Translation of Surah Al-Muddaththir (74:26-31) with Footnotes
(From Tafheem ul-Quran by Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi)
Urdu translation link:
Surah Al-Muddaththir 74:26–31 with Mawdudi’s Commentary
Source of this compilation:
https://voiceofquran5.com/2026/06/13/surah-al-muddaththir-7426-31-with-mawdudis-commentary-2/
Verses 26–31
“Soon I shall cast him into Saqar. And what will make you understand what Saqar is? It leaves nothing, and it spares nothing.¹⁵ Scorching the skin.¹⁶ Over it are nineteen. We have appointed none but angels as wardens of the Fire,¹⁷’¹⁸ and We have made their number a trial for the disbelievers,¹⁹ so that those given the Scripture may be convinced,²⁰ and those who believe may increase in faith,²¹ and those given the Scripture and the believers may not fall into doubt; and so that those in whose hearts is disease²² and the disbelievers may say: ’What did Allah intend by this as an example?’²³ Thus Allah leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills.²⁴ And none knows the armies of your Lord except Him.²⁵ And this is nothing but a reminder for mankind.“²⁶
Footnote 15
This can carry two meanings. First, whoever is cast into it will be burned to ashes, yet even death will bring no escape — he will be revived and burned again. This same meaning is expressed elsewhere: “He will neither die therein nor live” (Al-A’la: 13). The second meaning is that it will leave none of those deserving punishment without seizing them, and none whom it seizes will be spared from torment.
Footnote 16
Having already stated that it will leave nothing unburned, a separate mention of scorching the skin might seem redundant. However, it is singled out because what distinguishes a person’s appearance — his face and skin — is precisely what disfigurement grieves him most. Internal suffering, however severe, does not wound a person as deeply as the ugliness of a disfigured face or charred skin that repels all who behold it. Hence the warning: those who strut about in fine appearance today, if they follow the path of hostility toward Allah’s signs as Walid ibn Mughirah was following, their faces shall be scorched and their skin blackened like coal.
Footnote 17
From this point through “none knows the armies of your Lord except Him,” the entire passage is a parenthetical statement — interjected mid-address to answer those who had mocked the Prophet ﷺ upon hearing that Hell’s wardens would number only nineteen. They found it absurd: on one hand, every disbeliever and grave sinner from Adam’s time until Judgment Day would be cast into Hell; yet only nineteen wardens would be appointed over so vast a multitude. The Quraysh leaders ridiculed this openly. Abu Jahl declared: “Are you so helpless that ten of you cannot overpower one warden?” A wrestler from Banu Jumah boasted: “I’ll handle seventeen myself — you all manage the remaining two.” These very remarks are what this parenthetical passage answers.
Footnote 18
That is: measuring their power by human standards is your folly. They are not men — they are angels. You cannot fathom the tremendous power with which Allah has created them.
Footnote 19
Ordinarily there was no necessity to mention the exact number of Hell’s wardens. But Allah disclosed it precisely so it would become a trial for whoever harbors concealed disbelief. Such a person, however much he displays faith outwardly — if any shadow of doubt lingers in his heart regarding divine power, revelation, or prophethood — the moment he hears that only nineteen angels will manage countless guilty jinn and humans, his hidden disbelief will surface immediately.
Footnote 20
Some commentators interpret this as meaning: since the People of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) have this same number recorded in their own books, hearing it would confirm to them that this is truly from Allah. However, this interpretation is problematic for two reasons. First, despite searching, this specific number nineteen for Hell’s wardens is not found in the surviving scriptures of Jews and Christians. Second, the People of the Scripture routinely dismissed even those Quranic statements shared with their books by claiming Muhammad ﷺ had simply copied from them. In our view, the correct meaning is: the Prophet ﷺ knew full well that mentioning nineteen angels would invite ridicule — yet he conveyed it without hesitation, without the slightest fear of mockery. The unlearned Arabs may not have recognized this as the mark of prophethood, but the People of the Scripture knew well: every prophet throughout history delivered whatever came from Allah exactly as it came — whether people welcomed it or not. Seeing this conduct, the People of the Scripture had more reason than anyone to be convinced that only a genuine prophet would present such an apparently astonishing statement before a fiercely hostile audience without any wavering. The most striking parallel is the Night Journey (Isra wa Mi’raj), which the Prophet ﷺ announced openly before a gathering of disbelievers, completely unconcerned with what they would say.
