Beams of Illumination From the Divine Revelation (juz' 'amma - the Last Section of the Qur'an)

Sura 1 :surat Al Humazah the Slanderer

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful

These particular ayats were addressed specifically to the people, several names of whom have been suggested, who were against the Prophet, salla-llahu `alayhi wa alihi wa sallam. They were all people of great wealth and supposed strength who constantly bragged about their might and wealth and mocked the Muslims.

1 Woe to every slanderer and backbiter!

Wayl means "affliction, distress," and is translated as the exclamation, "Woe!" It evokes one of the rivers of the Fire. "Woe to every slanderer or defamer! " In human nature there exists the ten­dency to seek reassurance, and therefore we seek only those compan­ions who reinforce the validity of our actions.

Humazah means "a slanderer," or "back-biter." In the Arabic language the hamzah is a glottal stop, and the hamazat ash-shayatin are the evil suggestions of the devil, the subtle whispers that we find within us.

Lumazah means "a fault-finder," and comes from the verb lamaza, which means "to give someone a wink, to speak ill of someone, criticize, censure, backbite, defame." The person who defames reveals his own weakness and announces his insecurity in the same way that the haughtiness of a man declares his deep uncer­tainty about himself. If he was totally certain that he was on the right path, if he acknowledged his dependence on Allah and realized that everyone would come to know the truth fully and absolutely, he would not give in to these subtle enticements to slander others. The truth of it is that his slander and arrogance reveal his sickness and dis­ease, hence the warning of woe to him, the warning that he will be destroyed.

2 Who amasses wealth and counts it (as a pro­vision);

This ayah refers to those who collect wealth and take refuge and reinforcement in constantly counting it. Persistently accumulating and looking at what one has is another form of looking for security. The men of Allah say, "He who loves wealth is a hypocrite, and he who keeps wealth is ignorant." The proof of nifaq (hypocrisy) and jahl (ignorance) is in the collection and retention of mal (wealth).

3 He thinks that his wealth will make him im­mortal.

Hasaba means "to calculate, to reckon." He ima­gines that he moves closer to khuld (eternity) by counting and watching over what he wrongly imagines will give him longev­ity and permanency. His is a perverted worship. The Eternal is another attribute of Allah: Al-Khalid. We all want to know the Eternal because only in that way will we be secure in the knowl­edge that only eternity exists. It is he who has completely slipped off the path who believes that what he has accumulated gives him security.

4 Nay! He will certainly be hurled into the crushing Hell.

Nabadha means "to hurl, throw away, to reject, cast out, abandon." By casting out what is useless or dangerous, we are protected from the evil in them.

Hutamah is another name for Hell, means "a crush­ing disaster," and comes from hatama, "to shatter, crush, destroy." Most certainly, a person who takes refuge in his health, in his wealth, or in anything of the visible world, does not trust that the hand of The Invisible is behind the visible. He will be cast out into that which causes nothing but destruction.

5 And what will make you comprehend what the crushing Hell is?

And what do you know of it? Another connotation of hatamah comes from the verb in its second form, where it means "to break," implying that the object involved in the breaking, or crushing, is solid to begin with.

6 The fire of Allah, ignited,

The crushing disaster is the Fire of Allah that is forever lit.

7 Which rises up to the hearts. 8 Certainly it will be shut tightly around them.

And that Fire of Allah is locked within the heart of man. It is the fire which causes him to be at a loss, to try to take refuge in material security, wealth and power. We see this in the present state of our cul­ture, in that we have completely taken refuge in our imaginations and calculations. In this culture we imagine that what is of greatest impor­tance is what is tangible or visible, but the visible is not the sum of what there is in this world; it is only one aspect of it, one manifesta­tion of reality. There are other forces or powers behind the scenes.

9 In outstretched columns.

The Fire will tightly encircle the heart in extended columns, and form a burning wall created by the heart itself through its own ignor­ance. Some men of Allah talk about two types of fire: the fire that burns and inflicts pain, causing nothing but destruction, and the fire of knowledge. One normally interprets this surah, however, as being addressed to the people who are at a loss. Their hearts are locked up in the fire of the final, revealed knowledge.

Just as this surah is about those who take refuge in the discern­able and material world and believe that there is nothing beyond it, the next surah explains by example the falseness of their beliefs.