al-Ma‘ārij

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

سَأَلَ سَائِلٌ بِعَذَابٍ وَاقِعٍ

لِّلْكَافِرِينَ لَيْسَ لَهُ دَافِعٌ

مِّنَ اللَّهِ ذِي الْمَعَارِجِ

1. A questioner asked for befalling a torment which befell.
2. They are in store for disbelievers and none may avert them
3. They are from Allah, the Lord whose angels ascent to the heavens.

The late ‘Allama Amini (rh), in his invaluable work titled al-Ghadir, enumerates thirty eminent Qur’an exegetes and traditionists flourishing in the third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries who maintain that the occasion of the Revelation of the blessed Verse 1 concerns a man who addressed the Noble Prophet (S) as saying:

"You ordered us to fulfill our obligations regarding pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), fasting (sawm), and paying the alms tax (zakat) on the day of Ghadir to which we consented, but you are not content yet as you appointed your cousin to rule over us."

Then, he added:

"O Lord! If such appointment is true, send down rocks from the heaven [such that we be destroyed and do not witness such day].

A rock was sent down and he killed him. Then the blessed Verse

was revealed."³ It would be of significance to make mention of some individual and seemingly insignificant events so that others may take lessons. Likewise, it was an individual disobedience which led to Divine Wrath and his affliction and perdition. The Qur’anic Verse makes a reference to the incident so that mankind may take lessons and be aware that partial, obdurate, and inappropriate requests may entail afflictions. It would be of interest to mention that the inquirer in question is maintained by some Qur’an exegetes to be Nu‘man ibn Harith or Nadhr ibn Harith.

The blessed Verse 2 is saying that such torment is in store for the disbelievers and non one may impede it. The blessed Verse 3 makes a reference to the Source of such torment, saying that the torment was inflicted by Allah, the Lord of the heavens where angels ascend. The Arabic word ma‘arij is the plural form of ma‘arij denoting place of ascent which herein connotes the heavens where the angels ascend or descend proceeding toward nearness to God Almighty following a certain hierarchy.

Such angels who are vested with afflicting the disbelievers and sinners with torments were the same angels who descended upon Abraham (as) informing him of their appointment to cause the perdition of the people of Lot (as). They destroyed the cities of those people who had plunged into sins and disgrace. They are also vested with inflicting torments upon other sinners as well. It is to be noted, however, that some Qur’an exegetes maintain that the word ma‘arij implies Divine Bounties and some others hold that it connotes angels, though the former further befits the lexical meaning of the word.