to it, humbled in abasement, looking with furtive glances” [al-Shūrā: 45]. Thus, “humbled” means abased.
“Laboring and weary”—performing labor that brings weariness and exhaustion. The scholars said that, on the Day of Resurrection, they will be compelled to drag chains and shackles and to wade through Hellfire as a man wades through mud. They will therefore labor and grow weary from the work they are forced to perform on the Day of Resurrection, for it is labor imposed as torment and punishment.
The meaning is not, as some have said, that this refers to the disbelievers whose endeavors in worldly life are lost while they think they are doing good. This is because Allah qualified it by saying, “On that Day, some faces,” meaning the Day on which the Overwhelming Event comes—and that can only be the Day of Resurrection. Thus, they will be laboring and weary because they are compelled to drag chains and shackles and to wade through Hellfire. May Allah protect us from it.
“Burning in a scorching Fire,” meaning that they will enter Hellfire. The scorching Fire is so intensely hot that it exceeds the fire of this world by sixty-nine parts. In other words, Hellfire is sixty-nine parts hotter than all the fire of this world, including its most intense heat. An indication of its extreme heat is that the sun’s heat reaches us despite the great distance between us and it, and despite passing through regions of air that are exceedingly cold. Yet this perceptible heat still reaches us, especially during the summer. The Fire, then, is truly scorching.
Having explained their abode and that they will be in the scorching Fire of Hell, Allah explained their food and drink, saying:
“They will be given drink from a boiling spring. They will have no food except a thorny plant.”
“They will be given drink”—that is, these faces—“from a boiling spring,” meaning one of extreme heat. That is their drink. Even so, this drink will not be readily available to them, nor will they be given it whenever they become thirsty. Rather, it will come only when their thirst becomes severe and they cry out for relief, as Allah Most High says:
“If they cry out for relief, they will be given water like molten metal, which will scorch their faces. What a dreadful drink!” [al-Kahf: 29].
When this water is brought near their faces, it will scorch them and cause their flesh to fall away; and when it enters their