Taha · Makki · ayah 101 of 135

Taha 20:101

خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهِ ۖ وَسَآءَ لَهُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ حِمْلًا

“[Abiding] eternally therein,[853] and evil it is for them on the Day of Resurrection as a load -”

Saheeh International

Essence

They remain inside what they carried, and on that Day the load that once looked attractive shows its true and ugly face.

A reflection

Living inside the load

Remaining in it. In it, in what? The nearest thing the pronoun can point to is the wizr, the burden of the previous ayah. A narration-based commentary takes it exactly that way. They remain in their burdens, it says. The meaning is that they remain in the Fire because of their burdens. But the ayah speaks of the burden itself, since the sense is clear. A linguistic commentary agrees: in the wizr, meaning its punishment.

That is a startling image. In the previous ayah, the person who turned from the Reminder carries a load on his back. In this one, he lives inside it. What was once something he held has become the place where he stays.

The root of khālidīn deepens the picture. The lexicons, as the Word Dictionary records, connect it to firmness and clinging. The Arabs called the blackened stones of a desert hearth khawālid. The tents are struck, the camp's traces wear away, and those stones remain. Khuld is a staying that nothing wears away.

Many habits begin as things we carry and end as places we live. Picture a man who starts telling small lies at work to smooth things over. At first the lies are things he carries: he has to remember them. Ten years later he is living inside them. His whole working life is arranged around a version of himself he invented. He no longer carries the lie; he lives in it, and cannot find the door.

The ayah's lesson is stern, but it comes while the door is still open. Whatever we are carrying now can still be put down. I am surely the Ever-Forgiving to whoever repents (20:82). The time to set the load aside is before it becomes a house.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.