Tafseer of The Overthrowing · At-Takwir · 81:6
And when the seas are filled with flame
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: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are set ablaze") (81:6). The people of interpretation (the exegetes) differed concerning its meaning. Some of them said: its meaning is: and when the seas are kindled into fire and become hot.
* Mention of who said that:
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥurayth related to us, saying: al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, on the authority of Abī al-ʿĀliya, who said: Ubayy ibn Kaʿb related to me: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are set ablaze"), he said: the jinn said to the humans: we bring you the news; so go to the seas, and behold, they blaze up as fire.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, who said: ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, said to a man of the Jews: where is Hell (jahannam)? He said: the sea. Thereupon he (ʿAlī) said: I only regard him as speaking the truth: وَالْبَحْرِ الْمَسْجُورِ ("By the filled sea") (52:6), ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are filled") — with a softened (undoubled) jīm.
Ḥawthara ibn Muḥammad al-Minqarī related to me, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, saying: Mujālid related to us, saying: an old man from Bajīla informed me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement: إِذَا الشَّمْسُ كُوِّرَتْ ("When the sun is wound up") (81:1), he said: Allah winds up the sun, the moon, and the stars into the sea, and then He sends over them a west wind which blows upon it until it becomes fire; and that is His statement: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are set ablaze").
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are set ablaze"), he said: they are kindled on the Day of Resurrection; it is claimed that this is "tasjīr" (the kindling) in the language of the Arabs.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of Ḥafṣ ibn Ḥumayd, on the authority of Shimr ibn ʿAṭiyya, concerning His statement: وَالْبَحْرِ الْمَسْجُورِ ("By the kindled sea") (52:6), he said: comparable to the kindled oven; ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are kindled") is the like of it.
He said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are kindled"), he said: set alight.
And others said: its meaning is: they overflowed.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abī Yaʿlā, on the authority of Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are filled"), he said: they overflowed.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abī Yaʿlā, on the authority of Rabīʿ, the like of it.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Kalbī, concerning His statement: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are filled"), he said: they were filled. Do you not see that He has said: وَالْبَحْرِ الْمَسْجُورِ ("By the filled sea") (52:6)?
I was told on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His statement: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas are broken open"), he says: they were broken open (made into springs).
And others said: rather, what is meant by it is that their water disappears.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas..."), he said: their water disappeared, so that not a drop remained in them.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas..."), he said: their water sank away and disappeared.
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Dhāriʿ related to me, saying: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, concerning this wording: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas..."), he said: they dried up.
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Abū Rajāʾ related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, the like of it.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abī Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His statement: ( وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ سُجِّرَتْ ) ("And when the seas..."), he said: they dried up.
And the most correct of the statements concerning it is the statement of the one who says: its meaning is: they were filled until they overflowed, so that they burst open and streamed forth, just as Allah described it in the other place, where He said: وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ فُجِّرَتْ ("And when the seas burst forth") (82:3). The Arabs say of the river or the filled well: "water masjūr" (filled water); and to this belongs the statement of Labīd:
They both trod the middle of the watercourse, and cleft
a [pool] filled with water, with adjoining, widespread bank-reeds. (2)
And by "al-masjūra" he means: the one filled with water.
The reciters differed concerning its recitation. The majority of the reciters of Medina and Kufa recited ( سُجِّرَتْ ) with a doubled jīm. And some reciters of Basra recited it with a softened (undoubled) jīm.
And the correct word concerning it is: that they are two well-known recitations which are close to one another in meaning; with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he has hit upon the correct.
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Footnotes:
(2) The verse is by Labīd in his muʿallaqa (see it in the commentaries of al-Zawzanī and al-Tibrīzī). The author has already cited it as a witness in volume (16:71); refer back there.
