Tafseer of The Prophets · Al-Anbiyaa · 21:98
Indeed, you [disbelievers] and what you worship other than Allah are the firewood of Hell. You will be coming to [enter] it.
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.
Allah, exalted be His praise, says: Truly you — O polytheists (mushrikīn) who ascribe partners to Allah, who worship besides Him the idols and the images — and what you worship besides Allah of gods.
As was related to me from al-Ḥusayn: he said: I heard Abā Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us; he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words (إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ): the gods and whoever worships them, and (حصب جهنم). Concerning (ḥaṣab jahannam) some said: its meaning is: the firewood and the trees of the Hellfire (jahannam).
*Mentioned are those who said this:*
ʿAlī related to me; he said: ʿAbd Allāh related to us; he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words (حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ): "The tree of the Hellfire (jahannam)."
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me; he said: my father related to me; he said: my uncle related to me; he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words (إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ): "Its fuel."
Others said: its meaning is: the wood of the Hellfire.
*Mentioned are those who said this:*
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me; he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us; he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning Allah's words (حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ): "Its wood."
Al-Qāsim related to us; he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us; he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — the same — and he added: In some readings it is (حَطَبُ جَهَنَّمَ) — that is, in the reading of ʿĀʾisha.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning (حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ): "The wood of the Hellfire — they are cast into it."
Ibn Bashshār related to us; he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us; he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn al-Ḥurr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His words (حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ): "The wood of the Hellfire."
Others said: its meaning is that they are cast into the Hellfire.
*Mentioned are those who said this:*
It was related to me from al-Ḥusayn: he said: I heard Abā Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words (حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ): the Hellfire is pelted with them — and the pelting is the throwing (al-ramī) — that is: they are cast into it.
There was also a difference in the reading: the reciters of the great cities read (حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ) with the ṣād, and so is the reading according to us, on account of the consensus of the authorities on this.
It has been transmitted from ʿAlī and ʿĀʾisha that they read (حَطَبُ جَهَنَّمَ) with the ṭāʾ.
And it has been transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he read it as (حَضَبُ) with the ḍād.
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related this to us; he said: al-Qāsim related to us; he said: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad related to us, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that he read it thus.
It is as though Ibn ʿAbbās — when he read it thus — meant that they are those by whom the Hellfire is kindled and with whom the fire in it is fed; for everything by which the fire is stoked and fed is, among the Arabs, a ḥaḍab of it. If the correct reading is the one mentioned, and the well-known meaning of al-ḥaṣab among the Arabs is: the throwing (al-ramī) — from the expression: I pelted the man (ḥaṣabtu al-rajul) — as Allah, exalted be His praise, says: إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ حَاصِبًا — then the interpretation of the one who said that the meaning of this is that the Hellfire casts them into itself and they are thrown into it is the most fitting. It has also been said that al-ḥaṣab in the Yemeni dialect means "the wood"; if that is so, then this too is a correct view. What we have said, namely that the meaning is the throwing, that belongs to the language of the people of Najd.
His words (أَنْتُمْ لَهَا وَارِدُونَ) mean: you are those who come to it, O people — that is: those who enter it. The meaning of al-wurūd (the coming/arriving) I have already expounded earlier, so that repetition here is not needed.
