Tafsir of Al-Ghashiyah 88:6

{ They have no food except from a thorny plant } is an elucidation of their food, following the elucidation of their drink.

Al-Dari'—as 'Abd bin Humayd narrated from Ibn 'Abbas—is al-shibriq (a species of thorny plant) when it is dry. According to Ikrimah, it is a thorny tree that clings to the ground. Many others have said it is a type of thorn that camels graze upon while it is green; however, once it dries out, they avoid it, and it becomes a deadly poison. Abu Dhu'ayb said: "It grazed on the succulent shibriq until it withered and became dari', causing the healthy ones to keep away from it." Ibn Ghararah al-Hudhali said, describing camels and poor grazing land: "They were confined in a depression of dari', and all of them were humpbacked, with bleeding hooves, and reluctant to move."

Some linguists say al-dari' is the dried remains of the 'arfaj plant when it is crushed. Al-Zajjaj said it is a plant like the boxthorn. Al-Khalil said it is a green plant with a foul odor that the sea casts ashore. The apparent meaning is that it is dari' in reality. It has been said that it is a tree of fire resembling the dari'. You know that it is not difficult for Allah, who produced fire from the green tree, to cause the dari' tree to grow in the fire. Indeed, what is narrated in al-Buhur al-Zakhirah from al-Baghawi, reporting from Ibn 'Abbas in a marfu' manner, supports this: "Al-Dari' is something in the Fire resembling thorns; it is more bitter than aloe, more foul-smelling than a carcass, and hotter than fire." If this is authentic, then that is it.

Ibn Kaysan said: It is food for which they cry out (yadra'un), are humiliated, and supplicate to Allah, seeking deliverance, so it was named thus. Based on this, it could be a tree or something else. It is narrated from al-Hasan and a group that it is al-Zaqqum, and from Ibn Jubayr that it is stones in the Fire. It is also said that it is a valley in Hell; meaning, they have no food except from that place. Perhaps this is the place to which the pus of the people of Hell flows, which is al-ghaslin. If so, the reconciliation between this exclusivity and the exclusivity in His saying: { Nor any food except from the foul pus } is apparent, in that their food from that valley is the ghaslin that flows into it.

The same applies if Ibn Kaysan’s view is intended, and al-zaqqum would be identical to them as well. Its identity with al-dari'—on the view that it is a tree—is close. It is also said that the reconciliation is that al-dari' is used metaphorically or as a metonym, intended to signify food that is detested even by camels and other animals that graze on thorns; thus, it does not contradict it being zaqqum or ghaslin.

It is also said that the meaning is that they have no food at all, because dari' is not food even for beasts, let alone for humans—just as one might say, "So-and-so has no shade except the sun," meaning he has no shade. On this view, His saying: { Nor any food except from the foul pus } and His saying: { Indeed, the tree of Zaqqum is food for the sinful } are interpreted, and there is no contradiction at all.

It is further said that al-ghaslin, which is the pus, is within the divine power to be manifested in the form of al-dari' and al-zaqqum; thus, their food is al-ghaslin, and those two are the dari'. Its forced nature regarding the dari' is not hidden. Sometimes it is said, regarding the reconciliation on the view that the three are essentially different, that torments are of various kinds and the tormented are in strata; some are eaters of zaqqum, some are eaters of ghaslin, and some are eaters of dari', and for every gate of them is a portion allotted.