Tafseer of The Moon · Al-Qamar · 54:31
Indeed, We sent upon them one blast from the sky, and they became like the dry twig fragments of an [animal] pen.
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.
And His statement إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً ("Verily, We sent against them a single cry") — we have already earlier explained the matter of the cry (ṣayḥa), and how it came upon them, and we have mentioned what has been transmitted concerning it of narrations, so that this dispenses us from repeating it in this place.
And His statement فَكَانُوا كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("so they became like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"); He, exalted is His mention, says: and thus they became, through their destruction by the cry — after their freshness when they were alive and their beauty before their annihilation — like the withered twigs of the tree from which an enclosure has been made as a partition, after it had grown beautifully and its leaves were green, before its withering.
The exegetes differed concerning what was meant by His statement كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"). Some said: by it was meant the burnt remnants, as if they understood its meaning to be that He compared this people, after their destruction and annihilation, with the thing that someone has burnt in his enclosure.
* Mention of those who said this:
Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt related to us, he said: Abū Kudayna related to us, he said: Qābūs related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"), he said: like the burnt remnants.
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 statement فَكَانُوا كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("so they became like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"), he said: that which is burnt. We possess no clarification in this narration of Ibn ʿAbbās as to how his reading of it was, except that we understand the meaning of this statement of his in accordance with the manner in which his exegesis of His statement كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ has reached us: namely, that he read it according to the reading of the cities (al-amṣār). It is, however, possible that his exegesis of it was such that his reading was with a fatḥa on the ẓāʾ of "al-muḥtaẓar," in the sense that "al-muḥtaẓar" is a qualification of "al-hashīm," added to its qualification, as it is said إِنَّ هَذَا لَهُوَ حَقُّ الْيَقِينِ ("verily, this is the true certainty"). It has been mentioned of al-Ḥasan and Qatāda that they both read it thus, and explained it with this explanation which we have mentioned from Ibn ʿAbbās.
ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said: Qatāda used to read كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"); he says: that which is burnt.
Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement فَكَانُوا كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("so they became like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"); he says: like burnt dry twigs.
Others said: No, by it was meant: the dust that drifts down from the wall.
* Mention of those who said this:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Yaʿqūb, on the authority of Jaʿfar, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"), he said: the dust that drifts down from the wall.
Others said: No, it is the enclosure (ḥaẓīra) which the shepherd makes for the flock.
* Mention of those who said this:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq — and he traced it back to a source — he said: الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("the sheepfold-builder"): the enclosure which the shepherd makes for the flock.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His statement كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"): "al-muḥtaẓir" is the enclosure which is made for the flock and which withers, and thus it becomes like the dry twigs of the enclosure. He said: it is the thornbush with which the Arabs make a screen around their livestock against the beasts of prey; and "al-hashīm" is the withered tree with thorns in it — that is the "hashīm."
Others said: No, by it was meant: the dry twigs of the tent, and that is its wood which is broken.
* Mention of 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 Mujāhid, concerning His statement كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"), he said: the man who breaks up the tent.
And al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: Warqāʾ related to us — both of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ ("like the dry twigs of the sheepfold-builder"): "al-hashīm" is the tent.
Others said: No, it is the leaf that drifts down from the firewood.
* Mention of those who said this:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, كَهَشِيمِ ("like the dry twigs"), he said: "al-hashīm": when one strikes the enclosure with the stick, that leaf breaks off and falls. And the Arabs call everything that was moist and then withered "hashīm."
