Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:53
سُورَةُ الوَاقِعَةِ · Meccan · Verse 53 of 96
فَمَالِـُٔونَ مِنْهَا ٱلْبُطُونَ
Translation
filling your bellies with it,
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And will fill their bellies with it.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the grim compulsion, 'famali'una minha al-butun': driven by a hunger so severe they gorge on the very thing that tortures them, filling themselves with what only deepens their agony. Ask yourself: there is a terrible logic here I recognise even now, being so consumed by a craving that I fill myself with the exact thing that harms me, the appetite itself becoming the punishment. It is the anatomy of every self-destructive hunger: the more I feed it, the worse it gets, yet the drive only grows. This verse shows that pattern taken to its eternal extreme. Which of my appetites already works this way, where the feeding is the harm, and the harm only sharpens the hunger?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:53 is discussed in 6 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:53 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.