Al-A'la · Makki · ayah 12 of 19

Al-A'la 87:12

ٱلَّذِى يَصْلَى ٱلنَّارَ ٱلْكُبْرَىٰ

“[He] who will [enter and] burn in the greatest Fire,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The one who ran from the reminder walks into the greatest fire, and every small fire of this world was only a reminder of it.

A reflection

The small fire is also a reminder

You switch off the hob after cooking, and a small letter stays lit on the glass: H, for hot. The flame is gone, but the warning stays until the surface is safe to touch. Nobody resents it. It is simply the kitchen telling the truth.

Yaṣlā comes from a root about contact with fire. Ṣalaytu al-ʿūd: I held the stick to the flame, turning it until it was straight and supple. A man warming himself at a campfire was said to iṣṭalā. A sheep held over the coals was roasted by it. The same contact can comfort or consume, depending on how close you stand and why.

An early commentator explained al-kubrā, the greatest, by contrast. The fire of the next world is the great one, he said; the fire of this world is the small one. The concise commentaries give the same gloss, and another explains the name by the intensity of its heat and pain. One later commentary joins that reading directly to a hadith. The two Sahihs report the Prophet's ﷺ words, and al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah and the Muwaṭṭaʾ carry them too, graded ṣaḥīḥ. This fire of yours, which the son of Adam kindles, is one part of seventy parts of the heat of Hell. Sahih Muslim adds the Companions' reply: by Allah, even this one would have been enough. He answered that the other exceeds it by sixty-nine parts, each as hot as this.

The Quran says something striking about our ordinary fire. Have you considered the fire you kindle? We made it a reminder, and a provision for travellers (56:73). The word there is tadhkira, from the same root as the dhikrā of this surah. The small fire in every kitchen is itself a reminder, lit daily, of the one this ayah names.

The surah has just spoken of the reminder and the one who avoids it. Here is one reminder nobody can avoid, because we cook with it. Every time the H glows on the hob, let it do its second job. A short, unanxious prayer: O Allah, protect me from the Fire.

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.