of their wine; the Sayhan is their river of honey; and these four rivers flow forth from the River of Kawthar. (1)

“They will have therein every kind of fruit and forgiveness from their Lord. Can they be like one who will abide forever in the Fire?” That is, can one who enjoys this bliss be like one who will abide forever in the Fire? “And they will be given scalding water to drink,” intensely hot water, over which Hell has been stoked since it was created. When it is brought near them, it will scorch their faces and cause the scalps of their heads to fall away; then, when they drink it, “it will tear apart their intestines,” which will come out from their rears. The intestines are all the intestinal coils within the belly; the singular is mi'an.

“And among them are those who listen to you, until, when they leave your presence, they say to those who have been given knowledge, ‘What did he say just now?’ They are those whose hearts Allah has sealed and who follow their own desires. (16) As for those who are guided, He increases them in guidance and grants them their piety. (17) Are they waiting for anything other than the Hour to come upon them suddenly? Yet its signs have already come. So how will they be reminded when it comes upon them? (18)”

“And among them,” meaning among these disbelievers, “are those who listen to you”: they are the hypocrites. They listen to what you say but neither comprehend nor understand it, treating it with contempt and feigning inattentiveness. “Until, when they leave your presence”—that is, when they leave your presence—“they say to those who have been given knowledge,” namely, the Companions: “What did Muhammad say just now?” That is, at this moment. The word derives from i'tinaf, meaning to begin something anew; the beginning of a thing is its foremost part.

Muqatil said: The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would deliver sermons in which he criticized the hypocrites. When they left the mosque, they would mockingly ask Abd Allah ibn Masud, “What did the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say?”

Ibn Abbas said: It was asked concerning whomever it was asked about. (2)

“They are those whose hearts Allah has sealed,” and so they did not believe, “and who follow their own desires” in disbelief and hypocrisy.

“As for those who are guided,” meaning the believers, “He increases them in guidance”: what the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said increased them in guidance. “And He grants them their piety”: He enables them to act upon what He commanded them, and that is piety. Said ibn Jubayr said: “And He grants them the reward for their piety.” “Are they waiting for anything other than the Hour to come upon them suddenly?”