Tafseer of Hud · Hud · 11:106
As for those who were [destined to be] wretched, they will be in the Fire. For them therein is [violent] exhaling and inhaling.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
He says — exalted be His remembrance: فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ شَقُوا فَفِي النَّارِ لَهُمْ فِيهَا زَفِيرٌ (As for those who are wretched, they will be in the Fire; therein they have a zafīr) — that is the beginning of the braying of a donkey and what resembles it — وَشَهِيقٌ — and that is the end of its braying when it draws it back into the belly cavity, when it has finished its braying, as Ruʾba ibn al-ʿAjjāj said:
"He wheezed in his belly with a sob or a gasp, so that one said: he brays — but he did not bray."
* * *
In a similar manner to what we have said, the people of taʾwīl also spoke.
*Mention of who said that:*
18567 — Al-Muthanná related to me, he said: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: لَهُمْ فِيهَا زَفِيرٌ وَشَهِيقٌ — he said: "A loud sound and a faint sound."
18568 — [...] he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning His word: لَهُمْ فِيهَا زَفِيرٌ وَشَهِيقٌ — he said: "The zafīr is in the throat, and the shahīq is in the chest."
18569 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya — with similar wording.
18570 — Al-Muthanná related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: "The sound of the unbeliever in the Fire is the sound of a donkey — the beginning of it is a zafīr and the end of it a shahīq."
18571 — Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī, Muḥammad ibn Maʿmar al-Baḥrānī, Muḥammad ibn al-Muthanná, and Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us — they said: Abū ʿĀmir related to us, he said: Sulaymān ibn Sufyān related to us, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, on the authority of ʿUmar, who said: When this verse descended — فَمِنْهُمْ شَقِيٌّ وَسَعِيدٌ — I asked the Prophet ﷺ and said: "O Prophet of Allah, upon what then are our deeds based? Upon something that has already been decided, or upon something that has not yet been decided?" He said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Upon something that has already been decided, O ʿUmar, and concerning which the pens have already written — but everyone is made easy for that for which he was created." — The wording is that of the ḥadīth of Ibn Maʿmar.
---
Footnotes:
(19) Narration no. 15871: "Sulaymān ibn Sufyān al-Tamīmī" — weak, his narrations are rejected (munkar al-ḥadīth); he narrates from trustworthy authorities narrations that are munkar. He is described in al-Tahdhīb, al-Kabīr 2/2/18, Ibn Abī Ḥātim 2/1/119, and Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl 1:415. This is a narration with a weak isnād; Ibn Kathīr mentioned it in his tafsīr (4:395), on the authority of the Musnad of Abū Yaʿlā, and the ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī mentioned it in al-Mīzān with its isnād, on the authority of Abū ʿĀmir al-ʿAqadī. However: the meaning of the narration has corroborating witnesses in the ṣaḥīḥ works.