Tafseer of Taa-Haa · Taa-Haa · 20:124
And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind."
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: وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَنْ ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى («And whoever turns away from My remembrance, indeed he shall have a constricted existence, and We shall gather him blind on the Day of Resurrection») (20:124)
Allah the Exalted says: وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَنْ ذِكْرِي — the remembrance by which I remember him — and turned away from it and did not accept it and gave no heed to it, and drew no lesson from it so as to restrain himself from what he persists in regarding the transgression of the command of his Lord — فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا — He says: then he has a narrow (ḍayyiq) existence. Al-ḍank refers, in respect of dwellings, places, and livelihood, to that which is constricted; one says: this is a constricted dwelling (manzil ḍank) when it is narrow; and existence-ḍank (ʿaysh ḍank) — the masculine, feminine, singular, dual, and plural all have the same form; from this comes the saying of ʿAntara:
«And when they descend at a ḍank, then I descend».
In a sense like what we have said, the exegetes spoke.
Mention of those who said this:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me on the authority of ʿAlī from Ibn ʿAbbās, his statement فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he says: wretchedness.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Naǧīḥ, on the authority of Muǧāhid, his statement (ḍankan): he said: narrow.
Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: al-ḍank is that which is constricted.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Buzza, on the authority of Muǧāhid, concerning his statement فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he says: narrow.
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 Muǧāhid — the same.
The exegetes differed concerning the place that Allah has appointed as the constricted existence for these people who turned away from His remembrance, and the condition He has placed them in therein. Some of them said: Allah appointed this for them in the Hereafter in Hell (jahannam), because He made their food therein the ḍarīʿ-plant and the zaqqūm-tree.
Mention of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī ibn Miqdam related to me, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning his statement فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: in Hell.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning his statement وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَنْ ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا — and he recited until he reached وَلَمْ يُؤْمِنْ بِآيَاتِ رَبِّهِ («and did not believe in the signs of his Lord») — he said: these are the people of unbelief (kufr). He said: and a constricted existence in the Fire (al-nār): thorns of fire and zaqqūm and ghislīn; the ḍarīʿ-plant is a thorn of fire. And in the grave (al-qabr), nor in the present life, is there any existence; existence and life are only in the Hereafter. And he recited the statement of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic: يَا لَيْتَنِي قَدَّمْتُ لِحَيَاتِي («Oh, would that I had sent ahead something for my life») — he said: for my existence. He said: and the ghislīn and the zaqqūm are something the people of the present life do not know.
Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا — he said: in the Fire.
Others said: what is meant by it is: then he has an existence in the present life from the forbidden (ḥarām). They said: Allah the Exalted described their existence as constricted, because the forbidden, however ample it may be, is nevertheless constricted.
Mention of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, on the authority of Yazīd, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning his statement مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: that is the existence which Allah has made ample for him out of the forbidden.
Dāwūd ibn Sulaymān ibn Yazīd al-Muktib of the people of Baṣra related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Jarīr al-Bajalī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, concerning the statement of Allah مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: a provision in disobedience to Him.
ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Wāṣil related to me, saying: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd related to us, saying: Abū Bustām related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا — he said: the evil earning.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ṣarrārī related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Sawwār related to us, saying: Abū al-Yaqẓān ʿAmmār ibn Muḥammad related to us, on the authority of Hārūn ibn Muḥammad al-Taymī, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning his statement فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: the evil conduct and the evil provision.
Others, who said that these people have the constricted existence in the present life, said: it is called constricted, even though it is ample, because what they spend, they spend in the sense of denying the recompense of Allah, out of despair of the bounty of Allah and suspicion concerning their Lord — so that their existence thereby becomes burdensome and constricted for them.
Mention of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his statement وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَنْ ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he says: any wealth that I have given to one of My servants, little or much, if he is not God-fearing toward Me in it — there is no good in it; and that is the constriction of existence. And it is said: there was a group of those who had gone astray who had rejected the Truth but who possessed ample worldly wealth, and yet their existence was constricted; that is because they supposed that Allah would not recompense their provisions, since they distrusted Allah and denied Him. When the servant denies Allah and distrusts Him, then his existence becomes burdensome for him — and that is the constriction.
Others said: rather, what is meant by it is that this is for them in the Barzakh — that is to say: the punishment of the grave (ʿadhāb al-qabr).
Mention of those who said this:
Yazīd ibn Makhlad al-Wāsiṭī related to me, saying: Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of al-Nuʿmān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: he said concerning the statement of Allah مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: the punishment of the grave.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bazīʿ related to me, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of al-Nuʿmān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: he said: verily the constricted existence which Allah mentioned — that is the punishment of the grave.
