Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 104 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:104

تَلْفَحُ وُجُوهَهُمُ ٱلنَّارُ وَهُمْ فِيهَا كَـٰلِحُونَ

“The Fire will sear their faces, and they therein will have taut smiles.[968]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The face that turned away from the signs is the first thing the Fire meets, and it is left in a grimace it cannot undo.

A reflection

Why the face, and why first

Watch a toddler when the person she loves walks into the room. She does not just look up. Her whole face turns, and her body follows it. The face goes first, towards whatever the heart wants.

The lexicons say the root of wajh, face, means facing. It is the first thing that meets you, and the noblest part of the body you can see. So the front of anything is its wajh. The wall that holds a house's door is its face. The first hours of the day are the face of the day. And the face is what you turn towards whatever you are seeking.

Now read the ayah's word order. In Arabic it runs: it blasts their faces, the Fire. The object comes before the subject. One classical commentator explains the choice. The face is the most honoured part of a person, so describing what happens to it deters most strongly from the deeds that lead there. That is why it is brought forward, before the Fire itself is even named.

There is a further, quieter logic. The next ayah describes these people when the signs were recited to them (23:105). They turned their faces away. Elsewhere the Quran describes a man who heard the revelation, then frowned and scowled, then turned his back in pride (74:22-23). The face that turned from the truth in this world is the face that meets the Fire in the next.

The Quran's other picture of the face is the opposite. Ibrāhīm says: I have turned my face to the One who created the heavens and the earth (6:79). To turn your face is to give your direction, your attention, your whole self.

So the question this ayah asks is simple and searching. Every day your face turns towards something first. A screen, a worry, a person, a prayer. What does your face turn towards when no one is directing it?

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.