Ibrāhīm

وَتَرَي الْمُـجْرِمِينَ يَوْمَئِذٍ مُقَرَّنِينَ فِي الأَصْفَادِ

سَرَابِيلُهُم مِن قَطِرَانٍ وَتَغْشَي وُجُوهَهُمُ النَّارُ

49. “And you will see the guilty on that day bound together in chains.”
50. “Their robes (shall be) of pitch, and their faces covered with Fire,”

The person who is experiencing punishment and trouble will be ever more suffering if he hears other people crying, as the case is with those who are happy and rejoicing and their happiness and rejoicing will double if they find themselves beside others who are happy as well. It is for this reason that the Qur’an declares that: Allah will bring together all those individuals who resemble one another in their line of thinking: the culprits in Hell and the good ones in Paradise.

And we also find that the Qur’an depicts the conditions of the offenders in a different way in this verse. It says:

“And you will see the guilty on that day bound together in chains.”

These chains and yokes represent the mental and practical connections of the sinners who joined together and who were interwoven as in a line to help each other in this world. Then, the Qur’an describes their dressing pattern which is in itself a great disaster for them. Their robes and dresses are made of tar (a stinking, malodorous, and inflammable material) and their faces are covered by flames of fire. The verse says:

“Their robes (shall be) of pitch, and their faces covered with Fire,”

As such is the case, instead of proper clothing, their bodies are wrapped up in a kind of material which has four distinct awful defects as they are stinking, black, inflammable and burnable, for robes are put on for protection as well as for ornamental and cosmetic purposes. They are meant to protect one against heat and cold. Such robes, contrast all garments, are both ugly and inflammable. The Arabic term /’asf ad/ is the plural form of /sufūd/ which means ‘the bone of a tree’, it was also used for attaching to the feet of prisoners.

The Arabic term /qatr an/ is a kind of material which is extracted from some trees after the boiling of which and after its solidification. It is used for curing the skin diseases of camels for its intensive burning. It is extremely stinking and inflammable.