“They neglected the prayer”: that is, they abandoned the obligatory prayer (1).

Ibn Mas‘ud and Ibrahim said: They delayed it beyond its prescribed time.

Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyib said: This means that one does not pray the noon prayer until the time for the afternoon prayer has come, nor the afternoon prayer until the sun has set (2).

“And followed their desires”: that is, acts of disobedience and drinking wine; meaning, they gave preference to the desires of their own souls over obedience to Allah. Mujahid said: These are people who will appear at the end of time, some of whom will copulate with others in marketplaces and alleyways.

“So they will meet with ruin.” Wahb said: “Ghayy is a river in Hell, remote in depth and foul in taste.”

Ibn ‘Abbas said: “Ghayy is a valley in Hell, and indeed the valleys of Hell seek refuge from its heat. It has been prepared for the adulterer who persists in it, the habitual drinker of wine, the one who consumes usury and does not desist from it, those undutiful to their parents, and the bearer of false testimony” (3) (4).

‘Ata’ said: “Gh ayy is a valley in Hell through which pus and blood flow.”

Ka‘b said: It is a valley in Hell, the deepest and most intensely hot of its valleys, in a well called al-Haym. Whenever Hell dies down, Allah opens that well and rekindles Hell with it (5).

Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Abi Tawbah informed us; Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Harithi informed us; Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub al-Kisa’i informed us; ‘Abd Allah ibn Mahmud informed us; Ibrahim ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Khallal informed us; and ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak informed us from Hushaim ibn Bashir, who informed us from Zakariyya ibn Abi Maryam al-Khuza‘i, who said: I heard Abu Umamah al-Bahili say: “The distance from the rim of Hell to its bottom is the distance a stone—or, he said, a rock—would fall in seventy years, its size being like that of ten enormous, fat, pregnant she-camels.” A client of ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Khalid ibn al-Walid said to him, “Is there anything beneath that, O Abu Umamah?”