56:43
QURANHIVE

A shade from black smoke

Core Image
Shade that does not comfort
Key Word
يَحْمُومٍ — Yahmoom
Main Contrast
Outstretched shade vs black smoke

The central meaning being pictured

The ayah presents shade, then immediately strips away any assumption of relief. People flee from the Samoom, just as people in this world flee heat by searching for shade, only to find that the shade available is from Yahmoom: smoke of Hell that is black, intensely black.

Educational focus The force of the image lies in reversal: what is normally associated with coolness, rest, and protection becomes a vehicle of continued punishment.

Language of يَحْمُومٍ

يَحْمُومٍ

Views cited from Tafsir of Ar-Razi

  • It may be one of the names of Hell.
  • It may mean smoke.
  • It may mean darkness.

The word traces back to حُمَم (Humam), charcoal. Because of its blackness, it is likened to coal and named with a term derived from that root.

The added letter reflects an intensification in the word — especially an intensified blackness, and possibly also an intensified heat.

Lexical deepening

اليَحْمُوم in the language means intensely black, and it is on the pattern يَفْعُول, derived from الحَمّ, referring to fat blackened by the burning of fire.

وَظِلٍّ مِّن يَحْمُومٍ

The word gathers overlapping semantic force: blackness, smoke, darkness, and a quality intensified beyond ordinary expectation.

charcoal imagery intense blackness heat implication smoke / darkness

Sequential order implied

The ayah can be read as a vivid progression of suffering rather than an isolated image.

1

Samoom strikes

The scorching wind reaches the person, producing thirst.

2

Heat blazes within

The fire of the Samoom burns within the insides.

3

Water is drunk

He drinks, and the water tears his intestines apart.

4

Shade is sought

After all of this, he seeks shade for relief.

5

The “shade” is Yahmoom

The only shade found is the shade of Yahmoom — not comfort, but another layer of harm.

Contrast highlighted by Ibn ‘Ashour

The mention of the shade of smoke contrasts it with the outstretched shade prepared for the People of the right hand.

The contrast is deliberate: one shade is expansive and prepared as blessing, while this shade is darkened by smoke and bound to punishment.

Al-Qurtubi’s picture of fleeing to shade

The image follows ordinary human behavior: people flee heat to shade. Here too they flee the Samoom, but the shade they reach is from the smoke of Hell, black and intensely black.

This preserves the normal expectation of shade, then overturns it completely.

Narrated reports

Attributed to Ibn ‘Abbas

“It refers to the canopy of the Fire that surrounds its inhabitants, rising from every side until it casts a shade over them”.

Attributed to Ibn Zaid

Al-Yahmoom is a mountain in Jahannam whose shade the inhabitants of Hell will attempt to seek for relief.

How Al-Alousiy frames this ayah together with the next

This ayah is read together with the next one: لَّا بَارِدٍ وَلَا كَرِيمٍ — “Neither cool nor nice”.

لَّا بَارِدٍ وَلَا كَرِيمٍ
  • The shade offers no benefit to one seeking refuge from heat.
  • Its being described as “not cool” and “not nice” removes any imagined comfort usually associated with shade.
  • This negation has a force stronger than simple affirmation.
  • The intended meaning is that this is a shade that is hot and harmful.
Important contextual note: Al-Alousiy is referencing both ayahs together, not this ayah alone.

Reversal of expectation

A familiar human instinct — seeking shade from heat — becomes a scene of disillusionment. The expected refuge becomes part of the torment.

Intensification in wording

The linguistic analysis gives the word a layered density: not merely dark, but intensely dark; not merely smoke, but smoke carrying intensified severity.

Structured contrast

This ayah is best understood not in isolation but within contrasts: shade and smoke, refuge and harm, expectation and negation.

Ayah 43