Ḥawthara ibn Muḥammad al-Minqarī related to me, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا — he said: his grave constricts upon him until his ribs interlock.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me, saying: my father and Shuʿayb ibn al-Layth related to us, on the authority of al-Layth: he said: Khālid ibn Zayd related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Hilāl, on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd: that he used to say: the constricted existence is the punishment of the grave — there are loosed upon the unbeliever in his grave ninety-nine dragons that bite him and tear open his flesh until the Resurrection; and it used to be said: if even a single dragon of those dragons were to breathe upon the earth, it would bring forth no vegetation.
Muǧāhid ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: he said: the grave of the unbeliever is compressed until his ribs interlock — and that is the constricted existence which Allah mentioned: مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى .
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Jābir ibn Nūḥ related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ and al-Suddī, concerning his statement مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: the punishment of the grave.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Aḥmasī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd related to us, saying: Sufyān al-Thawrī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, concerning his statement فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: the punishment of the grave.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Aswad related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿa related to us, saying: Abū ʿUmays related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mukhāriq, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, concerning his statement مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا : he said: the punishment of the grave.
ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Barqī related to me, saying: Ibn Abī Maryam related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar and Ibn Abī Ḥāzim related to us — both of them said: Abū Ḥāzim related to us, on the authority of al-Nuʿmān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī: مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا — he said: the punishment of the grave.
Abū Jaʿfar says: The most correct opinion concerning this is that of the one who said: it is the punishment of the grave (ʿadhāb al-qabr) — as Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Wahb related to us, saying: my uncle ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed us, on the authority of Darrāj, on the authority of Ibn Ḥujayra, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he said: «Do you know concerning which verse this was sent down? فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى — do you know what the constricted existence is?» They said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: «The punishment of the unbeliever in his grave (ʿadhāb al-kāfir fī qabrihi). By Him in Whose hand is my soul: there are loosed upon him ninety-nine dragons (tinnīn). Do you know what a dragon is? Ninety-nine serpents (ḥayya), each serpent with seven heads; they breathe into his body, bite him, and tear open his flesh until the Day of Resurrection.»
And indeed Allah, Blessed and Exalted, followed that with His statement: وَلَعَذَابُ الآخِرَةِ أَشَدُّ وَأَبْقَى («and truly the punishment of the Hereafter is more severe and more enduring») — so that thereby it was made known that the constricted existence which Allah has appointed for them takes place before the punishment of the Hereafter; for if it were in the Hereafter, then the expression وَلَعَذَابُ الآخِرَةِ أَشَدُّ وَأَبْقَى would have no intelligible meaning — for if there did not precede for them a punishment prior to the Hereafter, after which the punishment in the Hereafter would be more severe than it, then the meaning of the words وَلَعَذَابُ الآخِرَةِ أَشَدُّ وَأَبْقَى lapses. If that is so, then that constricted existence which Allah has appointed for them can only be for them either in their life in the present world, or in their graves before the Resurrection — since there is no possibility that it takes place in the Hereafter, for the reason which we have explained. If it concerns them in their life in the present world, then every one of the unbelievers who turns away from the remembrance of Allah must have a constricted existence in this life; but the fact that we find many of them with an existence more ample than many of the believers who devote themselves entirely to the remembrance of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, indicates that it is not so. When the interpretation in these two directions is impossible, then the third direction is the correct one — namely that it is in the Barzakh.
His statement وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى — the exegetes differed concerning the kind of blindness that Allah mentioned in this verse and with which He raises these unbelievers on the Day of Resurrection. Some of them said: that is blindness with respect to the proof, not blindness with respect to eyesight.
Mention of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Aḥmasī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd related to us, saying: Sufyān al-Thawrī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, concerning his statement وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى : he said: he has no proof.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Naǧīḥ, on the authority of Muǧāhid, concerning his statement وَنَحْشُرُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ أَعْمَى : he said: with respect to the proof.
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 Muǧāhid — the same. And it was said: he is gathered blind of eyesight.
Abū Jaʿfar says: The correct opinion concerning this is what Allah the Exalted said — namely that he is gathered blind: blind with respect to the proof and to the seeing of things, as He, blessed be His praise, has informed — and He has left it in the general and has not specified any single aspect.
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Notes:
(2) This is part of the second half of a verse by ʿAntara ibn ʿAmr ibn Shaddād al-ʿAbsī (Mukhtār al-Shiʿr al-Jāhilī, Ḥalabī edition, with commentary by Muṣṭafā al-Saqqā, p. 388). The full verse reads:
«When they are overtaken I ride at the charge — and when they are surrounded I stand firm — and when they are found at a ḍank, I descend».
And in (al-Lisān: ḍank): al-ḍank is the constricted in everything; the masculine and the feminine are equal therein. And a constricted existence is a constricted existence. And in the Qurʾān: (then he has a constricted existence) — that is to say: not from the lawful.
