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Part 44
Sura Mutaffifin 83:7-10
7. "Nay.' Most surely the Record of the
Wicked is (preserved) in Sijjin."
8. "And what informs you of what 'Sijjin'
is?"
9. "(It is) a Register (fully)
inscribed."
10. "Woe, That Day, to the deniers,"
Commentary:
What
Informs You What 'Sijjin' Is?
To follow
the theme of the former verses about shortchangers, and the relation between
sin and the lack of strong belief in the Day of Judgment, a part of the
destiny of the Wicked on That Day is mentioned in the next verses.
At first, it
says that they, in vain, think that there is no Record of account given in the Hereafter,
but,
"Nay! Most surely the Record of the Wicked
is (preserved) in 'Sijjin',"
"It is a Register (fully) inscribed."
There are
mainly two commentaries for these verses:
1. The meaning of / kitab /, here, is the
record of Man in which all the deeds, irrespective of great or small, are
exactly inscribed.
The term / sijjin
/ means a 'register' wherein the deeds of all Mankind are recorded. In
other words, it is like a ledger where the account of the creditors and the
debtors are registered on separate pages, one by one. The thing that is
understood, from this verse and the next verses, is that all the deeds of the
Wicked are registered in a book by the name of 'Sijjin' and all the
deeds of the Righteous are registered in another book by the name of 'Illiyin'.
The term /
sijjin / is based on / sijn / which has different meanings, such as: 'prison,
hard, anything hard, a terrible place in the bottom of Hell'; the place
where the records of the Wicked are held, and it is a proper name for the fire
of Hell.
Tarihi says
in Majma'-al-Bahrain for the root word of /sijn /: "It is mentioned in
the commentary that it is 'a complete work ' comprising the deeds of the
Wicked, of Jinn and of mankind." (Tarih' has not made it clear as to whose
commentary this is).
The
symmetries that attest to the above idea are as follows:
1. The term / kitab / 'book', in cases
like this in the Holy Qur'an, means 'Record'.
2. The last verse, which has come as a
description for the term 'sijjin', says: "(It is} a Register (fully)
inscribed". Some commentators have not taken the verse as a description for
'sijjin', but, this idea certainly does not apply to the apparent
meaning of the words.
3. Some have said that the term / sijjin /
and / sijjil / have the same meaning. And we know that /sijjil / means: 'a
grand book'.
4. It is understood, from the verses of
Qur'an, that the deeds of all Mankind are inscribed, in several books, so that
no one will have any excuse for their deeds.
The first 'book'
is the personal record of the individuals, which will be given to the hand
of its owner: for the Righteous to their right hand, and for the evildoers to
their left hand; and there are many verses, in the Qur'an, that verify this
idea.
The second
is the one that can be called 'The Record of the Sects', as mentioned in
Sura Jathiya, No.45, verse 28 which says: "...Every sect wil1 be
called to its Record...".
The third
one is the Record of all humankind: The Wicked and the Righteous.
The 'book' that, in these verses and the following ones, has been called
'Sijjin' for the former and 'Illiyin' for the latter.
In short,
according to this commentary, 'Sijjin' is the ledger, the complete work,
in which all the deeds of the Wicked are recorded. It is called 'Sijjin',
perhaps for the reason that its contents cause the Wicked to be imprisoned in Hell.
Or, the book, itself, is in the bottom of Hell, in contrast with the book of
the Righteous, which is in 'Illiyin' of Heaven.
2. The second commentary says that 'Sijjin'
means 'Hell', which is a very big prison for the Wicked, or it is a
terrible site in Hell, and the meaning of 'The Record of the Wicked' is 'the
destiny of the Wicked' which is inscribed for them. Therefore, the verse
means: surely the destiny of the Wicked is in Hell. There are many
examples of the application of the meaning of the term 'book', in the Holy
Qur'an, with this sense. For instance, in Sura Nisa, No. 4 verse 24,
after saying that: "And (prohibited are) all married women except those
whom your right hands possess", it says: " ... /kitaballah 'alaykum /,
(this is) Allah's ordiance to you...".And, Sura Anfal. No.8, verse
75 says: "...kindred by blood have prior rights over each other in the
ordinance of Allah...".
The matter
that attests to this commentary is that 'Sijjin' has been commented on
as being Hell, the same meaning as the narrations and Islamic works have.
In the
commentary of 'Ali - ibn - Ibrahim for the meaning of the verse: "NayJ Most
surely the Record of the Wicked is (preserved) in Sijjin", it is said that:
their appointed chastisement is in 'Sijjin', (Hell).
A narration
from Imam Baqir (p.h.u.h.) also says: " 'Sijjin' is the seventh earth
and 'Illiyin' is the seventh heaven (indicating th'e lowest and the highest
places)". title="">[1]
There are
many narrations which say that the deeds which are not fit to be accepted by
Allah will descend and fall in Sijjin. A tradition from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.)
says that: "Sometimes it happens that the appointed angel, for gathering
up the deeds of a servant, ascends joyfully with a good deed of the servant.
Then Allah says: 'Put it in Sijjin, because the servant did not seek My
Countenance in it'."name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]
On the
whole, it is understood from the narrations that 'Sijjin' is a very low
place in Hell, where the wrong actions or the record of the evil deeds of the
Wicked are sent to, or their destiny is for them to be imprisoned therein.
According to
this commentary, the verse "(It is) in Record (fully) inscribed" is
an emphasis on the verse "...Most surely the Record of the Wicked is
(preserved) in Sijjin," (not as a commentary for Sijjin ). Then the verse
means that this is a punishment inscribed for them, surely.
The term /
marqum / is based on /raqm/ 'large, bold writing' and since these
writings are clear and unambiguous, the term may refer to the decisiveness and
clearness of it.
These two
commentaries can be considered together, because in the first commentary 'Sijjin'
means 'the ledger of the deeds of the Wicked', and in the second one it
means Hell or the bottom of the earth. And it is clear that these are 'causes
and effects' for each other. That is, when the record of a person is
registered in 'the ledger of the deeds of the Wicked', it results in
their being sent to the lowest point of Hell.
In the last
verse of this portion, in a startling short sentence, the end to come of those
who deny the Resurrection is pointed out. It says: "Woe That Day, to
the deniers."
It is the
denial from which the various sins, including dealing in fraud and
transgression, originate. In the first verse it says: "Woe to the
defrauders", and now it says: "Woe, That Day, to the deniers",
which briefly, but meaningfully, points to the kinds of painful and
horrible chastisements awaiting them.
It is
noteworthy that in the first verse 'the defrauders' and then in verse
seven, 'the Wicked' and in verse ten 'the deniers' are mentioned.
This shows that there is a close connection between denying the Resurrection
and those deeds. The relationship between these will be dealt with more clearly
in the following verses.
name="_ftn1" title="">[1] Nur-uth-Thaqalayn, vol. 5, p. 530,
Tradition 15
name="_ftn2" title="">[2] Nur-uth-Thaqalayn, vol, 5, p. 530,
Tradition 19
