Al-Jinn · Makki · ayah 15 of 28

Al-Jinn 72:15

وَأَمَّا ٱلْقَـٰسِطُونَ فَكَانُوا۟ لِجَهَنَّمَ حَطَبًا

“But as for the unjust, they will be, for Hell, firewood.'”

Saheeh International

Essence

The jinn end their report with a warning: those who take what is not theirs become fuel, and the next ayah turns it on us.

A reflection

Now let us look closer to home

A man watches a documentary about corruption in a faraway country. Officials skimming aid, judges for sale. He shakes his head and makes tea. Then, in the last ten minutes, the presenter turns to the camera. 'Now let us look closer to home.' The tea goes cold.

Most of us read this ayah from a comfortable distance. It is about the bad jinn, the dark ones, the ones in the stories. Even if we apply it to humans, we picture tyrants and murderers. Firewood for Hell is someone else.

Look at who the qāsiṭūn are. The root means taking another's share; its participle names those who took what was not theirs. One early reading says they are those who set up rivals to Allah. Others say: those who swerved from the truth and the ways of submission. The first theft is of what is owed to Allah, worship and gratitude given elsewhere. The rest follow from it.

One commentary adds that the unjust jinn will burn alongside their like among humans. The category is not a species. It is a choice.

Then comes the turn. In the very next ayah the voice changes. One commentator notes that here the surah turns back to the disbelievers of Makkah. 'If they had kept to the right way, We would have given them abundant water' (72:16). An early report links that to years in which rain was withheld from them. The first hearers had just heard the jinn condemn their own unjust. Now the camera turned to face them.

That is the movement this ayah sets up for every reader. It is easy to agree that the qāsiṭūn deserve their end. It is harder to ask where I have taken what was not mine. A colleague's credit, a partner's patience, a worker's full wage, my Lord's thanks.

The ayah is not asking me to fear for strangers. It is the presenter's turn to the camera. Closer to home.

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.