Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 72 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:72

قِيلَ ٱدْخُلُوٓا۟ أَبْوَٰبَ جَهَنَّمَ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا ۖ فَبِئْسَ مَثْوَى ٱلْمُتَكَبِّرِينَ

“[To them] it will be said, "Enter the gates of Hell to abide eternally therein, and wretched is the residence of the arrogant."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The verdict is spoken without naming the speaker: enter, to remain; and the last word on the deniers is that they were arrogant.

A reflection

Many doors into one place

Udkhulū abwāba jahannam: enter the gates of Hell. The word is plural, abwāb, gates. Several commentaries note that they are seven. Another surah says so: it has seven gates, and for each gate a portion of them is assigned (15:44). One adds: according to your ranks within it.

The root of bāb is homely, and its image is established in the lexicons. It was the door of a house, the gate of a town, the gap cut to let water into a field. The word stretched to any way in. A book's chapters are its abwāb, its doors.

That image suggests something sobering. There is not one road into ruin. There are many doors, each matched to a different degree of what was done. Some walk towards ruin through greed, some through cruelty, some through the quiet pride that never once bowed.

The reverse is a mercy. The Garden too has gates, and the next ayah speaks of them. A believer does not need to enter by everyone else's door. He needs to keep walking towards one of them.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.