Surah Ar-Rahman 55:43
سُورَةُ الرَّحۡمَٰن · Medinan · Verse 43 of 78
هَٰذِهِۦ جَهَنَّمُ ٱلَّتِى يُكَذِّبُ بِهَا ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ
Translation
This is the Hell the guilty deny,
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'This is Hell, which the guilty deny.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the blunt confrontation: the very reality they dismissed as unreal is now pointed at, 'this is it.' What was mocked from a distance is shown up close, no longer deniable. Ask yourself: I keep certain truths harmless by treating them as exaggerations, threats that surely won't apply to me. This verse collapses that whole strategy into one word: 'this'. The thing I filed under 'not literal', 'not for me', 'not now' is here presented as simply a place, pointed out. What am I currently keeping at bay by calling it unreal, and would that denial survive being shown the reality directly?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ar-Rahman 55:43 is discussed in 3 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
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