Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 12 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:12

إِذَا رَأَتْهُم مِّن مَّكَانٍۭ بَعِيدٍ سَمِعُوا۟ لَهَا تَغَيُّظًا وَزَفِيرًا

“When it [i.e., the Hellfire] sees them from a distant place, they will hear its fury and roaring.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Long before they reach it, the Fire sees them, and they hear it seething and drawing its breath.

A reflection

Heard from far away, while there is time

The ayah describes a moment before arrival. The Fire is still far off, min makānin baʿīd. Yet it is already seen, and already heard. The early reports differ over the distance, some saying a year's travel, others a hundred or five hundred years. All agree on the point: the sound arrives long before the people do.

The root of baʿīd had a sad edge for the first hearers. Mourners at a grave would call to the dead: do not be far. Distance was where the departed went. Here distance is no protection at all.

One report shows what this ayah once did to listeners. Ibn Masʿūd was walking with companions, including al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym. They passed a blacksmith, and Ibn Masʿūd stood watching iron glowing in the fire. Then they passed a lime kiln on the bank of the Euphrates, flames roaring inside it. Ibn Masʿūd recited this very ayah. Al-Rabīʿ collapsed, and they carried him home. He did not come round until midday.

We need not copy the fainting to learn from it. What is striking is that he heard the ayah from far away, in this life. A kiln on a riverbank was enough to bring the far place near.

A walker on a coastal path hears a deep boom before the headland comes into view. Then another, and the path shakes slightly. When she rounds the corner she sees the blowhole: the sea forcing up through the rock. She heard it first. That is how the ayah wants to work on us.

The Quran lets us hear the roar now, from the greatest distance there is. This life is the far place. Each recitation is the sound arriving early.

The tragedy described in the ayah is not only the Fire. It is that those people heard it for the first time when it was already in front of them.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.