إِنَّ الْمُجْرِمِينَ فِي ضَلَالٍ وَسُعُرٍ From: أَجْرَمَ (to perpetrate a crime)
Here, the label is “criminals” — not simply “deniers” — introducing a legal frame that evokes courts, trials, sentencing, and punishment.
This deliberate choice sets the stage for what follows; with one word, the mind is moved toward accountability and consequence.
Originally: departure from the right path — physically, intellectually, or spiritually.
By implication it also means ruin or loss. As in: وَمَا كَيْدُ الْكَافِرِينَ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ
Thus, “in Dalaal” can mean both misguidance and being in ruin — a reality the addressed group did not perceive.
Two core shades:
• Insanity / loss of control: e.g., a camel مَسْعور is out of control; a man مَسْعور is “insane”.
• Blazing fire.
It reflects a frantic rush for quick pleasure and reward — addiction‑like loss of control — and, as another reading, the fire of the next life.
فَقَالُوا أَبَشَرًا مِّنَّا وَاحِدًا نَّتَّبِعُهُ إِنَّا إِذًا لَّفِي ضَلَالٍ وَسُعُرٍ
That phrase reappears — but now it is turned back upon the criminals of the present address.
أَأُلْقِيَ الذِّكْرُ عَلَيْهِ مِن بَيْنِنَا بَلْ هُوَ كَذَّابٌ أَشِرٌ
سَيَعْلَمُونَ غَدًا مَّنِ الْكَذَّابُ الْأَشِرُ
Their second claim was answered immediately, but the response to the first was held until now and directed to Quraysh — weaving past story into present address.
Echoes in this Surah carry different force in different places:
To be in Dalaal and Su’ur describes a condition of being immersed — as if surrounded or drowning in lostness and loss of control.
وَاتَّبَعُوا أَهْوَاءَهُمْ
A restless chasing from one desire to the next without arrival or rest — a picture of being lost and out of control.
يَحْسَبُهُ الظَّمْآنُ مَاءً حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَهُ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْئًا
Like a mirage: the approach never yields the water one imagined.
The criminals are presently misguided — yet they do not perceive their ruin.
One interpretation: misguidance in this life — and Su’ur as the blazing fire in the next.
Another reading: ruin (Dalaal) intensifies into Su’ur — a deeper state of being out of control.
The description “criminals” widens the frame beyond a label of disbelief, and aims the discourse toward trial, sentencing, and punishment — now directed toward Quraysh while binding their situation to earlier peoples.
The verse unveils condition and consequence at once: a people immersed in loss of the right path and in a rushing madness that seeks quick satisfactions without contentment — a state that is itself ruin and a path toward a blazing end. The echoed wording returns as a proof against them, and the legal framing signals the impending judgment.