Tafseer of The Announcement · An-Naba · 78:23
In which they will remain for ages [unending].
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 words: (Abiding therein for ages — aḥqāban) — He, exalted be His remembrance, says: Indeed, these transgressors in the worldly life abide in jahannam (Hell), wherein they shall remain for ages (aḥqāb).
The reciters of the Qurʾān differed over the reading of His words: (lābithīna — abiding). Most of the reciters of Medina and Basra and some of the reciters of Kufa read it as "lābithīna" with the alif. And most of the reciters of Kufa read it as "labithīna" without the alif. The most eloquent of the two readings, and the most correct in Arabic with respect to form, is the reading of whoever reads it with the alif. That is because the Arabs, when an adjectival form comes upon the pattern "faʿil," scarcely ever make it govern anything and thereby place it in the accusative. They do not customarily say: "this is a man who is stingy with his wealth (bakhilun bi-mālihi)," nor "who makes it hard upon us (ʿasirun ʿalaynā)," nor "he is an adversary to us (khasimun lanā)"; for the pattern "faʿil" comes only as an adjectival form for praise or blame, and praise and blame do not govern anything else. And when they wish to make it govern the noun or something else, they make of it an active participle (fāʿil) and say: "he is stingy with his wealth (bākhilun bi-mālihi)," and "he is covetous of what we possess (ṭāmiʿun fīmā ʿindanā)." For this reason I say that "lābithīna" is more correct in Arabic with respect to form and more eloquent. Yet I have not invalidated the reading of whoever reads "labithīna," even though the other is more eloquent, because the Arabs do sometimes make the praise-form govern the nouns. And sometimes the verse of Labīd is recited:
"Or a wild ass that works the flank of a long-backed she-ass, upon whose back, through him, are scars and wounds."
Thus he made "ʿamil" govern "ʿiḍāda," whereas, had it been "ʿāmil," it would have been more eloquent. And it is also recited:
"… … … … … … … and with the axe a cleaver of the heads of the palm-stumps (al-karānif)."
And to this belongs the saying of ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās:
"He attacked more fiercely and defended the truth more vehemently than they, and struck with the swords harder than we upon the helmet-crests (al-qawānis)."
As for aḥqāb: it is the plural of ḥuqb, and al-ḥiqab is the plural of ḥiqba, as the poet said:
"We lived, like the two boon-companions of Jadhīma, an era (ḥiqba) of time, until it was said: they shall never part."
This is the word whose plural is ḥiqab. And among the aḥqāb whose plural is ḥuqub belongs the word of Allah: أَوْ أَمْضِيَ حُقُبًا (or I [should] journey on for an age [ḥuqub]); this is the singular of aḥqāb.
The exegetes differed over the length of the duration of the ḥuqb. Some of them said: a duration of three hundred years.
* Mention of those who said that:
ʿImrān ibn Mūsā al-Qazzāz related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Isḥāq ibn Suwayd related to us, on the authority of Bishr ibn Kaʿb, concerning His words: (Abiding therein for ages), he said: it has reached me that the ḥuqb is three hundred years, each year three hundred and sixty days, each day a thousand years.
And others said: nay, the duration of the one ḥuqb is eighty years.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, saying: ʿAmmār al-Duhnī related to me, on the authority of Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, saying: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may Allah be pleased with him, said to Hilāl al-Hajarī: What do you find concerning the ḥuqb in the Book of Allah that was sent down? He said: we find eighty years, each year twelve months, each month thirty days, each day a thousand years.
Tamīm ibn al-Muntaṣir related to us, saying: Isḥāq informed us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, that he said: the ḥuqb is eighty years, and the year is three hundred and sixty days, and the day is a thousand years.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Abū Sinān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: the ḥuqb is eighty years.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Jābir ibn Nūḥ related to us, saying: al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, concerning His words: (Abiding therein for ages), he said: the ḥuqb is eighty years, the year three hundred and sixty days, the day a year or a thousand years — Ṭabarī is in doubt.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: Allah said: (Abiding therein for ages), and that is what knows no end; every time a ḥuqb has passed, there comes a ḥuqb after it. And we have been told that the ḥuqb is eighty years.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: (ages — aḥqāban), he said: it has reached us that the ḥuqb is eighty years of the years of the Hereafter.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas: (Abiding therein for ages) — the number of these ages no one knows but Allah, but the one ḥuqb is eighty years, and the year is three hundred and sixty days, each day thereof a thousand years.
And others said: the one ḥuqb is seventy thousand years.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Barqī related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Abī Salama related to me, on the authority of Zuhayr, on the authority of Sālim, saying: I heard al-Ḥasan, when he was asked about the words of Allah: (Abiding therein for ages), say: as for the ages (aḥqāb), for them there is no number except the everlasting abiding in the Fire; but they have mentioned that the one ḥuqb is seventy thousand years, each day of those seventy thousand [years] being like a thousand years of what you count.
ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Āmulī related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Hishām, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His words: (Abiding therein for ages), he said: as for the ages (aḥqāb), no one knows what they are; and as for the one ḥuqb: it is seventy thousand years, each day like a thousand years.
And it is related from Khālid ibn Maʿdān concerning this verse, that it concerns the people of the qibla.
* Mention of those who said that:
ʿAlī related to us, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿĀmir ibn Jashb, on the authority of Khālid ibn Maʿdān, concerning His words: (Abiding therein for ages), and His words: إِلا مَا شَاءَ رَبُّكَ (except what your Lord wills): both of these concern the people of [divine] oneness (tawḥīd) among the people of the qibla.
And were a questioner to say: what then have you to say concerning this report? Then it is answered: that which Qatāda related on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas concerning it is more correct. And were he to say: have the unbelievers, then, with Allah no punishment except for ages? Then it is answered: al-Rabīʿ and Qatāda have said that these ages know no end and no cessation. And it is possible that the meaning thereof is: abiding therein for ages in this kind of punishment, namely that they لا يَذُوقُونَ فِيهَا بَرْدًا وَلا شَرَابًا * إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا (taste therein no coolness and no drink, except scalding water and pus); and when those ages have passed, they receive other kinds of punishment than that, as He, exalted be His praise, said in His Book: وَإِنَّ لِلطَّاغِينَ لَشَرَّ مَآبٍ * جَهَنَّمَ يَصْلَوْنَهَا فَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ * هَذَا فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ حَمِيمٌ وَغَسَّاقٌ * وَآخَرُ مِنْ شَكْلِهِ أَزْوَاجٌ (And indeed, for the transgressors is the worst return: jahannam, wherein they burn, and what an evil resting-place; this — let them then taste it: scalding water and pus, and other [punishments] of its kind, in pairs). And this position seems to me the most consistent with the meaning of the verse.
And it is related from Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān concerning it that which Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Barqī related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Abī Salama related to us, saying: I asked Abū Muʿādh al-Khurāsānī about the words of Allah: (Abiding therein for ages), and he informed us on the authority of Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān, saying: it is abrogated (mansūkha); it is abrogated by فَلَنْ نَـزِيدَكُمْ إِلا عَذَابًا (We will never increase you except in punishment). But this position has no ground; for His words: (Abiding therein for ages) are a statement (khabar), and in statements no abrogation (naskh) takes place; abrogation takes place only in command and prohibition.
