Tafseer of The Announcement · An-Naba · 78:25
Except 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 statement: إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا ("except boiling water and al-ghassāq"). The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: they taste therein no coolness and no drink, except boiling water (ḥamīm) that has been boiled to the utmost of its heat, so that it is like molten metal that roasts the faces; and no coolness except al-ghassāq.
The commentators differed concerning the meaning of al-ghassāq. Some said: it is what flows of the pus (ṣadīd) of the people of hell (jahannam).
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb and Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, both saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya ibn Saʿd, concerning His statement: حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: it is what flows from their skins.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: al-Muʿtamir related to us, on the authority of his father, he said: Abū ʿAmr related to us, he said: ʿIkrima claimed that he had told them concerning His statement: وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: what comes out of their eyes of pus and blood.
Ibn Bashshār and Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, both saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm and Abū Razīn: إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا — both said: the washing-fluid of the people of the Fire (al-nār) — that is the wording of Ibn Bashshār; but as for Ibn al-Muthannā, he said in his narration: what flows from their pus.
And Ibn Bashshār related to us another time, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and he said as Ibn al-Muthannā said.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Razīn: وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: what flows from their pus.
Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr and Abū Razīn, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, the same.
Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: غَسَّاقًا — it was related to us that al-ghassāq is: what flows between his skin and his flesh.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, that he said: it has reached me that it is what flows from their tears.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: what flows from their pus of the cold; that Sufyān said, and another said: the tears.
Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: al-ḥamīm are the tears of their eyes in the Fire, which gather in the channels of the Fire, after which they are given of it to drink; and al-ghassāq is the pus that comes out of their skins when the Fire melts them, in pools in which it gathers, after which they are given of it to drink.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: al-ghassāq is what drips from their skins and what flows from their stench.
And others said: al-ghassāq is the bitter cold (zamharīr).
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, he said: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا — he says: the bitter cold (zamharīr).
Abū Kurayb and Abū al-Sāʾib and Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, they said: Ibn Idrīs related to us, he said: I heard Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His statement: إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: that which they cannot taste because of its cold.
He said: Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: إِلا حَمِيمًا وَغَسَّاقًا — he said: that which they cannot endure because of its cold.
Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: al-ghassāq is that which cannot be endured because of its cold.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, he said: al-ghassāq is the bitter cold (zamharīr).
Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, he said: al-ghassāq is the bitter cold (zamharīr).
And others said: it is the stinking, and that is in the Ṭakhārian language.
* Mention of who said that:
It was related to me on the authority of al-Musayyab ibn Sharīk, on the authority of Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayyān, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Burayda, he said: al-ghassāq is in the Ṭakhārian language: the stinking.
And al-ghassāq is, in my view, of the faʿʿāl-form, derived from their expression: "ghasaqat ʿaynu fulān," when its tears flow, and "ghasaqa al-jurḥ," when its pus flows. To that belongs the word of Allah: وَمِنْ شَرِّ غَاسِقٍ إِذَا وَقَبَ ("and against the evil of the darkness when it falls"), wherein by al-ghāsiq is meant: the night when it enshrouds and covers the things; and thereby is meant its onrush upon the things, like the onrush of the flowing flood. So if al-ghassāq is what I have described of flowing matter, then it is necessary to say: that which Allah has promised this people and of which He informed that they will taste it in the Hereafter of drink is the liquid of the bitter cold (zamharīr) in hell (jahannam), which unites with the severity of its cold the stench.
As Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Yaʿmar ibn Bishr related to us, he said: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, he said: Rishdīn ibn Saʿd related to us, he said: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith related to us, on the authority of Abū al-Samḥ, on the authority of Abū al-Haytham, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, he said: "If a bucket of al-ghassāq were poured out upon the world, it would make the people of the world stink."
It was related to me on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb, he said: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, on the authority of Abū Qabīl, on the authority of Abū Mālik, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, that he said: "Do you know what al-ghassāq is?" They said: Allah knows better. He said: "It is the thick pus; if a 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."
If someone says: you have said that al-ghassāq is the bitter cold (zamharīr), and the bitter cold is the utmost of cold — how then can the bitter cold be liquid? Then it is said: indeed, the cold that cannot be endured nor borne can take the form of that which flows from the bodies of the people of pus and matter.