Tafseer of Hud · Hud · 11:82
So when Our command came, We made the highest part [of the city] its lowest and rained upon them stones of layered hard clay, [which were]
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.
The statement concerning the explanation of the words of Allah, the Exalted: فَلَمَّا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا جَعَلْنَا عَالِيَهَا سَافِلَهَا وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهَا حِجَارَةً مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ مَنْضُودٍ (So when Our command came, We made the highest part of it its lowest, and We rained down upon them stones of baked clay, piled up) (82).
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, exalted be His mention, says: When Our command of punishment came and Our decree for their destruction, We made the highest part of it — that is, the highest part of their town — its lowest; وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهَا — that is: We made fall down upon them — حِجَارَةً مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ .
The exegetes differed concerning the meaning of "sijjīl."
Some said: It is in Persian: "sang" and "gil." (stone and clay)
Mention of who said this:
18424 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ — in Persian: the beginning of it is stone and the end of it is clay.
18425 — Al-Muthanā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — something similar.
18426 — Al-Muthanā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — something similar.
18427 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — the same.
18428 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: حِجَارَةً مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ — he said: "Persian, Arabicized — sang and gol." (stone and clay)
18429 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "Al-sijjīl" — clay.
18430 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda and ʿIkrima: مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ — they said: "Of clay."
18431 — Al-Muthanā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to me, on the authority of Wahb, who said: "Sijjīl in Persian — sang and gol" — (stone and clay).
18432 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: حِجَارَةً مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ — as for "al-sijjīl": Ibn ʿAbbās said: it is in Persian "sang wa-jil" — "sang" is the stone and "jil" is the clay. That is: We made fall down upon them stones of clay.
18433 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mahrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: حِجَارَةً مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ — he said: "Clay within stones."
And Ibn Zayd said concerning this:
18434 — Yūnus related this to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us; he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: حِجَارَةً مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ — he said: "The lowest heaven. The lowest heaven is called sijjīl — and that is from which Allah made [the stones] fall down upon the people of Lūṭ."
And some of the scholars of Arabic from Basra said: "Al-sijjīl" is a hard, tough stone — and also a heavy blow — and they cite as evidence the words of the poet:
"A blow which the heroes mutually recommended to one another — sijjīlan."
And some of them said: some of the Arabs change the lām into a nūn. And another of them said: it is "fiʿʿīl" — derived from "asjaltahu" (I released it), so that it is as if it means: released upon them. And another of them said: no, it is derived from "sajala lahu sajlan" (he granted it to him) — as if one meant to say: they were granted that calamity and received it. One also says: "asjala-hu" — he set it loose.
And some said: it is from "al-sijill" (the register/scroll), because there was a mark in it like an inscription.
And another of them said: it is clay that has been baked just as bricks are baked — and he cites the verse of al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbbās:
"Whoever competes with me in generosity competes with a noble man, who fills the bucket up to the knot of the rope."
And this is derived from "sajala lahu sajlan" — I gave to him.
