“Indeed, this is the supreme triumph. For the like of this, then, let those who strive exert themselves. Is this a better hospitality, or the tree of Zaqqūm? Indeed, We have made it a trial for the wrongdoers. It is a tree that grows from the depths of Hell; its fruit is as though it were the heads of devils. They will surely eat from it and fill their bellies with it.”

Then they will say, “Indeed, this is the supreme triumph.” It was also said that they say this in acknowledgement of Allah’s favor upon them: that they will neither die nor be punished. And it was said that the believer says it to his companion as a rebuke for what he used to deny. (1)

Allah Most High says: “For the like of this, then, let those who strive exert themselves”—that is, for such an abode and such bliss as He mentioned, from His words, “Those will have a known provision,” up to His words, “let those who strive exert themselves.”

“Is this”—that is, what He has mentioned for the people of Paradise—“a better hospitality, or the tree of Zaqqūm,” which is the hospitality of the people of the Fire? Zaqqūm is the fruit of a vile tree: bitter and repulsive in taste. The people of the Fire will be compelled to consume it, swallowing it with the utmost aversion. Hence the expression tazqamma al-taʿām means to consume food unwillingly and with difficulty.

“Indeed, We have made it a trial for the wrongdoers,” meaning the disbelievers. This is because they said, “How can there be a tree in the Fire when fire burns trees?” Ibn al-Zibaʿrā said to the leading men of Quraysh, “Muhammad frightens us with Zaqqūm, while in the Berber language zaqqūm means butter and dates.” ⦗95/b⦘ Abu Jahl then brought them into his house and said, “Girl, serve us some zaqqūm.” She brought them butter and dates, and he said, “Eat zaqqūm! This is what Muhammad promises you.” (2)

Then Allah Most High said: “It is a tree that grows from the depths of Hell”—that is, from the bottom of the Fire. Al-Hasan said: “Its roots are at the bottom of Hell, while its branches rise through its descending levels.”

“Its fruit”—that is, its produce; it is called fruit because it emerges—“is as though it were the heads of devils.” Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “They are devils themselves; it is compared to them because of its ugliness. When people wish to describe something as exceedingly ugly, they say, ‘It is like a devil.’ Although devils are unseen, the ugliness of their forms is fixed in the mind.” This is the meaning of the statement of Ibn Abbas and al-Qurazi. Some said that “devils” here means snakes, for the Arabs call an ugly-looking snake a devil.

It was also said that it is an ugly, bitter, foul-smelling tree found in the desert, which the Arabs call “the heads of devils.”

“They will surely eat from it and fill their bellies with it.” Filling means stuffing a vessel until it can hold no more.