“Were My verses not recited to you, and did you not then deny them?” (105) They will say, “Our Lord, our wretchedness overcame us, and we were a people astray. (106) Our Lord, bring us out of it; then, if we return, we will indeed be wrongdoers.” (107) He will say, “Be banished therein, and do not speak to Me.” (108)

“And whoever’s scales are light—those are the ones who have lost their very selves, abiding in Hell forever.” “The Fire will sear their faces”—that is, it will scorch them; and it was also said: it will burn them—“and they will be grimacing therein,” with their faces contorted.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abi Tawbah informed us; Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Harithi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Kisa’i informed us; Abd Allah ibn Mahmud informed us; Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah al-Khallal informed us; Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak informed us, from Sa‘id ibn Yazid, from Abu al-Samh, from Abu al-Haytham, from Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said concerning, “and they will be grimacing therein”: “The Fire will disfigure him: his upper lip will contract until it reaches the middle of his head, while his lower lip will slacken until it strikes his navel.” (1)

Through this same chain of transmission, from Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak, from Hajib ibn Umar, from al-Hakam ibn al-A‘raj, who said: Abu Hurayrah said, “The disbeliever’s body will become so immense in the Fire that it spans the distance of seven nights’ travel. His molar will become like Mount Uhud, and their lips will be at their navels—black, blue-eyed, ruined, and hideous.” (2)

33/b His saying, exalted is He: “Were My verses not recited to you?”—meaning the Quran, by which you were warned—“and did you not then deny them?” “They will say, ‘Our Lord, our wretchedness overcame us.’” Hamzah and al-Kisa’i recited it as shaqāwatunā, with an alif and a fathah on the shin. Both are valid linguistic forms. That is: the wretchedness decreed for us overcame us, so we were not guided. “And we were a people astray”—from guidance. “Our Lord, bring us out of it,” that is, out of the Fire; “then, if we return” to what displeases You, “we will indeed be wrongdoers.” He will say, “Be banished”—be driven away—“therein,” just as one says to a dog when it is driven off, “Away with you!” “And do not speak to Me” about lifting the punishment, for I shall not lift it from you. At that point, the wretched ones will despair of relief. (3) Al-Hasan said: “It is the last”