In my article "A Qur'anic Interpolation" I tried to show that the Quranic verse: "And as for him whose scales are light, his mother is hawiyah" (Qur'an CI.6) meant for the Prophet: "And whose scale is light, his mother will become childless (that is, he perishes)." And I tried to show that the meaning of hawiyah as hell, as it is presented in the two final verses of the sura: "What will convey to you what it is? A blazing fire," was only brought in artificially. I wish here to further support my argument through reference to the Muslim Qur'anic exegetes. To be precise, even the oldest of them usually forcibly interpreted the term "hell" into the Qur'an. Obviously this is because their religious imagination, unfruitful in coming up with other ideas, always preferred the image of the unbelievers in damnation (as contrasted with the believers in paradise). One can compare in this connection, how the Qur'anic commentary expresses itself to wayl (woe) in Qur'an 11.73
Woe to those who write the Book with their hands and then say: "This is from Allah" in order to buy with it (something) of little value! Woe to them for what their hands write and woe to them for what they earn.
For example, al-Tabari (I, 286):
Fa-wayl: the interpreters differed with respect to the statement fa-wayl.
Some of them advocated what Abu Kurayb related from 'Uthman ibn Said from Bishr ibn cUmarah from Abu Rawf from al-Dahhak from Ibn Abbas, (who) said: fa-wayl la-hum, "Punishment is upon them."
Others advocated what Bashshar related from Ibn Mahdi from Sufyan from Ziyad ibn Fayyad, (who) said, "I heard Abu IIyad say, `The wayl is the pus' that flows in the base of Hell (jahannam).' " Bishr ibn Aban al-Khattab related from Waki` from Sufyan from Ziyad ibn Fayyad from Abu dyad, (who) said concerning the statement fa-wayl, "A cistern in the base of Hell in which flows their pus." 'Ali ibn Sahl al- Ramli related from Zayd ibn Abi al-Zarga' from Sufyan from Ziyad ibn Fayyad from Abu dIyad, (who) said, "The wayl is a river of pus in Hell." Ibn Humayd related from Mihran from Shaqiq, (who) said, "Wayl is water which flows with pus in the base of Hell."
Yet others advocated what al-Muthanna related from Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Salam ibn Salih al-Tumtari from `Ali ibn Jarir from Hammad ibn Salamah from 'Abd al-Ham-id ibn Ja`far from Kinanah al `Adawi from `Uthman ibn 'Affan from the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) (who) said, "The wayl is a mountain in the Fire." Yunus related from Ibn Wahb from 'Amr ibn al-Harith related from Darraj from Abu al-Haytham from Abu Said from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), (who) said, "Wayl is a river in Hell into which the unbeliever falls for forty autumns before he reaches its bottom."
Abu Ja`far [al-Tabari] said, "The meaning of the verse based on what was related above concerning the interpretation of wayl is that the punishment of drinking pus by the people Hell in the lowest part of the Jahim is for the Jews who write falsehood with their hands and then say, `This is from Allah.' "
Baydawi:
Fa-wayl, that is, the sighing and destruction. Whoever said that it was a river or a mountain in Hell, he means that in it (Hell) is a place which is occupied it by the one for whom the wayl is made. Perhaps it is called that metaphorically.
There are also other examples. Naturally, this exegesis has its echo in the lexicography; compare al-Jawhari under wayl:
'Ata' ibn Yasar said, "The wayl is a river in Hell. If the mountains were sent into it, they would melt from its heat."
Lisan al-`arab under wayl (XIV, 266):
Wayl is a river in Hell and wayl is one of its gates. In the Hadith from Abu Said al-Khudri, he said, "The Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) said, `The wayl is a river in Hell into which the unbeliever falls for forty autumns. If the mountains were sent into it, they would melt from its heat before they reached its bottom. Al-Sa`ud2 is a mountain of fire in which he (the unbeliever) ascends seventy autumns. Then he falls likewise....... Ibn al `Anbari said, "The wayl of Satan and his lamenting. Concerning the wayl are three teachings: Ibn Masud said, `The wayl is a river in Hell,' " etc.
Qamus under wayl:
Wayl is the word "punishment" and a river in Hell, or a spring, or a gate to it."
(See also Taj al-'arus under wayl). Here therefore, a whole crowd of old-indeed the oldest traditionalists and Qur'anic-exegetes, among them a man such as al-Tabari himself (whom one would not easily assess as a dimwit), have construed a word as well known as wayl, which outside the Qur'an and the pious tradition no one would have given a meaning for other than "woe," without much circumlocution to be a place in Hell: a river or a cistern of pus3 that flows from the damned, a fountain, a river valley, a mountain, a section of hell, and so on. Indeed, they have not shrunk from putting these interpretations partly in the mouth of the Prophet himself. How, then, is one supposed to make much with the rare hawiyah in Qur'an Cl, with which one does not know how to start?
Actually we are justified in believing the oldest Muslims, by their own lack of training in literary things in matters of Qur'anic interpretation, capable of every stupidity. It is obvious the Prophet himself was not conceptually completely clear over all kinds passages in his revelations!
Vollers (who agrees in the remainder of my explanation of Qur'an C1.6-8) referred me to Wellhausen's German Wagidi ("Muhammed in Medina") at the bottom of page 35. There Wellhausen translates the expression "he comes to his mother" al-hawiyah: "(1Umar ... requested him to be allowed to chop off a head,) whereupon he returned nothingness home to his mother." At this point Wellhausen gave the notice: "Compare to Job 1:21, Psalm 9:18 and perhaps 1V1 to al-hawiyah (Qur'an 101:6)." However, al-hawiyah is nowhere called "the nothing" and Inn has nothing to do etymologically with al-hawiyah (Qur'an CI.6 calls it only hawiyah!); also the notion, that the man had emerged from nothingness and with his death returns to nothingness, would not be Muslim, but pagan. I explain the expression as the closely related:
They went to his mother. He was brought low by it to his mother alhawiyah. You united with your mother al-hawiyah al-hawiyah.
For other examples that I have dealt with elsewhere, see pages 397-422.
NOTES
1. Compare Qur'an XIV.19, "In front of him is Hell and he is made to drink from festering (sadid) water."
2. Compare with Qur'an LXXIV.17.
3. Sadad. See the Qur'anic commentaries and the lexicons.