Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 60 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:60

وَيَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ تَرَى ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا۟ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ وُجُوهُهُم مُّسْوَدَّةٌ ۚ أَلَيْسَ فِى جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًى لِّلْمُتَكَبِّرِينَ

“And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who lied about Allāh [with] their faces blackened. Is there not in Hell a residence for the arrogant?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who spoke falsely about Allah will meet the Day with darkened faces, and the arrogant will find their lodging already prepared.

A reflection

The proud made the size of ants

The ayah ends with a question that needs no answer. Is there not in Hell a lodging for the arrogant? Several commentaries supply the reply: yes, there is. Arrogance is named here as the root beneath the lie.

The Prophet ﷺ described what happens to that arrogance on the Day. Al-Tirmidhi records him saying that the arrogant will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection like tiny ants, in the form of men. Humiliation will cover them from every side. Al-Tirmidhi graded it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

The image is precise. Arrogance is the habit of making oneself large. On the Day, the arrogant keep their human shape but lose all their size. They become the smallest things in the crowd, trodden underfoot.

Picture a man who, at the height of his fame, insisted that corridors be cleared wherever he walked. Staff were told not to look at him. He demanded the front table at every dinner. Years later, after a scandal, he stands in a queue at a pharmacy. Nobody recognises him. A child bumps into him and does not apologise. He has never felt so small, and nobody even notices.

That is a faint shadow of the inversion the hadith describes. The more space a person demands in this world, the less they will have in the next.

There is a quiet mercy in knowing this now. Arrogance feels like strength from the inside. The ayah and the hadith show its true scale. It is worth choosing smallness voluntarily, in humility before Allah and gentleness with people, rather than having it imposed.

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.