| The King (Al-Mulk): (7) When they are cast therein...

The First Attribute: His saying, the Exalted: {When they are cast therein, they hear its roaring}

{أُلقُوا} (When they are cast): Thrown, just as firewood is thrown into a great fire and hurled into it. Similar to this is His saying: {حَصَبُ جَهَنَّم} (the fuel of Hell) (Al-Anbiyā’: 98).

Regarding His saying {سَمِعُوا لَهَا شَهِيقًا} (they hear its roaring), there are several interpretations:

1. The First View (Muqatil): They hear a shahīq (a loud, harsh inhalation or braying sound) belonging to Hell. This likely means the sound of its flames is likened to a shahīq. Al-Zajjāj said: The disbelievers hear a shahīq from the Fire, which is the ugliest of sounds, like the braying of a donkey. Al-Mubarrid said: It is, and Allah knows best, a breath like the breath of one who is enraged.
2. The Second View (‘Aṭā’): They hear the shahīq belonging to its inhabitants who were previously cast into it.
3. The Third View: They hear a shahīq coming from their own selves, as in His saying: {لَهُمْ فِيهَا زَفِيرٌ وَشَهِيقٌ} (For them therein will be a [deep] exhalation and a [harsh] inhalation) (Hūd: 106).

The preferred view is the first one.

The Second Attribute: His saying: {وَهِيَ تَفُورُ} (and it boils up/surges)

Al-Layth said: Everything that surges or bubbles up has fāra (boiled/surged). This applies to the boiling of a pot, smoke, anger, and water overflowing from the eye.

Ibn ‘Abbās said: It boils over them like the boiling of a cauldron. Mujāhid said: It surges over them just as a large amount of water surges with a small amount of grain (causing it to boil violently).

It is also possible that this refers to the surging of anger. Al-Mubarrid said: It is said, "I left so-and-so surging with anger" (yafūru ghaḍaban). This interpretation is confirmed by the subsequent verse.

< {It almost bursts with rage. Whenever a group is cast therein, its keepers ask them, "Did there not come to you a warner?"} >