Tafsir of Surah As-Saffat - Verse 73

فَانظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَـقِبَةُ الْمُنذَرِينَ إِلاَّ عِبَادَ اللَّهِ الْمُخْلَصِينَ

(Then see what was the end of those who were warned. Except the chosen servants of Allah).

By saying: طَلْعُهَا كَأَنَّهُ رُ‌ءُوسُ الشَّيَاطِينِ (Its fruits are like the heads of the shaitans.- 65), the fruits of zaqqum have been likened to the heads of the satans. Some commentators have translated the word: الشَّيَاطِينِ (ash-shayatin) in this verse as 'serpents' since the fruit of zaqqum resembles the hood of the serpent. Therefore, in Urdu and Hindi too, it is called 'nagphan' (hood of the serpent) for this very reason. But most

commentators have said that the word: الشَّيَاطِينِ (ash-shayatin) here should be taken in its well-recognized sense. Thus, it would mean that, in its ugliness, the fruit of zaqqum is like the head of the satans. Now, let there be no doubt here that nobody has seen the Shaitan, why then, would something be likened to him? The reason is that it is an imaginative simile. Speaking metaphorically, things ugly and grotesque are commonly likened to Shaitans, Jinns and ghosts. The purpose is only to express an extreme degree of ugliness. The simile used here is also of this very nature. (Ruh-ul-Ma’ ani and others).

The sense of the rest of the verses is clear from their translation.

It is stated in the Quran that there will be a Zaqqum tree in hell and that its fruits will be eaten by the inmates of hell when they are overwhelmed by hunger. (See 56: 52). When this revelation was made in the Quran, the people of ancient Arabia started mocking it. One of the chiefs said, ‘How can a tree grow amidst the fire of hell?’ Another chief said, ‘Muhammad is terrifying us by talking of Zaqqum, when the fact is that dates and butter are called Zaqqum, in the Berber language.’ Abu Jahl took some people home and asked his maidservant to bring some dates and butter and when they were brought, he said to his companions, ‘Eat this. This is the Zaqqum with which you are being threatened by Muhammad.’ (Tafsir al-Mazhari). Such Quranic statements were misused by unbelievers to demonstrate the untrustworthiness of the Quran. God might well have refrained from using such a word as would give unbelievers the opportunity to raise unnecessary issues, but He did not do so. The reason is that this creates the very situation in which a man is meant to be tried. In order to achieve salvation, he has to prove that by avoiding unnecessary issues he has given his full attention to the truth; that, by carefully avoiding misunderstandings, he has managed to discover the real purpose of the argument; that he has concentrated entirely on facts, although there were many opportunities for his mind to be diverted from them. God’s selected few are those who rise above traditional religion and discover the real Truth; who rise above outward appearances and realise the real meaning of occurrences; who recognise God’s representative and become his supporters.