إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ فَتَنُوا۟ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَٰتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَتُوبُوا۟ فَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ ٱلْحَرِيقِ
Inna'lladhīna fatanu'l-muʾminīna wa'l-muʾmināti thumma lam yatūbū fa-lahum ʿadhābu jahannama wa lahum ʿadhābu'l-ḥarīq "For those who tormented the believing men and the believing women and then did not repent, there is the punishment of Hell and there is the punishment of the burning."
The densest verse of the sūra, and inside it stands one of the most unexpected sentences in the Qurʾān.
Root: ف-ت-ن. And the concrete sense of this root scarcely overlaps at all with the usual English renderings of the word.
The original sense of the root is this: to put gold into the fire and melt it, and so to separate out the alloy within it and bring its purity to light.
It is the goldsmith's work. Raw gold carries other metals within it. When it is put into the fire the alloy is separated out and what is pure remains. In Arabic this operation is called fatn; the one who performs it is called fattān.
1. Fire — the instrument of the operation. 2. Testing — bringing to light what is pure. 3. Separation — dividing what is mixed into its components.
The word ranges over a very wide field in the Qurʾān. Seeing the range is necessary in order to place the sense in this verse:
| Usage | Verse | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| Burning in fire — the concrete sense of the root | "On that day they will be burned over the fire" (al-Dhāriyāt 51/13) | Direct exposure to fire |
| Testing, trial | "Did people suppose that they would be left, on saying 'we believe', without being tested?" (al-ʿAnkabūt 29/2) | Being put to the test |
| A formative testing | "We put you through trial after trial" (Ṭāhā 20/40 — of Moses) | A hardship that trains |
| Being tested by favour | "Your wealth and your children are only a fitna" (al-Anfāl 8/28) | Being tested by what one possesses |
| Pressure, the attempt to turn someone from his religion | "Fitna is worse than killing" (al-Baqara 2/191) | Trying by force to turn someone from his belief |
| Internal disorder, breakdown | "…until there is no fitna left" (al-Baqara 2/193) | The order of oppression itself |
| Enticement, leading astray | "Let Satan not draw you into fitna" (al-Aʿrāf 7/27) | Leading off the road |
The usual English renderings of fitna hold only one end of this range — "sedition", "stirring up trouble". The field the Qurʾān uses is far wider, and its centre is testing.
| Reading | Explanation |
|---|---|
| They burned them | The concrete sense of the root: they put them in the fire. As in the usage in al-Dhāriyāt 51/13. Since the context of the sūra is fire, it fits directly |
| They tortured them, they applied pressure to turn them from their belief | The "pressure" branch of the root. As with the fitna of al-Baqara 2/191 |
The two readings do not conflict; they are two faces of the same event. Burning is the instrument of the pressure.
And here is the real point: in Arabic the sense "torture" is derived from the sense of testing gold in fire. The language itself, that is, names torture as a testing.
This is a chilling and striking fact of language. The torturer supposes himself a tester — he thinks he is forcing a person and drawing out his "true" stance. The word carries that claim.
But the word says something else at the same time: the gold put into the fire is not destroyed. The fire does not destroy the gold; it destroys the alloy. This is an image that stands at the root of the word, and it becomes meaningful when joined with the eleventh verse of the sūra: for those who were burned there is the garden.
I record this connection as my own reading. The concrete sense of the root (the testing of gold in fire) is given in the classical dictionaries; the interpretation I have drawn from it is mine.
In Arabic the masculine plural (muʾminīn) can already take in women as well. Their being counted in addition is an emphasis called in the language taṣrīḥ (explicit statement).
Its function here may be this — and I say it as my own reading: the sūra wants the victims to be counted. Not a collective "they", but two groups. This is a detail set against the crowded and nameless "they" (the wrongdoers) of the sixth verse. The wrongdoers are mentioned as a single mass; the victims by being separated out.
The Qurʾān makes this double count in other places as well (al-Aḥzāb 33/35 is the fullest example).
The verse is relating a community that burns human beings. And in issuing the verdict of punishment it inserts a condition: if they did not repent.
To feel the strangeness of this sentence, look not at what is said but at what is not said. The verse could have said the following, and all of them would have suited the context:
- "For them there is the punishment of Hell." (Unconditional)
- "Their repentance will not be accepted." (The door shut)
- "They are cursed for ever." (A settled verdict)
The particle ثُمَّ (thumma) also conveys an interval of time: "then". The act, that is, was committed, and after it a period passed. In that period there was something that could have been done.
Sayings uttered about this verse are transmitted in the classical commentaries. A saying ascribed to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī circulates in the exegetical sources: it is related that he read this verse and marvelled at the generosity of God's calling to repentance a community that had killed His friends. I do not present this ascription as a firm transmission; I record that such a saying circulates in the exegetical literature.
The principle the sentence establishes, however, is plain in the text and needs no transmitted report:
First: no crime shuts the door of repentance of itself. The Qurʾān says this in other places too: "O My servants who have gone to excess against themselves! Do not despair of God's mercy. Surely God forgives all sins" (al-Zumar 39/53).
Second: the punishment is fastened not to the act itself but to persistence in the act. The structure of the sentence shows this: fatanū (they did it) + thumma lam yatūbū (then they did not repent) → fa-lahum (for them there is…). The verdict comes after the second condition.
Third — and this is the hardest: this does not cancel the right of the one who was wronged. The verse is speaking of the wrongdoer's relation with God. The question of the rights owed to fellow human beings is a separate heading in the Qurʾānic and hadith tradition, and whether repentance covers such rights has been disputed. No legal ruling is issued in this commentary; I leave what the verse says within the bounds in which it is said.
Fourth: the sentence is an invitation as much as it is a verdict. The sūra came down in Mecca. Among its addressees there were people who were at that moment torturing Muslims. This verse reached their ears too. The sentence, that is, is not a part of a historical narrative; it is a door opened to the people standing there that day.
And history shows that this did not go unanswered: that some of the people who behaved most harshly towards the Muslims in Mecca later entered Islam is the common record of the biographical sources.
| View | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Two crimes, two punishments | The punishment of Hell for their denial; the punishment of the burning for their burning |
| General and particular | The punishment of Hell is the general name; ḥarīq is a particular kind of punishment within it |
| Reinforcement | The two expressions say the same thing emphatically |
The first view is the one most in keeping with the language of the sūra, and there is a reason for that:
حَرِيق — Root: ح-ر-ق. To burn. Ḥaraqa — he burned; iḥrāq — burning; ḥarīq — a fire, that which burns.
The sūra, that is, names the penalty with the word of the crime. This is the same move as the qutila of the fourth verse: to those who killed it was said "let them be killed"; to those who burned it is said "the punishment of the burning".
The principle the Qurʾān establishes here is that the kind of the penalty is chosen from the kind of the act. This is a widespread pattern in the Qurʾān and is called jazāʾan wifāqan (a fitting requital — al-Nabaʾ 78/26).