Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:179
And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless.
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 explanation of His word: وَلَقَدْ ذَرَأْنَا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثِيرًا مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَالإِنْسِ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ آذَانٌ لا يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا (And We have indeed created for Hell (jahannam) many of the jinn and mankind; they have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: And We have indeed created for Hell (jahannam) many of the jinn and mankind.
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One says of this: "dharaʾa Allāh khalqahu yadhraʾuhum dharʾan" (Allah brought forth His creatures, He brings them forth, with a bringing forth).
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the interpreters of the Scripture have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
15443 — ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Azdī related to me, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Mubārak ibn Faḍāla, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word: (And We have indeed created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind) he said: of that which We have created.
15444 — Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, on the authority of Mubārak, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word: (And We have indeed created for Hell) he said: We have created.
15445 — He said: Zakariyyā related to us, on the authority of ʿAttāb ibn Bishr, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Badhīma, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he said: The children of fornication (zinā) are among that which Allah has brought forth for Hell.
15446 — He said: Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī and ʿUthmān al-Aḥwal related to us, on the authority of Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Muʿāwiya ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of a companion of his at Ṭāʾif, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, he said: "When Allah brought forth for Hell what He brought forth, the child of fornication was among those whom He brought forth for Hell."
15447 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (And We have indeed created for Hell), he says: We have created.
15448 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Abū Saʿd related to us, he said: I heard Mujāhid say concerning His word: (And We have indeed created for Hell), he said: We have indeed created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind.
15449 — Al-Muthannā 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: (And We have indeed created for Hell): We have created.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And He, exalted be His praise, said: (And We have indeed created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind), because of the operation of His knowledge concerning them, that they would come to it on account of their disbelief in their Lord.
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And as for His word: (they have hearts with which they do not understand), the meaning of it is: these whom Allah has brought forth from His creatures for Hell have hearts with which they do not reflect upon the signs of Allah, and with which they do not ponder His proofs of His oneness, and with which they take no lesson from His arguments in favor of His messengers, so that they might know the oneness of their Lord and acknowledge the reality of the prophethood of their prophets. Thus our Lord, exalted be His praise, described them as those who "do not understand with them," on account of their turning away from the truth and their failure to ponder the soundness of the [prophethood] of the messengers, and on account of the long persistence of their disbelief. And likewise is His word: (and they have eyes with which they do not see), the meaning of it is: and they have eyes with which they do not look at the signs of Allah and His proofs, so as to contemplate them and reflect upon them, that they might thereby perceive the soundness of that to which their messengers call them, and the corruption of that in which they persist, namely the ascribing of partners to Allah (shirk) and the denial of His messengers; thus Allah described them, on account of their failure to use those eyes for the truth, as those who do not see with them.
And likewise is His word: (and they have ears with which they do not hear) the signs of the Book of Allah, so as to take a lesson from them and reflect upon them; but they turn away from them and say: لا تَسْمَعُوا لِهَذَا الْقُرْآنِ وَالْغَوْا فِيهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَغْلِبُونَ (Do not listen to this Qurʾān, and make noise during it, that perhaps you may prevail) [Sūrat Fuṣṣilat: 26]. And that is equivalent to the description which Allah gives of them elsewhere with His word: صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لا يَعْقِلُونَ (Deaf, dumb, blind, so they do not understand) [Sūrat al-Baqarah: 171]. And the Arabs say that of one who fails to use some of his limbs for that for which it is fit, and to that belongs the word of Miskīn al-Dārimī:
"Blind am I when my neighbor-woman goes out, until the veil conceals my neighbor-woman,
and deaf to what was between the two of them is my hearing, and in that hearing there is no defect."
Thus he described himself, on account of his failing to look and to listen, with blindness and deafness. And to that belongs also the word of another:
"And the shameful speech of the base — to it I have feigned deafness, though I, had I willed, could indeed have heard it.
And many a hasty impulse have I held back from my soul, while the ribs were already full of wrath."
And that is frequent in the speech and the poetry of the Arabs. And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the interpreters of the Scripture have spoken.
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* Mention of who said that:
15450 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Abū Saʿd related to us, he said: I heard Mujāhid say concerning His word: (they have hearts with which they do not understand) he said: they understand with them nothing of the matter of the Hereafter = (and they have eyes with which they do not see) the guidance = (and they have ears with which they do not hear) the truth; then He made them equal to the cattle, then He made them worse than the cattle, and He said: بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ (Nay, they are more astray), then He informed that they are the heedless ones.
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The explanation of His word: أُولَئِكَ كَالأَنْعَامِ بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْغَافِلُونَ (They are like cattle, nay, they are more astray; they are the heedless ones) (7:179).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His praise, means by His word: (They are like cattle), these whom He has brought forth for Hell are like cattle, and those are the beasts that do not understand what is said to them, and do not comprehend what they see of what is suitable and what is not suitable, and with their hearts do not distinguish good from evil, so as to separate between the two. Thus Allah compared them to the cattle, since they took no lesson from the proofs which they saw with their eyes, and did not reflect upon the verses of His Book which they heard. Then He said: (nay, they are more astray), He says: these disbelievers whom He has brought forth for Hell are even further removed from the truth and cling even more obstinately to the path of falsehood than the beasts, because the beasts have no choice and no power of discernment with which they might choose and distinguish, but are only made subservient; and despite this they flee from what is harmful and seek for themselves the most suitable food. Whereas those whose attribute Allah has described in this verse, despite the intellect and the discerning reason given to them to distinguish between the beneficial and the harmful, abandon that in which lies the welfare of their earthly and their future life, and pursue that in which lies their harm. Thus the beasts act more rightly than they, and they are more astray than the beasts, just as our Lord, exalted be His praise, has described them.
And His word: (they are the heedless ones), the Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: these whose attribute I have described are the people who were heedless = that is to say: in forgetfulness = concerning My signs and My proofs, and who neglected to ponder them, to take a lesson from them, and to deduce from that to which they point concerning the oneness of their Lord — not the beasts, which their Lord has already made to know that for which He has made them subservient.