An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 121 of 176

An-Nisa 4:121

أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ مَأْوَىٰهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَلَا يَجِدُونَ عَنْهَا مَحِيصًا

“The refuge of those will be Hell, and they will not find from it an escape.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who took Satan as their ally end up where his road leads: Hell is the home they return to, with nowhere left to swerve.

A reflection

A homecoming with no home in it

Maʾwā is a word of homecoming. The classical lexicons say it is the place anything returns to, by night or by day. Camels 'returned' to their people at evening. Birds drew close together, settling side by side. The root has a second branch too: tenderness, a heart going out to someone.

Now hear the ayah. Their maʾwā, their place of return, is Hell.

The word is chosen with terrible precision. After a lifetime of following promises, this is where the road comes home. Every evening has a place it returns to. Every life does too.

The previous ayah described Satan's promises as delusion. This ayah shows where the deluded actually arrive. The sequence is a story in two lines: the brochure, then the address.

Picture a man who works abroad for forty years, sending money home to build a house he will retire to. Each summer he sees photographs: the walls rising, the roof going on. At seventy he lands, takes a taxi from the airport and stands before it. The walls are a shell. The builder spent the money long ago. The photos were of somebody else's house.

That is the bitterness of a false homecoming. The life was spent travelling towards it.

The ayah is not written to gloat. It is written while the reader can still change the address. The road you walk now is the road that comes home. So look at the destination on your own ticket. Ask honestly where the promises you are following tend to arrive.

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.