Abstract
This chapter takes the Qur’anic verse 28: 42 as its point of departure in the situating of the maqbūḥı̄n in the geographical space of Hell. It constructs an analysis based on the situating of the maqbūḥı̄n in Hell, which the Qurʾan maintains is a site of rejection and banishment from God’s mercy.
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Notes
- 1.
Al-Qaṣaṣ (28:42).
- 2.
al-Rāzı̄, Mafātı̄ḥ al-Ghayb, 24: 218.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
al-Ṭabarsı̄, Majmaʿ al-Bayān fi Tafsı̄r al-Qurʾān, ed. Hāshim al-Rasūlı̄ and Fadl Allah al-Ṭabāṭabāʿı̄ al-Yazdı̄ (Tehran: Sharikat al-Maʿārif al-Islāmiyya, 1959–1960), 7: 254.
- 5.
Ibid., 255.
- 6.
Ibn al-ʿArabı̄, Tafsı̄r al-Qurʾān al-Karı̄m (Beirut: Dār al-Yaqaẓa al-ʿArabiyya, 1968), 2: 229–30.
- 7.
Abdel Haleem trans., The Qur’an (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), xix–xx.
- 8.
Primary medieval manuals of eschatology are replete with these details. Studies, especially medieval, concerned with the eschatology of Hell abound and boast of tangible enthusiasm on the subject as illustrated in works such as Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarı̄’s (259–323/873–935) Kitāb Shajarat al-Yaqı̄n, ed. and trans. Castillo Castillo (Madrid: Instituto Hispano-Arabe de Cultura, 1987), 73–88; Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazālı̄’s (450-504/1058-1111) Kitāb Dhikr al-Mawt wa mā Baʿdah in Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dı̄n (Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, 198-), 4: 482–499; Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Qurṭubı̄’s al-Tadkhira fı̄ Aḥwāl al-Mawtā, ed. Aḥmad Ḥijāzı̄ al-Saqqā (Cairo: Maktabat al-Kulliyyāt al-Azhariyya, 1980), 2: 408–529; Kitāb al-Nihāya by Ismāʿı̄l b. ʿUmar Ibn Kathı̄r (700–773/1301–1373) ed. Ṭaha Muḥammad al-Zaynı̄ (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadı̄tha, 1969), 2: 202–267; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad Ibn Rajab’s (736–795/1336–1393) Al-Takhwı̄f min al-Nār, ed. Muḥammad Jamı̄l Ghāzı̄ (Cairo: Maktabat al-Imān, 1981). The entire book is devoted to the eschatology of Hell and is rich in vivid descriptions of the various chambers and tools of punishment, the transmogrification of Hell’s inhabitants, the diseases, and plagues found in Hell, etc.
- 9.
See Christian Lange, Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) Chaps. 3 and 4; some of these concerns have also been discussed in Nerina Rustomji’s The Garden and the Fire (New York: Columbia University Press 2009).
- 10.
Christian Lange, Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination (Cambridge: Cambrige University Press, 2008), 104. Traditions differ where major sins are (the list just kept on growing according to Lange) but the core major ones in all lists are: polytheism (shirk), disrespect towards one’s parents (ʿuqūq al-wālidayn), fornication (zinā), homicide (qatl), perjury (shahādat al-zūr), slander (qadhf), usury (ribā), usurpation of the inheritance of orphans (akl māl al-yatı̄m), the practice of sorcery (siḥr), apostasy (irtidād), desecration of the Holy Mosque in Mecca (ilḥād fı̄ masjid al-ḥaram) and flight from the battlefield (tawallā min al-zaḥf), see Lange for more, p. 104ff. See, also, Mustansir Mir, ‘Major Sin and Minor Sin’, Dictionary of Qur’anic Terms and Concepts, 124–26.
- 11.
See Lange, 104ff.
- 12.
Lange, 111. For the reasons beyond this growth, see ibid. 112ff.
- 13.
See Ibn ʿArabı̄’s controversial stand on Pharaoh as being spiritually saved as he confessed his belief in God at the last moment just before drowning. Ibn ʿArabı̄ casts this view as an aside in his fuṣūṣ, as Ernst maintains, but his comment took a life of its own in studies and works supporting and refuting the view. See, Carl W. Ernst, ‘Controversies over Ibn ʿArabı̄’s fuṣūṣ: The Faith of Pharaoh,’ Islamic Culture CIX, no. 3 (1985): 259–66.
- 14.
cf. Neal Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an (London: SCM Press, 2003), 115.
- 15.
For example, Q. 2:126, 2:206, 3:12, 3:162, 5:10, 8:16; 9:73, 9:113, 11:98, 13:18, 14:29, 22:51, 37:23, 38:56, 38:60.
- 16.
