al-Ṣaffāt

أَذَلِكَ خَيْرٌ نُّزُلاً أَمْ شَجَرَةُ الزَّقُّومِ

إِنَّا جَعَلْنَاهَا فِتْنَةً لّـِلظَّالِمِينَ

إِنَّهَا شَجَرَةٌ تَخْرُجُ فِي أَصْلِ الْجَحِيمِ

62. “Is that the better entertainment or the Tree of Zaqqum?”

63. “Verily We have appointed it as a trial for the unjust.”

64. “Verily, it is a tree that grows in the bottom of the Hell.”

We must compare the examples of the grace of Allah with His wrath so that we may act better. The tyrants, who cause others to feel smarting grief in the world, will be entertained with a blazing food in the Hereafter. After stating the pleasant and worthy bounties of Paradise, the verses under discussion refer to the painful and grievous chastisement of the Hell, and illustrate them in such a way that, comparing the aforementioned Divine bounties, they affect deeply on the receptive persons and restrain them from performing any ugly and impure action.

At first, I implicitly ask whether these eternal and pleasant bounties with which the people of Paradise are entertained are better or the Tree of Zaqqum. The verse says:

Regarding to its concept, the application of the Arabic term /nuzul/ is called to something which is prepared for the entertainment of a guest. Some commentators have said that it is the first thing by which a guest is entertained. This shows that the people of Paradise will be entertained as some dear and respectful guests. The Holy Qur’an asks whether this is better or the Tree of Zaqqum. The application of the word ‘better’ is not any evidence that the tree of Zaqqum is a good thing and the bounty of the people of Paradise is better than that. These meanings are sometimes used in the Arabic language for the aspects that, from one side, they have no goodness at all. But there is this probability that this is a kind of allusion.

It is just like this that a person, as the result of being polluted by kinds of sins, has become seriously disgrace among people and we tell him whether this disgrace is better or honour and honesty. As for the Arabic word /zaqqum/ according to the philologists, it is the name of a plant which has some small leaves that are bitter with bad smell. It grows in the land of Tahamah and polytheists were acquainted with it.² And it is also said in Tafsir-Rauh-ul-Ma‘ani that this plant has a sap that when it reaches the body of a person, it swells.³

Raqib in Mufradat says that Zaqqum is any kind of hateful food for the people of Hell. However, the Arabic word does not always mean ‘Tree’. Sometimes it is also used in the sense of ‘plant’, and the context shows that its objective meaning here is ‘plant’. Then, in the second verse, referring to some qualities of this plant, the Qur’an says:

The Qur’anic term /fitnah/ may be used in the sense of punishment, or with the sense of trial, as the Qur’an has often applied it in this meaning. Thus, it points to this concept that when they heard the name of Zaqqum, they began to mock and, therefore, it became a mean of trial against the unjust. In the next verse, the Qur’an says:

But these proud unjust people continued mocking and said that:

“Is it possible that a tree grows in the bottom of Hell?”

“How different is between Fire and a tree and plant?”

Therefore, hearing the name of this plant and its qualities is the source of their trial in this world, and the tree itself is the source of their pain and punishment in Hereafter. It seems that they were neglectful of this fact that the principle governed on the life of the next world is very different from that of this world. The plant and tree which grows in the bottom of Hell is of the same nature of Hell, and it has grown up with the conditions of Hell.

It is not a plant like the plants that grow in the gardens of this world. And perhaps they are unaware of this point; but their aim is only mock and ridicule.

Footnotes

1. 2. Tafsir-i-Rouh-ul-Bayan, Vol. 7, P. 464
2. 3. Rauh-ul-Ma‘ani, Vol. 23, P. 85