Al-Humazah · Makki · ayah 8 of 9

Al-Humazah 104:8

إِنَّهَا عَلَيْهِم مُّؤْصَدَةٌ

“Indeed, it [i.e., Hellfire] will be closed down upon them”

Saheeh International

Essence

The man who shut his wealth away from everyone finds a door shut on him, and the only time to open any door is now.

A reflection

Locked in with what you locked away

Awṣada al-bāb means to shut a door fast; a cooking pot could be covered the same way. One early explanation calls it the word of Quraysh for closing a door. And a waṣīda was a stone fold built in the mountains to keep flocks safe: wealth, for a desert Arab, shut behind stone.

The man who loved his wealth locked it away from everyone. So the answer is a Fire locked upon him. A classical commentary spells out the match. The one who loves his wealth shuts it away. So the ayah answers with a Fire shut over him. What he did to his money is done to him.

A classical writer on the next world adds a vivid detail. The pillars of the next ayah, he says, hold the doors shut from behind. They are like a great stone rolled against a door. An early commentator describes it further. No door is opened, no gloom escapes, and no breath of relief enters, for ever.

Look at what we lock now. The safe in the wardrobe. The password vault. The gated street with its barrier and guard. The private account nobody may see into. None of these is wrong in itself. The question is what the lock is keeping out: thieves, or the people who had a right to share?

The same letters hold another picture. In the story of the cave, a dog stretched out on the waṣīd, the threshold, guarding the sleepers (18:18). One closing shelters; another traps. The young men of the cave had shut themselves away from a corrupt city for the sake of their faith. The man of this surah shut his wealth away from people for the sake of his wealth.

The difference is what you closed yourself to while you still could.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.