Commentary on Surah al-Humaza

“In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.”

“Woe to every mocker and faultfinder, who amasses wealth and counts it repeatedly, thinking that his wealth will make him immortal. No indeed! He will surely be cast into the Crusher. And what will make you realize what the Crusher is? It is Allah’s kindled Fire, which rises over the hearts. It will surely be sealed over them, with columns outstretched.”

The basmala has already been discussed.

“Woe to every mocker.” In this surah, Allah—Glorified and Exalted—begins with the word “woe.” This is a word of warning and threat; that is, it indicates that punishment is threatened for anyone characterized by these traits: “mocker and faultfinder,” and so on. It has also been said that “Woe” is the name of a valley in Hell, but the first interpretation is more correct.

“To every mocker and faultfinder.” The word “every” is one of the forms that convey generality. “Mocker” and “faultfinder” are two descriptions of one and the same person. Do they have the same meaning, or do their meanings differ?

Some scholars have said that they are two expressions with the same meaning—that the mocker is the faultfinder. Others have said that each has a meaning distinct from the other.

There is a principle here that I would like to point out, both in Quranic commentary and elsewhere: whenever there are two possibilities—either that one word has the same meaning as another, or that each word has its own meaning—we assign a distinct meaning to each. This is because treating both words as having the same meaning would create needless repetition. But if we assign each one