Surah Sad 38:60
ﳈ ﳉ ﳊ ﳋ ﳌ ﳍ ﳎ ﳏ ﳐ ﳑ ﳒ ﳓ ﳔ
They will say, "Nor you! No welcome for you. You, [our leaders], brought this upon us, and wretched is the settlement."
Tafsir of Sad 38:55-61
Tafsir
Al-Kashshaf
Verse range: 38:55-61
{هذا} Meaning: This matter is as mentioned.
{فبئس المهاد} Like His saying: {They shall have a bed of Hell, and over them coverings} (Al-A'raf: 41). He likens what is beneath them of Fire to the *mihad* (bed) upon which a sleeper lies. It means: "This is boiling water, so let them taste it," or "This is the punishment, so let them taste it." Then He begins a new sentence: {It is boiling water and *ghassaq* (pus/intense cold)}. Or, it is as if He said: "Let them taste this," similar to {And fear Me} (Al-Baqarah: 40), meaning: "Let them taste this."
- Ghassaq (with takhfif or tashdid): That which flows from the pus of the people of Hell. It is said: "The eye ghasaqat," when its tears flow.
- It is said: The hamim (boiling water) burns with its heat, and the ghassaq burns with its cold.
- It is said: If a single drop of it were to fall in the East, it would cause the people of the West to stink, and vice versa.
- Al-Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Ghassaq is a punishment known only to Allah. Just as people failed to obey Allah, He hid a reward for them in His saying: {No soul knows what is hidden for them of comfort for the eyes} (As-Sajdah: 17). And just as they hid disobedience, He hid a punishment for them.
{وآخر من شكله أزواج} * ***Akhar***: Other things tasted, similar to this one in intensity and horror. * ***Azwaj***: Species/types. * It is recited as (*wa-ukhar*), meaning: "And another punishment," or "another thing tasted." * ***Azwaj*** is an adjective for *akhar*, as it is permissible for it to be of various kinds, or it is an adjective for the three: *hamim*, *ghassaq*, and another of its kind.
{هذا فوج مقتحم معكم} This is a dense crowd that has forced its way into the Fire with you—meaning, entered the Fire in your company and proximity. *Iqtiham* is to ride into hardship and enter it. *Qahma* is hardship. This is a narration of the speech of the transgressors to one another; they say this. The *fawj* (crowd) refers to their followers who forced their way into misguidance with them, so they force their way into the punishment with them.
{لا مرحبا بهم} A curse from them upon their followers. When you say to someone you are cursing: "No *marhaban* (welcome) to them," it means: "May you not come to a spacious land, but rather a narrow one." Or: "May your land not be spacious," then you add "No" as a curse. {Bihim} clarifies who is being cursed.
{إنهم صالو النار} A justification for why they deserve the curse. Similar to His saying: {Every time a nation enters, it curses its sister} (Al-A'raf: 38). * It is said: {This is a crowd forcing its way with you} is the speech of the keepers (of Hell) to the leaders of the disbelievers regarding their followers, and {No welcome to them, they are entering the Fire} is the speech of the leaders. * It is said: All of this is the speech of the keepers.
{قالوا بل أنتم لا مرحبا بكم} The followers say: "Rather, you—no welcome to you." They mean: "The curse you invoked upon us, you are more deserving of it." They justify this by saying: {You brought it upon us}. The pronoun refers to the punishment or their entry into it. * *If you ask:* What is the meaning of them "bringing" the punishment to them? * *I say:* The one who brings it is the one who performed the evil deed. Allah says: {Taste the punishment of the Burning * This is because of what your hands have brought forth} (Al-Anfal: 51). But since the leaders were the cause of it through their misguidance, and the punishment was the recompense for it, it is said: "You brought it upon us." He made the leaders the ones who brought it, and the recompense the thing brought. He combined two metaphors, for the doers are the ones who truly brought it, not their leaders, and the deed is what is brought, not its recompense.
- If you ask: If the saying {No welcome to them} is the speech of the keepers, what do you make of {Rather, you—no welcome to you}? The addressees (the leaders) did not speak anything that would make this a response to them?
- I say: It is as if it were said: "This which the keepers invoked upon us, you leaders are more deserving of it than us because of your misguiding us and being the cause of the punishment we are in." This is correct, just as if a group adorned some evils for another group, and they committed them, and it was said to the adorners: "May Allah disgrace them, how evil is their deed!" Then the one who was adorned for says to the adorners: "Rather, you are more deserving of disgrace than us; were it not for you, we would not have committed that."