المطففين · الآية 16

Commentary

The verse does not say "and they are", which would gather the two states into one breath, nor "so they are", which would press the second against the first. It uses the particle of delay, so between the barring and the fire there lies a distance in rank that no words fill. The same particle returns in the next verse, and the stages become three: a barring, then a fire, then a saying.

In the preceding verse they were "barred", a passive participle, denoting an act that falls on them and does not proceed from them. Here they are "those going in", an active participle, denoting an act that proceeds from them. At the fire itself the form turns over: they were held back, with the holding done to them, and they arrive as those who arrive.

Roasting, in its letters, is a clinging contact whose heat passes into what it touches and then stretches out in time; from it comes the phrase for meat brought to the fire until it is cooked through in its depth, and on its face as well. The plural nūn is dropped for the annexation, giving "those going into the blaze" in place of "those going in, of the blaze", and even the letter that would stand between the one arriving and what he arrives at falls away.

The fire is given no colour, breadth or height. It is named al-jaḥīm, a word which in its letters denotes a massing that runs and rubs in a narrow place until it catches and cannot get out, and is then drawn together into one clinging body. It is known by being pent in before it is known by its heat, and its definite article points back to a fire already known in the address, not one being defined now.

Here the thread runs straight: a film holding the heart under it, then a barrier holding them off from their Rabb (the Nurturing Sustainer), then a fire whose very definition is that it holds in what is in it. These are three holdings in three verses, and the last of them is an inside that is entered, not a covering laid on top.

Thumma orders and lets go, so a distance in rank lies between the barring and the fire. The form then turns over: they were "barred", with the act falling on them, and now they are "those going in", with the act coming from them; roasting is a clinging contact whose heat passes into what it touches and stretches out in time. The plural ending drops for the annexation, so not one letter is left standing between the one arriving and what he arrives at. The fire is given a name, al-jaḥīm, and no flame; in its letters the word denotes what masses, is penned, and catches. Three verses hold three enclosures: a layer over the heart, a barrier before the Rabb, then an inside that is entered, not something that covers from above.

Two Readings

The two readings do not conflict. The first names and describes; the second reads the turning of the form, the dropped ending, and what the name itself says. This book chooses the additional listening.