Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 100 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:100

لَهُمْ فِيهَا زَفِيرٌ وَهُمْ فِيهَا لَا يَسْمَعُونَ

“For them therein is heavy sighing, and they therein will not hear.”

Saheeh International

Essence

In the Fire there is groaning breath, and no hearing: those who would not truly listen are left where nothing comforting can be heard.

A reflection

They listened while playing; now they cannot hear

This surah opened with a portrait of the people it addresses. 'No fresh reminder comes to them from their Lord but they listen to it while they play, their hearts distracted' (21:2-3). They heard the words. They did not hear the message.

Ninety-eight ayat later, the same people are described again. 'And in it they do not hear.' The surah closes the circle. Those who would not truly listen when listening could save them are left where nothing can be heard at all.

One early commentator makes the link to the opening himself. He explains that 'they' in these ayat are the Makkans described at the start of the surah, who listened while at play.

The lexicons give samʿ a fuller meaning than the ear alone. It is a sound caught by the ear and let into the heart: hearing that understands, answers and obeys. In that full sense, many people with perfect ears never hear the Quran at all.

Picture a university student who sits through a whole year of lectures with her laptop open on other tabs. She is in the room for every session. At the final exam the questions sound faintly familiar, but nothing is there to answer them with. She attended, but she never heard.

The narrow image is that hearing is a matter of the ears. The truer picture is that hearing is a matter of the heart's door: open or shut. The ayah describes a door shut from the inside, at last shut from the outside too.

The question for the reader is not whether you have listened to the Quran. It is whether you have heard it, in the sense that changes what you do tomorrow.

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.