Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 71 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:71

وَسِيقَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ زُمَرًا ۖ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءُوهَا فُتِحَتْ أَبْوَٰبُهَا وَقَالَ لَهُمْ خَزَنَتُهَآ أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِّنكُمْ يَتْلُونَ عَلَيْكُمْ ءَايَـٰتِ رَبِّكُمْ وَيُنذِرُونَكُمْ لِقَآءَ يَوْمِكُمْ هَـٰذَا ۚ قَالُوا۟ بَلَىٰ وَلَـٰكِنْ حَقَّتْ كَلِمَةُ ٱلْعَذَابِ عَلَى ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ

“And those who disbelieved will be driven to Hell in groups until, when they reach it, its gates are opened and its keepers will say, "Did there not come to you messengers from yourselves, reciting to you the verses of your Lord and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours?" They will say, "Yes, but the word [i.e., decree] of punishment has come into effect upon the disbelievers."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The deniers are driven in companies to gates that open only as they arrive, and asked one question to which they can only say yes.

A reflection

The surah of the companies

This ayah contains the word that names the whole surah: zumar, companies or throngs. It appears twice at the close of Az-Zumar. Here, the deniers are driven to Hell in zumar. Two ayat later, the God-conscious are led to the Garden in zumar (39:73).

The commentaries explain the word as groups moving one after another, company after company. One adds that the companies are ordered by rank: the deniers grouped by their depth of misguidance, the God-conscious by their degrees. The root has two pictures in it. One is sound, the call of an ostrich or the note of a reed pipe. The other is a company of people.

So a surah that began with a call to pure worship (39:2-3) ends with humanity sorted into two great processions. Everything in between, the signs, the arguments, the warnings, the promise of forgiveness, has been preparing for this moment of sorting.

Picture crowds leaving a stadium after a cup final. Stewards release the stands in waves, section by section. Every person walks out with the people they sat among. Nobody chose their stand on the way out. They chose it when they bought their ticket.

The surah's title is quietly a question. Every reader will walk in one of these companies. Which one is being chosen now, in the company we keep, the deeds we do, the worship we offer?

It is striking that a surah should be named not after a prophet or a story, but after the final procession. Az-Zumar keeps the end in view from its very name. Reading it is like reading a ticket, while there is still time to change the seat printed on it.

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.