Al-Qaṣaṣ (28:42).
- 17.
Nazı̄h Muḥammad Iʿlawı̄, al-Shakhṣiyyāt al-Qurʾāniyya (Amman: Dār Ṣafāʾ li-l-Nashr wa l-Tawzı̄ʿ, 2006), 254.
- 18.
Mir, ‘Pride’, Dictionary of Qur’anic Terms and Concepts, 161–62. See, also al-Ghazālı̄, Iḥiyāʾ ʿulūm al-dı̄n, for a discussion on the diseases of the heart of which pride is one.
- 19.
Al-Rāzı̄ lists various opinions which contend that it is giving of one-tenth of what has been watered by rainfall and half of that for what has been watered by machinery. Other opinions maintain it was the ṣadaqa which included giving a little to the poor or passers-by on the day of the harvest but then the zakāt was prescribed in Medina and this sura is Meccan, so the verse was abrogated to include it as a zakat. al-Rāzı̄ includes this opinion but does not think it is correct because it should remain in force based on linguistic evidence of the word ḥaqq which only applies to what is known and measured that is zakāt, not charity which has no measure but is left to personal ability and discretion. See, Mafātı̄ḥ al-Ghayb, 13: 175–76.
- 20.
Ibn al-Muʿtazz, al-Badı̄ʿ, ed. Ignatius Kratchovsky (Kuwait: Dār al-Ması̄ra, 1983), 1. Third edition.
- 21.
For more on the issue of synonymity (al-tarāduf) in Arabic, see Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarı̄, al-Furūq fı̄ l-Lugha, where he highlights that no two synonyms are equal and there are nuances between them. Thus, when one uses the word ‘synonymous’, one should not assume equality.
- 22.
al-Sharı̄f al-Raḍı̄, Talkhı̄s al-Bayān fı̄ Majāzāt al-Qur’ān, ed. ʿAlı̄ Maḥmūd Maqlad (Beirut: Dār Maktabat al-Ḥayāt, n.d.), 57.
- 23.
Yasien Mohamed, Fitrah: The Islamic Concept of Human Nature, 126.
- 24.
For a comprehensive discussion of najāsa and a full list of things that are considered impure, see Z. Maghen, ‘Ablution’ in EI 3. See also, Mustansir Mir, ‘Impurity’, Dictionary of Qur’anic Terms and Concepts, 102.
- 25.
Lange, Justice, Punishment and the Medieval Muslim Imagination, 138.
- 26.
al-Rāzı̄ contends that God is outside Space (la yajūz ʿalayhi al-makān) and so the ‘face of God’ is read as His way that people worship Him through (qiblatihi al-lati yuʿbad biha) or His mercy, grace, reward, and blessings (raḥmatuhu wa niʿmatuhu wa ṭarı̄q thawābuhu wa iltimās marḍātuhu). See, Mafātı̄ḥ al-Ghayb, 4: 21.
- 27.
Andrew Rippin, “Desiring the Face of God’: The Qur’anic Symbolism of Personal Responsibilty’ in Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an, ed. Issa J. Boullata, (Richmond: Curzon, 2000), 118.
- 28.
Ibn Qutayba, ʿUyūn al-Akhbār: Kitāb al-Suʾdud, (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, 1996), 281. I am grateful to Bashir Saade for this reference. This report is also related in al-Dumairı̄, Ḥayāt al-Ḥaywān al-Kubrā (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 2:320.
- 29.
Ibid.
- 30.
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, al-Jawāb al-Kāfı̄ li-man Saʾal ʿan al-Dawāʾ al-Shāfı̄, ed. ʿAbd al-Ghaffār Suleimān al-Bindārı̄ (Cairo and Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-Miṣrı̄ and Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnānı̄, 1990), 90. [al-maʿāṣı̄ tufsidu l-ʿaqla, fa-inna li-l-ʿaqli nūran, al-maʿṣiyyatu tuṭfiʾu nūra l-ʿaqli wa la-budda, wa idhā ṭufiʾa nūruhu ḍaʿufa wa naquṣa]. A similar reasoning but through targhı̄b (benefits of spiritual growth) rather than tarhı̄b (consequences of sins) is found in al-Ghazālı̄’s Mishkāt al-Anwār [The Niche of Lights].
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Nerina Rustomji, The Garden and the Fire, 42.
- 33.
Ibid., 50.
- 34.
M.H. Fadel, ‘Chastisement and Punishment’ in EQ. Online.
- 35.
Rustomji, The Garden and the Fire, 50.
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bin Tyeer, S.R. (2016). Qubḥ and the Way to Hell. In: The Qur’an and the Aesthetics of Premodern Arabic Prose. Literatures and Cultures of the Islamic World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59875-2_3
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