An-Naba · Makki · ayah 23 of 40

An-Naba 78:23

لَّـٰبِثِينَ فِيهَآ أَحْقَابًا

“In which they will remain for ages [unending].”

Saheeh International

Essence

The tyrants stay put in the Fire for ages upon ages, each strapped behind the last like a rider's bag.

A reflection

Do 'ages' come to an end?

A grandfather reads a story aloud to his seven-year-old granddaughter. It ends, as such stories do, with 'and they lived there for ages and ages'. She frowns. 'But do ages end, Grandad?' He laughs, then stops laughing. It is a better question than she knows.

A careful reader asks the same of this ayah. The tyrants will stay in the Fire aḥqāb, ages. An age, however long, is a measured stretch. Does the word imply that the stay will one day run out?

The classical sources raise this question themselves and answer it at length. One commentator gives three answers. First, the word does not say that a fixed number of ages will pass. It says ages, and every time one age passes, another follows it, without end. Second, an early grammarian suggested the ages measure one kind of punishment, the one described next. That is no coolness, no drink but scalding water and foul discharge. After that, other kinds follow. Third, even if the word hinted at an end, other ayat state it plainly. They will want to come out of the Fire and will not (5:37). The plain statement outweighs a hint.

Others add that the word was chosen because an age was the longest span the Arabs could picture. It points to endlessness in the language they knew. Several concise commentaries simply render it 'ages without end'. Some also record a view that believers who sinned may leave after ages. The eternity, they say, is for those who associated partners with Allah.

It should be said honestly that scholars have discussed the Fire's duration in more than one way, and the sources record that discussion. Where they have differed, this reflection keeps to the plain sense the text gives: a stay no one who enters it will outlast.

What remains open is the full reality of the unseen, which no word can measure for us. The granddaughter's question does not have a comfortable answer. But it has an urgent one. The ages will not be for choosing then. The choosing is now.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.