Rereading the Mechanisms of Intensity, Proportionality, and Eternality of the Hellfire Punishment in the Quran

Document Type : Research Article

Author

Hamidreza Imanifar

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22067/jquran.2026.97351.1932

Abstract

With the aim of answering the contemporary challenges regarding the revelatory authority of the Quran in explaining the mechanism of retribution, this paper provides a systematic re-reading of the concepts of “intensity”, “proportionality”, and “eternality” of the Hellfire punishment. The main problem of this study is confronting the accusation of “irrationality of infinite retributions” through moving beyond popular interpretations and relying on the analysis of the linguistic structure of the Quran and the ontology of the eschatological body. Using a qualitative content analysis method with an inductive approach, this paper examines the semantic network of revealed words. The findings of the first part (statistical analysis of the words) show that the Quran employs the pattern of “lexical specification” and thereby restricts the qualifier of eternality(abadan) to a specific group of the obstinate, while for the majority of sinners it maintains finitude of punishment. By examining characteristics of the eschatological body in the second part, it becomes clear that, contrary to the biological laws of the natural world, the body has been designed around “preserving the consciousness of the perceiving self” and “continuation of speech” (nutq) so that heedfulness and cognitive awakening become possible. Based on “the principle of correspondence” and “embodiment of the deeds”, the results reveal that in Quranic logic, the punishment is not a mere physical retaliation. Instead, it is a developmental and restorative process for existential purification and restoration of humans to the orbit of divine all-encompassing mercy. Therefore, Hell is not a brutal dead-end, but rather a crucible for transformation which loses its justification through decaying transient dispositions and ultimately finds its true meaning in the light of God’s essential mercy.

Keywords

Holy Quran

Eternity

Eternality of torment

Embodiment of the deeds

Eschatological body

Divine Mercy

Subjects

• Qurʾanic Exegesis and its methods

---

References

Qurān-i Karīm.

ʻAbd al-Razzāq Kāshī, ʻAbd al-Razzāq ibn Aḥmad. Sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam.  Tehran: Anjuman Āsār va Mafākhir  Farhangī, 2005/1383.

Fakhr Rāzī, Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar. al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr( Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb). Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth al-ʻArabī, 1999/1420.

Fayḍ Kāshānī, Muḥammad ibn Shāh Murtażā. Tafsīr al-Ṣāfī. Tehran: Ṣadr,, 1994/1415.

Ibn al-ʻArabī,  Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī. Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam. Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī. 1985/1405.

Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī. al-Iqtiqādāt. Qum: Kungirah-yi Shaykh Mufīd. 1994/1414.

Khumaynī, Rūḥ Allāḥ. Sharḥ Chihil Ḥadīth (Arbaʻīn Ḥadīth). Tehran: Mūʾassisah-yi Tanẓīm va Nashr-i Āsār-i  Imām Khumaynī. 2010/1388.

Kulīnī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb. al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1987/1407.

Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Taqī. Biḥār al-Anwār al-Jāmiʻa li-Durar Akhbār al-Aʾimma al-Aṭhār. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth al-ʻArabī. 1983/1403.

Mufīd, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Ikhtiṣāṣ. Qum: Kungirah-yi Shaykh Mufīd, 1993/1413.

Murtaḍā Zabīdī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Tāj al-ʿArūs min Jawāhir al-Qāmūn. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1993/1414.

Muṭaharī, Murtażā. ʿAdl Ilāhī. Tehran: Ṣadrā. 1979/1358.

Nūrī, Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad Taqī. Mustadrak al-Wasāʾil wa Mustanbaṭ al-Masāʾil. Qum: Āl al-Biyt. 1988/1408.

Rāghib Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn  ibn Muḥammad. al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurān. Damascus: Dār al-ʻIlm. 1992/1412.

Riḍā, Muḥammad Rashīd. Tafsīr-i al-Qurān al-Ḥakīm (al-Minār). Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, s.d.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. al-Ḥikma al-Mutaʻālīya fī al-Asfār al-ʻAqlīya al-Arbaʻa. Tehran: Dār al-Maʿārif al-Islāmīyya, 1982/1360.

Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Kitāb al-ʻArshiyya. Tarjamah va Sharḥ Ghulām Ḥusayn Āhanī, Tehran: Mawlā, 1983/1361.

Ṭabarsī. Faḍl ibn Ḥasan. Majmaʻ al-Bayān fī Tafsīr al-Qurān. Tehran: Nāṣir Khusrū, 1994/1372.

Ṭabāṭabāyī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurān. Beirut:  Aʻlamī, 2012/1390.

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. al-Tibyān fī Tafsīr al-Qurān. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth al-ʻArabī, s.d.