Tafseer of Those drawn up in Ranks · As-Saaffaat · 37:65
Its emerging fruit as if it was heads of the devils.
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.
His word طَلْعُهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُءُوسُ الشَّيَاطِينِ ("Its fruit-buds are as it were the heads of devils" — 37:65): the Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says: it is as though the fruit-bud of this tree — He means the zaqqūm-tree — in its ugliness and loathsomeness, were the heads of the devils in their ugliness.
And it has been mentioned that this, in the recitation of ʿAbd Allāh, reads: "Verily, it is a tree that springs up in the bottom of the Hellfire (al-jaḥīm)."
As Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word طَلْعُهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُءُوسُ الشَّيَاطِينِ ("Its fruit-buds are as it were the heads of devils"), he said: He likened it to that.
If someone were to say: what is the manner in which He likens the fruit-bud of this tree to the heads of the devils in ugliness, when we have no knowledge of the degree of the ugliness of the heads of the devils? For a thing is only likened to another thing in order to instruct the one for whom the comparison is made about the close resemblance between the two compared things, provided that the one for whom the comparison is made knows both things, or at least one of them. And it is known that those to whom this verse was addressed, of the polytheists (mushrikīn), did not know the zaqqūm-tree, nor the heads of the devils, and that they had seen neither of the two, neither of them.
He is answered: as for the zaqqūm-tree, Allah, the Exalted whose praise is mentioned, has described it and expounded it for them, until they knew what it was and what its characteristic was. He said to them: شَجَرَةٌ تَخْرُجُ فِي أَصْلِ الْجَحِيمِ * طَلْعُهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُءُوسُ الشَّيَاطِينِ ("a tree that springs up from the bottom of the Hellfire; its fruit-buds are as it were the heads of devils"). Thus He did not leave them in ignorance about it. And as for His likening of its fruit-bud to the heads of the devils, I say: for each of these there is an intelligible manner. The first is that the comparison to the heads of the devils is made in accordance with what was customary among those to whom the verse was addressed. For the usage of people among themselves has run such that, when one of them wishes to exaggerate something in ugliness, he says: "it is as though it were a devil." That, then, is one of the statements. The second is that the comparison is to the head of a particular snake, known among the Arabs by the name "devil" (shayṭān); that is a snake with a crest, according to what is mentioned, ugly of face and aspect. And it is this that the poet of the rajaz intended by his words:
ʿAnjarid, she swears when I swear
like the devil of the ḥamāṭ, with a crest.
And it is also recited as "ʿUjayyiz." The third is that the comparison is to a well-known plant called "the heads of the devils," of which it is mentioned that it has an ugly head.
