Ibrāhīm

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَي الَّذِينَ بَدَّلُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ كُفْراً وَأَحَلُّوا قَوْمَهُمْ دَارَ الْبَوَارِ

جَهَنَّمَ يَصْلَوْنَهَا وَبِئْسَ الْقَرَارُ

28. “Have you not seen those who changed Allah’s favour for ingratitude, and caused their people to alight into the abode of perdition?”
29. “Hell! They shall enter into it; and (what) a bad place it is!”

It is the Prophet (S) who is being addressed in this verse and, in fact, it is a depiction of one of the aspects of ‘evil tree’ pointed out here. At first, the Qur’an implies whether you did not see those who converted Allah’s blessings and gratitude into ingratitude and sent themselves ultimately to the land of annihilation. Such people are the roots of the ‘evil tree’ and are the pioneers of paganism and deviation. The verse says:

“Have you not seen those who changed Allah’s favour for ingratitude, and caused their people to alight into the abode of perdition?”

Commentators have sometimes commented this blessing as the existence of the Prophet (S) and, at other times, they have considered it to be Ahl-ul-Bayt (as) and the ungrateful ones of this blessing to Umayyads, or to Bani Muqayrah and, at times, they have introduced all the unbelievers who were contemporaries of the Prophet (S). Yet, definitely, the meaning of the verse is extensive and covers a wide range, thus one cannot confine it to a certain group. It embraces all of those who have been ungrateful with respect to one of the blessings of Allah and have misused it.

The pagans and the unbelievers converted the great blessings of Allah into a matter of ingratitude. A- They took the option of paganism instead of the blessing of monotheism. B- They abandoned the blessing of the clean and pure inherent nature and imitated their seduced ancestors. C- They preferred superstitions to the Divine revelation. D- They expressed their lack of gratitude in face of the blessing of the Divine leaders and followed the despots.

Many quotations indicate that the Imams (as) of Shi‘ites have remarked:

“By Allah, we are the blessing of Allah that He bestowed upon His servants.” ¹

In other words, it means: Swearing to Allah: the blessings which were converted were our existence. The folks abandoned us and went in search of other leaders. Thus, they changed the blessing of Allah. The Qur’an, later, comments on the Qur’anic phrase: /d ar-ul-baw ar/ (a bad place) as: It is Hell in the flames of which they will immerse, and it is the worst of all places for someone to settle, for its ultimate end is annihilation. In other word, they invite their people to oppose against the Prophet (S), throwing them into the Hell Fire, and what an evil abode is Hell.

The verse says:

“Hell! They shall enter into it; and (what) a bad place it is!”

Footnotes

1. 1. Majma‘-ul-Bayan