Tafseer of The letter Saad · Saad · 38:57
This - so let them taste it - is scalding water and [foul] purulence.
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 ( هَذَا فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ حَمِيمٌ وَغَسَّاقٌ ) This, let them taste it: boiling water (ḥamīm) and festering fluid (ghassāq) — the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: This is boiling water (ḥamīm), namely that which has been brought to the boil until its heat has reached its utmost, and festering fluid (ghassāq); let them taste it. The word ḥamīm therefore stands in the nominative by means of "this" (hādhā). As for His word ( فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ ) let them taste it, its meaning is one of postponement, for the meaning of the statement is what I mentioned, namely: this is boiling water and festering fluid, let them taste it. It is also possible that "this" is sufficient with His word "let them taste it," and that thereafter a fresh start is made and it is said: boiling water and festering fluid, in the sense of: part of it is boiling water and part of it is festering fluid.
As the poet said:
Until the morning broke through the twilight,
and the herbage was left behind, partly twisted and partly mown (5).
When one turns it to this meaning, both the accusative and the nominative are permissible therein. The accusative: by presupposing a governing element that puts it in the accusative, as the poet said:
Our allowance, O Nuʿmān, do not deprive us of it,
fear Allah concerning us, and the Book that you recite (6).
And the nominative, by means of the [pronominal] hāʾ in His word ( فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ ), as one says: "al-layla fa-bādirūhu" (the night — in the accusative — so hasten to it) and "al-laylu fa-bādirūhu" (the night — in the nominative — so hasten to it).
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, [concerning] ( هَذَا فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ حَمِيمٌ وَغَسَّاقٌ ), he said: al-ḥamīm is that whose heat has reached its utmost.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: al-ḥamīm are the tears of their eyes, which are gathered in the basins of the Fire, after which they are made to drink it.
As for His word ( وَغَسَّاقٌ ), the reciters differed in their reading of it. Most of the reciters of the Ḥijāz and Baṣra, some of the Kūfans, and those of Syria read it with lightening (takhfīf): "wa-ghasāq," and they said: it is a proper noun formed [thus]. And most of the reciters of Kūfa read that as ( وَغَسَّاقٌ ) with doubling (tashdīd), and they took it as an adjectival form derived from their expression: ghasaqa yaghsiqu ghusūqan — when something flows; and they said: its meaning is only that they are made to drink the boiling water, and what flows from them of festering matter.
The correct view concerning this, in my opinion, is that they are two readings with which scholars among the reciters have each recited; whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct, although the doubling of the sīn, in our view, is more complete therein, because that is what is well known in the language, even though the other reading is not to be rejected in its validity.
The interpreters differed over the meaning of that. Some of them said: it is that which flows from their skins of festering matter and blood.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, [concerning] ( هَذَا فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ حَمِيمٌ وَغَسَّاقٌ ), he said: we used to relate that the ghassāq is that which flows between his skin and his flesh.
Muḥammad related to us, saying: Aḥmad related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, he said: the ghassāq is that which flows from their eyes of tears; they are made to drink it together with the boiling water.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, he said: the ghassāq is that which flows from their anus, and what falls off from their skins.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said [concerning] ( الغساق ): the festering matter that gathers from their skins, by the Fire melting them down, in basins in which it collects, after which they are made to drink it.
Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Sahmī related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, saying: Abū Qabīl related to me that he heard Abū Hubayra al-Ziyādī saying: I heard ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr saying: what is the ghassāq? They said: Allah knows best. Then ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr said: it is the thick festering matter; if a single drop of it were poured out in the west, it would make the people of the east stink, and if it were poured out in the east, it would make the people of the west stink.
Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān said: my father said: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us another time, and he said: Abū Qabīl related to us, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Hubayra, and he did not mention to us Abū Hubayra.
Ibn ʿAwf related to us, saying: Abū al-Mughīra related to us, saying: Ṣafwān related to us, saying: Abū Yaḥyā ʿAṭiyya al-Kalāʿī related to us, that Kaʿb used to say: do you know what ghassāq is? They said: no, by Allah. He said: it is a spring in jahannam (Hell) toward which flows the venom of every venom-bearing creature — of snake, scorpion, or something else — and it gathers therein; then the human being is brought and plunged into it, a single plunge, after which he comes out while his skin and his flesh have fallen off the bones, so that his skin hangs at his ankles and heels, and his flesh drags as a man drags his garment.
Others said: it is the cold that, by its coldness, cannot be endured.
* Mention of who said that:
It was related to me on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾida, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, [concerning] ( وَغَسَّاقٌ ), he said: cold, unbearable — or he said: a cold that cannot be endured.
ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, [concerning] ( هَذَا فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ حَمِيمٌ وَغَسَّاقٌ ), he said: it is said: the ghassāq is the coldest of the cold; and others say: no, rather, it is the most stinking of the stinking.
Others said: rather, it is the stinking.
* Mention of who said that:
It was related to me on the authority of al-Musayyab, on the authority of Ibrāhīm al-Nakrī, on the authority of Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayyān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Burayda, he said: the ghassāq is the stinking, and it is [a word] in the Ṭukhārian [tongue] (7).
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith related to me, on the authority of Darrāj, on the authority of Abū al-Haytham, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Prophet ﷺ said: "If a single bucket of ghassāq were poured out in the world, it would make the people of the world stink."
The correct of the views concerning this, in my opinion, is the view of him who said: it is that which flows from their festering matter, because that is the predominant meaning of [the word] ghusūq, even though the other [interpretation] has a valid basis.
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The footnotes:
(5) The verse is among the proof-texts of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 281). He said concerning His word, the Exalted, "hādhā fal-yadhūqūhu ḥamīm wa-ghassāq": ḥamīm and ghassāq are put in the nominative by "hādhā," as preposed and postposed. The meaning is: this is ḥamīm and ghassāq, let them taste it. And if you wish, you make [ḥamīm wa-ghassāq] a new beginning, and you regard the preceding statement as self-sufficient, as if you say: "hādhā fal-yadhūqūhu" and then say: part of it is ghassāq, like the word of the poet: "ḥattā idhā ... [the verse]." End of quotation.
(6) This verse is by ʿAbdallāh ibn Hammām al-Salūlī (al-Lisān: w-f-y), in which he addresses al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr al-Anṣārī. The latter had governed Kūfa on behalf of Muʿāwiya, and Muʿāwiya had increased certain people by ten [units] in their allowances. Al-Nuʿmān carried that out, but left out some of them because they came with their letters after he had finished with the disbursement, and Ibn Hammām was among those who were left out. He addressed him, but he rebuffed him. Then Ibn Hammām composed a poem in which he placates him, seeks intercession through the Anṣār, and praises Muʿāwiya. His word "ziyādatanā" stands in the accusative by means of an omitted verb that is explained by the verb emphasized with the nūn, because this acts upon what precedes it, as al-Raḍī said. The emphasized verb is transmitted as "lā tansubannahā" and is [also] transmitted as "lā taḥrimannā" (see Sharḥ Shawāhid al-Shāfiya of al-Raḍī, p. 497).
(7) Perhaps he means by al-Ṭukhāriyya: that which is ascribed to Ṭukhāristān, with a ḍamma on the first [letter]; this is a region of the non-Arab lands, to the east of Jurjān. He means that the word "ghassāq" is not of Arabic origin.
