As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 55 of 182

As-Saffat 37:55

فَٱطَّلَعَ فَرَءَاهُ فِى سَوَآءِ ٱلْجَحِيمِ

“And he will look and see him[1294] in the midst of the Hellfire.”

Saheeh International

Essence

He looked, and saw his old friend at the dead centre of the Fire, as far from every edge as it is possible to be.

A reflection

The middle, equally far from every shore

A swimmer sets out across a lake on a calm morning. Halfway over, her arms begin to tire. She looks back and the shore she left is far away. She looks ahead and the far bank is just as far. There is no nearer edge to aim for. The middle is the worst place to run out of strength.

The commentaries explain sawāʾ al-jaḥīm simply: the middle of the Fire. But one of them says why the middle has that name. It is called sawāʾ because its distance to every side is equal. The lexicons agree. The sawāʾ of a house or a valley was its centre, equally far from every edge. The root itself means evenness: ground levelled flat, two goods that weigh the same. This is established in the sources.

The commentaries also preserve a scholar's complaint that shows how the word was used. I used to write, he said, until my sawāʾ gave way: my middle, my back, the core of my body.

So the companion is not near any border of the Fire. He is not at a gate, or at a wall that might be climbed. He is at the point furthest from all of them.

That detail should give us pause, because the Quran uses the same word for the other road. People who stray are said to have strayed from sawāʾ al-sabīl, the level middle of the path (5:77). The believer is asked to stay on the even centre of the straight way. The companion left it, mocking. He ended at the centre of another place. The word is the same. Only the place has changed.

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.