Sad · Makki · ayah 57 of 88

Sad 38:57

هَـٰذَا فَلْيَذُوقُوهُ حَمِيمٌ وَغَسَّاقٌ

“This - so let them taste it - is scalding water and [foul] purulence.”

Saheeh International

Essence

In the Garden they call for whatever drink they wish; here the drink is set before them unasked: scalding water and a dark, flowing filth.

A reflection

Asked for, or handed over

On a hospital ward, a nurse brings round the tea trolley. She stops by an elderly man and asks what he would like: tea or coffee, milk, sugar. She knows already. He has had the same for six weeks. But he straightens a little in the bed each time she asks. Being asked is a kind of dignity.

Put this ayah beside the Garden a few lines earlier. There, the mindful are 'reclining, calling in it for abundant fruit and drink' (38:51). Yadʿūna: they call for it. Nothing arrives that was not wanted. And over all of it Allah says: 'This is truly Our provision; it never runs out' (38:54).

Here the same word, hādhā, 'this', points at a different cup. 'This, so let them taste it: scalding water and a dark, flowing filth.' Nobody calls for it. The verb is a command in the third person: let them taste. The drink is set before them by another will. One concise commentary adds the cruellest detail: it is their drink, and it does not quench thirst.

The contrast is not only in what is drunk. It is in who chooses. The people of the Garden are honoured by being asked. The people of the Fire have no choice left, because their choices were spent.

That makes the present precious. Today you still choose what you take in, in every sense: what you read, watch and listen to. Each of those is a small act of calling for something. The Garden is described as a place where that freedom is perfected, never taken away. Use it now on what you would be glad to be asked for there.

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.