Ad-Dukhan · Makki · ayah 45 of 59

Ad-Dukhan 44:45

كَٱلْمُهْلِ يَغْلِى فِى ٱلْبُطُونِ

“Like murky oil, it boils within bellies”

Saheeh International

Essence

The fruit of zaqqūm is like dark molten dregs, and it boils inside the bellies of those who eat it.

A reflection

The treasurer's demonstration

Ka-al-muhli yaghlī fī al-buṭūn: like muhl, it boils in the bellies.

What is muhl? The commentaries give several answers. The dark dregs of oil. Molten metal. One Companion is reported to have said: the black dregs of oil.

The narration-based commentary preserves a vivid scene through several chains. A senior Companion was in charge of the treasury in Kufa. Someone asked him about muhl. So he took broken pieces of silver from the treasury and had a trench dug in the ground. He lit a fire of thick firewood in it and threw the silver in. When it had melted, frothed and turned into shifting colours, he said: see who is at the door. People were brought in. He said to them: this is the closest thing we have seen in this world to muhl.

Another report says he did the same with a drinking vessel of gold and silver that had been given to him as a gift.

He did not just define a word. He showed it. He wanted people to see, smell and feel the heat.

Every winter, a town's fire service holds a demonstration in a supermarket car park. A fire officer stands a dried-out Christmas tree in a metal frame and lights one branch. Within seconds the whole tree is a column of flame. Parents gasp. Children step back. No leaflet could have taught them what that minute did.

The Companion's method is a lesson for anyone who teaches. Some truths cannot be left as words on a page. They need to be made real enough to be felt.

And it is a lesson for every reader of this ayah. The Quran's images are not decoration. They are meant to reach the senses, so that the heart takes them seriously.

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.