Interpretation of Sura al-Furqan - Verse 14

14. " (It will be said to them:) 'Call not this day for one destruction, but call for many destructions!"

Commentary

This verse implies that they must not say /wa oAbira/ for one time, but they must say it many times. The verse says:

"(It will be said to them:) 'Call not this day for one destruction, but call for many destructions!"

Anyway, their cry and moaning does not have any result and there will be no death or destruction, but they must remain alive and experience painful chastisements.

This verse is in fact like the 16th verse of Sura At-Tur, No. 52, which says: "Endure the heat thereof, and whether you are patient of it or impatient of it is all one for you. You are only being paid for what you used to do."

That who tells such words to pagans, the context shows that angels of chastisement do this, because they deal with pagans.

But why they are told that they must not say /wa oabura/ for one time, but they must say it many times, perhaps it is because their painful chastisement is not temporal that it ends with saying this phrase one time, but they must always repeat it during this period. Moreover the divine punishment that is for these criminals is so miscellaneous that they face their death by experiencing each of these punishments and they cry /wa oabura/ each time. It seems that they die and become alive successively.

The Prophet(p.b.u.h.) in a tradition says:"The people of the Hell are under pressure like nail in wall." 13 Its reason is that: ignoring Allah leads to desperate straits in this world and the other world. Concerning what they have in this world, "... He makes his breast narrow and straitened..." 14,and:"And whoever turns away from My remembrance, verily for him is a life straitened, ..." 15, and in the other world, "And when they are cast, coupled in fetters, into a narrow place of that Fire ..". 16

On the contrary, paying attention to Allah and having faith in Him, is the cause of calmness and peacefulness both in this world: "We would have certainly opened up for them blessings from the heaven and the earth..." 17 and the other world "...when they reach it, the gates thereof are opened...". 18 In another occurrence, the Qur'an says: "Is one who follows the pleasure of Allah like him who incurs wrath from Allah, and whose abode will be Hell? And an evil destination it is! " 19

There has been narrated from Imam Sadiq, the sixth Imam (a.s.), who said: "The Hell has got 7 gates. From one of them our enemies and those who fight and belittle us enter. Certainly this gate is the greatest and the most blazing one." 20

The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) says: "The fire of this world is one part of the seventy parts of the Hell Fire. Each of those parts has got its own heat." 21

Imam Ali (a.s.) once says: "One who enters the Hell is miserable for ever." 22

The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) says: "The least punishment of the people of the Hell is wearing a blazing pair of shoes on the Day of Hereafter that are so hot that their brain begins to boil from them." 23

Imam Ali(a.s.) says: "Fear the Fire the heat of which is too much,and its bottom is very deep and its ornament is iron, and its beverage is boiling fetid water (blood mixed with filth)." 24

Notes:

13. Majma'-ul-Bayan, the commentary, following the verse

14. Sura Al-'An'am, No. 6, verse 125

15. Sura Ta-Ha, No. 20, verse 124

16. Sura Furqan, No. 25, verse 13

17. Sura Al-Abraham'raf, No. 7, verse 96

18. Sura Az-Zumar, No. 39, verse 73

19. Sura 'al-i-'Imran, No. 3, verse 162

20. Bihar, Vol. 8, p. 261

21. Kanz-ul-'Ummal, 39477

22. Qurar-ul-Hikam, 10892

23. Muhajjat-ul-Bayza, Vol. 8, p. 356

24. Bihar, Vol. 8, p. 208, taken from Nahj-ul-Balaqah

Adapted from the book: "Interpretation of Sura al-Furqan" by: "Sayyid Kamal Faghih Imani and A Group of Scholars"