An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 145 of 176

An-Nisa 4:145

إِنَّ ٱلْمُنَـٰفِقِينَ فِى ٱلدَّرْكِ ٱلْأَسْفَلِ مِنَ ٱلنَّارِ وَلَن تَجِدَ لَهُمْ نَصِيرًا

“Indeed, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire - and never will you find for them a helper -”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who wore faith as a mask end in the Fire's lowest depth, and none of the helpers they cultivated comes.

A reflection

Rope knotted onto rope

Fī l-darki l-asfali mina l-nār: in the lowest depth of the Fire.

The root of dark has a working image from desert wells. When the well-rope was too short to reach the water, a second length was knotted on at the bucket. That added rope was a darak. One major commentator records the Arabs saying: give me a darak to join to my rope, when the first could not reach the bottom.

From that came the word for a level going downwards. Commentators note the pairing. The Garden has darajāt, steps that climb. The Fire has darakāt, levels that descend. They are called so, two commentators explain, because they follow one beneath another.

Picture a family on a farm holiday who find an old stone well in the yard. The teenage son lowers the bucket. It swings at the end of the rope, dry. The farmer, amused, hands him another coil, and he knots it on. Then another. Each knot takes the bucket deeper into the cold dark below.

That is a sobering way to read the hypocrites' path. No one is thrown into the lowest depth in one movement. They tie on one more length at a time. A little hedge. A little mockery. A little show in prayer. Each knot lowers them further.

And the image works in the other direction too. Every sincere act is a step on the darajāt, climbing. Nothing in a life is level. Every choice either knots on more rope or climbs a stair.

What did you tie on today? And what step could you climb before tonight?

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.