Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 13 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:13

وَإِذَآ أُلْقُوا۟ مِنْهَا مَكَانًا ضَيِّقًا مُّقَرَّنِينَ دَعَوْا۟ هُنَالِكَ ثُبُورًا

“And when they are thrown into a narrow place therein bound in chains, they will cry out thereupon for destruction.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Cast into a narrow place, bound to what they bound themselves to, they finally call out, and what they call for is ruin.

A reflection

Distress lives in narrow places

The root of ḍayyiq is simply the opposite of wideness. Yet the first hearers used it for far more than space. A chest that contracts in grief was narrow. A man who could not cope with a matter was said to find his arm-span narrowed. Poverty was ḍīqa, a tight state of life. One old line in the lexicons says lands do not narrow on their people; men's characters do.

The ayah puts all of that into one place. The Fire is vast, yet they are thrown into a narrow corner of it. One early report likens it to the iron butt fitted tight on the end of a spear shaft.

A classical commentator draws out why this detail is here. Anguish comes with narrowness, just as relief comes with room. That is why the Garden is described as wide as the heavens and the earth (3:133).

You do not need a theology lesson to feel this. On a show-cave tour, the guide warns of the 'letterbox', a slot in the rock a metre long. A man goes through on his side, chest against the stone. Halfway, his breathing changes. Nothing is hurting him. There is simply no room, and the body panics at no room.

The Quran knows this about us, and uses it twice. Once for the Hereafter, in this ayah. Once for this life: whoever turns away from My remembrance will have a narrow life, maʿīshatan ḍankā (20:124). There are people with large houses and full diaries who live in that narrow place.

The opposite gift is also named. Whomever Allah wills to guide, He opens his chest wide; whomever He leaves astray, He makes his chest tight (6:125). Did We not expand your chest, He asks His Messenger (94:1).

If your chest feels narrow today, the ayah points to the way out. It is not a bigger room. It is turning towards Him: His words, His remembrance, a prayer said slowly. Ask the One who widens chests to widen yours.

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.