Al Furqān

وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا اصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّمَ إِنَّ عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا

إِنَّهَا سَاءتْ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَمُقَامًا

65. “And those who say: ‘O’ our Lord! Avert from us the torment of Hell, verily the torment of it is a lasting affliction;”
66. “Verily it is an evil abode and (an evil) station.”

There are two ways for getting released from the Fire; worshipping and doing good deeds. When Imam Ali (as) dedicated some properties to Allah, he wrote in act for the establishment:

“I dedicated this for saving myself from the Fire as well as getting the Fire away from me.” ²⁰

In this noble verse, the fourth attribute of ‘the servants of the Beneficent’, which is the fear of divine chastisement, is mentioned. It says:

The Arabic word /qaram/ originally means: intense disaster and sorrow which always afflicts man. If creditor in Arabic is called /qarim/, it is because he is always following man for getting his money. The love and motivation that makes man do a job is also called /qaram/. This word has been applied to the Hell since the chastisement of the Hell is very grievous, lasting, and permanent. Therefore, in the next verse it is said:

Although these servants of the Beneficent remember and worship Allah in the midnight and do their duties in the day, their heart is still full of the fear that their duties to be done rightly. It is that fear that is the powerful factor of doing duties more and better. It functions as an inward powerful police that controls man and man does his duties in the best way, while no one observes and controls him and he still thinks that he is guilty before Allah.

The difference between the Arabic word /mustaqarr/ (abode) and the word /muqam/ (station) is that the Hell is a perpetual home for pagans and it is a temporal place for believers. So, to both groups who enter the Hell reference is made. It is obvious that the Hell is a bad place and residence. How can one be calm in the blazing Fire? Is there comfortableness and easiness in the killing flames? It is also possible that both these words, ‘Mustaqarr’ (abode) and ‘Muqam’ (station), mean the same and they are for more emphasis on the perpetuity of the Hell chastisement.

It is the opposite of the Paradise about which we read in this Surah, verse 76:

Anyway, the special servants of Allah fear the Fire of the Hell more than that they desire the Paradise.