Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:35
The Day when it will be heated in the fire of Hell and seared therewith will be their foreheads, their flanks, and their backs, [it will be said], "This is what you hoarded for yourselves, so taste what you used to hoard."
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: يَوْمَ يُحْمَى عَلَيْهَا فِي نَارِ جَهَنَّمَ فَتُكْوَى بِهَا جِبَاهُهُمْ وَجُنُوبُهُمْ وَظُهُورُهُمْ هَذَا مَا كَنَزْتُمْ لأَنْفُسِكُمْ فَذُوقُوا مَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْنِزُونَ (35) (On the Day when it shall be heated in the fire of Hell (jahannam) and with which their foreheads, their sides, and their backs shall be branded: "This is what you hoarded for yourselves; so taste what you used to hoard." (9:35))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: So announce to these who hoard gold and silver and do not pay out from it the rights of Allah, O Muḥammad (the Prophet ﷺ), a painful chastisement (ʿadhāb) — on the Day when it shall be heated in the fire of Hell. The word "the Day" is connected to "the painful chastisement," as if it were said: He announces to them a painful chastisement with which Allah will torment them on a Day when it shall be heated.
By His word it shall be heated He means: the fire penetrates it and is fanned over it, that is: over the gold and silver that they have hoarded — in the fire of Hell, and with which their foreheads, their sides, and their backs shall be branded.
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And everything that is brought into the fire is "heated" (uḥmiya iḥmāʾan). One says of this: "I heated the iron in the fire, I heat it, a heating (aḥmaytu al-ḥadīdata fī al-nāri uḥmīhā iḥmāʾan)."
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His word and with which their foreheads shall be branded means: with the hoarded gold and silver, which is heated in the fire of Hell, Allah brands them. He says: Allah burns the foreheads of those who hoard it, and their sides and their backs — this is what you hoarded, and its meaning is: and it is said to them: this is what you hoarded in the world, O unbelievers who withheld your treasures from the duties obligated by Allah upon them, for yourselves — so taste what you used to hoard. He says: it is said to them: taste then the chastisement of Allah, on account of what you withheld of your possessions from the rights of Allah and hoarded out of boastfulness and ostentation.
And from His word this is what you hoarded "and it is said to them" has been omitted, because the wording indicates it.
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In accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
16675 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Ayyūb informed us, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, who said: Abū Dharr used to say: Announce to the hoarders a branding on the foreheads, a branding on the sides, and a branding on the backs, until the heat meets one another within their insides.
16676 — ...... he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of al-Jurayrī, on the authority of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Shikhkhīr, on the authority of al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays, who said: I arrived in Medina, and while I was sitting in a circle in which there was a company of the Quraysh, a man came with coarse clothing, a coarse body, and a coarse face. He stood before them and said: Announce to the hoarders a glowing stone that is heated in the fire of Hell, which is placed on the nipple of the breast of one of them until it comes out through the top of his shoulder blade, and which is placed on the top of his shoulder blade until it comes out through the nipple of his breasts, quivering. He said: Then those present lowered their heads, and I saw none of them answer him anything. He said: And he turned away, and I followed him until he sat down by a pillar, and I said: I saw that these did nothing but dislike what you said! Then he said: Indeed, these understand nothing.
16677 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: al-Ḥakam related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Qays related to me, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Murra al-Jamalī, on the authority of Abū Naṣr, on the authority of al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays, who said: I saw in the mosque of Medina a man with coarse clothing and a shabby appearance, who went around among the circles and said: Announce to the possessors of treasures a branding on their sides, a branding on their foreheads, and a branding on their backs! Then he went off, grumbling, while saying: What can the Quraysh do to me!
16678 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: Abū Dharr said: Announce to the possessors of treasures a branding on the foreheads, a branding on the sides, and a branding on the backs.
16679 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Qābūs, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: on the Day when it shall be heated in the fire of Hell, he said: a serpent that coils around his temple and his forehead, saying: I am your wealth with which you were miserly!
16680 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, on the authority of Maʿdān ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Thawbān: that the Prophet of Allah ﷺ used to say: Whoever leaves behind a treasure, for him it will be depicted on the Day of Resurrection as a bald serpent with two black spots above its eyes, which follows him and says: Woe to you, what are you? He then says: I am your treasure that you left behind after you! And it keeps following him until it makes him put his hand into its mouth and it bites it off, and then it follows the rest of his body.
16681 — al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father, who said: It reached me that the treasures will change on the Day of Resurrection into a serpent that follows its owner while he flees from it, and which says: I am your treasure! It seizes nothing of him without grasping it.
16682 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Murra, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, who said: By Him besides whom there is no god, no servant is branded with a treasure such that a dīnār touches a dīnār or a dirham a dirham; rather his skin is widened, and every dīnār and dirham is laid down separately.
16683 — ...... he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Murra, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, who said: There is no man who is branded with a treasure such that a dīnār is placed on a dīnār or a dirham on a dirham; rather his skin is widened.
