ROOT ج ث و

10:29; 17:98; 34:41.

Important Words:

جھنم (Hell). Commentators of the Quran generally agree that in Arabic this word has no root and is used as a proper name for the place of punishment reserved for the evildoers in the next world. Non-Arabic lexicographers, however, are of the opinion that it is an Aramaic word and is used for the place of punishment after death. In Hebrew it is used as Gehenna which in Aramaic originally was 'Hinnom' but later on came to be changed into "Ge-Hinnom" (Enc. Bib.) which means, "the valley of death or destruction." The word "Ge-Hinnom" also seems to have been a distorted form of the Arabic words ذو and ھنم, the latter word meaning 'a leopard'; and so ذو ھنم means a place where leopards live. Thus "Ge-Hinnom" which in Aramaic means the valley of death and destruction was originally ذو ھنم. The non-Arabs generally change the letter ذinto ج; so ذو ھنم became converted into the Aramaic 'Ge-Hinnom' and the Arabs borrowed it from the non-Arabs and turned it into جھنم. The word may also have been a combination of جھن which means, he went near, and جھمwhich means, he became contracted in the face. So جھنم may mean a thing or place which a person at first likes but when he goes near it he comes to dislike it and contracts his face to show his dislike for it. Thus the very construction of the word جھنم explains its nature and character, i.e. at first a person commits hellish deeds, thinking them to be good but when as a result of those deeds he approaches near Hell, he dislikes it and contracts his face to show his dislike. See also 2:207.

The word الشیاطین (Satans) applies to those philosophers and exponents of a materialistic concept of life who engender in the minds of disbelievers doubts regarding life after death.

21:102; 39:62.

17:14; 83:7-10.

Commentary:

The words, "every people will be summoned to its Book," suggest that the "Hour" referred to in the previous verse signifies the hour of the reckoning of a people in this very life, because in this life nations are judged by their deeds and are punished or rewarded accordingly.