Footnote 21
This has been explained at multiple points in the Quran previously: whenever a believer stands firm at a moment of trial — choosing conviction over doubt, obedience over flight, loyalty over betrayal — his faith grows and deepens. (For elaboration, see Tafheem ul-Quran: Vol. 1, Al Imran 173; Vol. 2, Al-Anfal 2 fn.6, At-Tawbah 124–125 fn.125; Vol. 4, Al-Ahzab 22 fn.83; Vol. 5, Al-Fath 4 fn.7.)
Footnote 22
Because “disease of the heart” in the Quran generally refers to hypocrisy (nifaq), some commentators concluded this verse was revealed in Madinah, where hypocrites first appeared. This view is incorrect for several reasons. First, the claim that hypocrites did not exist in Makkah is itself false, as demonstrated in Tafheem ul-Quran Vol. 3 (pp. 672, 674, 680–682). Second, it is an unsound method to declare that a single phrase within a cohesive passage — revealed in a specific historical context — was suddenly inserted from a different occasion without any connecting reason. The historical background of this section of Surah Al-Muddaththir is established by reliable narrations; it belongs to a particular episode of the early Makkan period, and the entire passage coherently relates to that event. Here, “disease of the heart” means the disease of doubt — not outright denial. In every age, including today, few people have been categorical atheists. The majority have always been those suspended in uncertainty: Does God exist or not? Will there be an afterlife? Do angels, paradise, and hell actually exist, or are these myths? Were the prophets truly prophets? It is this doubt that has most often dragged people toward disbelief — not some firm intellectual rejection, which a person of even minimal reason would recognize has no sound basis, since there is absolutely no ground for declaring these realities to be categorically impossible.
Footnote 23
This does not mean they accepted it as Allah’s word but were puzzled by His purpose. Rather, their actual meaning was: how could speech containing such an apparently absurd claim possibly be the word of Allah?
Footnote 24
That is: Allah periodically places within His word and His commands certain statements that become a test and trial for people. The very same statement is heard by a truth-loving, sound-natured, clear-thinking person — who grasps its straightforward meaning and takes the right path — and by a stubborn, crooked, truth-averse person — who twists it into a new excuse to flee from truth. Because the first person genuinely seeks truth, Allah guides him — for it is not Allah’s way to force misguidance upon someone seeking guidance. Because the second person does not want guidance but chooses error, Allah leaves him to his chosen paths of misguidance — for it is equally not Allah’s way to drag by force toward truth one who detests it. (This subject is addressed extensively throughout Tafheem ul-Quran. See, for example: Vol. 1, Al-Baqarah fn.10, 16, 19, 20; An-Nisa fn.173; Al-An’am fn.17, 28, 90; Vol. 2, Yunus fn.13; Vol. 3, Al-Kahf fn.45; Al-Qasas fn.71.)
Footnote 25
Allah has created in this universe creatures of kinds and numbers and powers entirely unknown to anyone but Him, and He employs them in ways none but He comprehends. A human being, living on a small planet, perceiving only the narrow world within reach of his senses and instruments, falls into a grave error if he imagines that Allah’s dominion contains nothing beyond what he can detect. This dominion is so vast and magnificent that no human mind can encompass even a fraction of it — let alone its full expanse.
Footnote 26
That is: let people come to their senses before they make themselves deserving of it and taste its torment — and strive to save themselves from it while they still can.
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