them were to pass by, he would
recognize the skin of their faces in the tree. Then they will feel thirsty, so
they will ask for drink, and they will be granted water like Al-Muhl, that is
what has been heated to the ultimate temperature. When it is brought near their
mouths, the flesh of their faces from which the skin has been torn off will be
baked.'' After describing this drink in these horrifying qualities, Allah says:
[بِئْسَ
الشَّرَابُ]
(Terrible is the drink,) meaning, how awful this drink is. Similarly, He says
in another Ayah:
[وَسُقُواْ مَآءً
حَمِيماً فَقَطَّعَ أَمْعَآءَهُمْ]
(and be given to drink boiling water so that it cuts up their bowels.)
[47:15]
[تُسْقَى مِنْ عَيْنٍ
ءَانِيَةٍ ]
(They will be given to drink from a boiling spring.) [88:5]
[وَبَيْنَ حَمِيمٍ
ءَانٍ]
(They will go between it (Hell) and the fierce boiling water.) [55:44]
[وَسَآءَتْ
مُرْتَفَقًا]
(and an evil Murtafaq!) means, how evil a place is the Fire to dwell and rest
and gather. As Allah says elsewhere:
[إِنَّهَا سَآءَتْ
مُسْتَقَرّاً وَمُقَاماً ]
(Evil indeed it (Hell) is as an abode and as a place to rest in.) [25:66]
[إِنَّ الَّذِينَ
ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ الصَّـلِحَاتِ إِنَّا لاَ نُضِيعُ أَجْرَ مَنْ أَحْسَنَ
عَمَلاً - أُوْلَـئِكَ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتُ عَدْنٍ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهِمُ الأَنْهَـرُ
يُحَلَّوْنَ فِيهَا مِنْ أَسَاوِرَ مِن ذَهَبٍ وَيَلْبَسُونَ ثِيَابًا خُضْرًا مِّن
سُنْدُسٍ وَإِسْتَبْرَقٍ مُّتَّكِئِينَ فِيهَا عَلَى الاٌّرَآئِكِ نِعْمَ
الثَّوَابُ وَحَسُنَتْ مُرْتَفَقاً ]
(30. Verily, as for those who believed and did righteous deeds, certainly We
shall not make the reward of anyone to be lost who does his (righteous) deeds in
the most perfect manner.) (31. These! For them will be Jannatu `Adn; wherein
rivers flow beneath them; therein they will be adorned with bracelets of gold,
and they will wear green garments of Sundus and Istabraq. They will be
Muttaki'in therein on Ara'ik. How good is the reward, and what an excellent
Murtafaq!)