The Qur’anic Root J Ḥ M

Early Arabic near the period of revelation: fire for warmth

In a poem beginning يا ليت شعري ألا منجى من الهرم, Sāʿidah ibn Juʾayyah al-Hudhalī describes an old man who needs the warmth of fire even in summer. Sāʿidah has been classified as either pre-Islamic or a poet who lived across the advent of Islam. The precise date of this line is uncertain, but it belongs to early poetry close to the period of revelation:

إِنْ تَأْتِهِ فِي نَهَارِ الصَّيْفِ لَا تَرَهُ
إِلَّا يُجَمِّعُ مَا يَصْلَى مِنَ الجُحَمِ

“If you visit him on a summer day, you see him only gathering embers with which to warm himself.”

الجُحَم here refers to fires or embers gathered for warmth; the subject is neither punishment nor moral judgment. This is not the Qur’anic form jaḥīm itself, but it provides evidence for the family J Ḥ M in the tangible field of fire. The line cannot determine a specific temperature or the history of every meaning in the family.

The concrete image in this example is fire and embers. Alongside the Qur’anic use of jaḥīm for Abraham’s fire, it supports understanding the word within the field of burning, blazing fire. This analysis does not establish a single historical path for all forms in the family.

As-Saffat 37:97: an internal Qur’anic key to jaḥīm

Abraham’s story is the central evidence against restricting the word to the hellfire of the Hereafter. In As-Saffat, his people say:

قَالُوا ابْنُوا لَهُ بُنْيَانًا فَأَلْقُوهُ فِي الْجَحِيمِ

“They said: Build a structure for him, then cast him into the fiercely burning fire.”

As-Saffat 37:97

The same episode is described elsewhere in the Qur’an using نار:

قَالُوا حَرِّقُوهُ وَانْصُرُوا آلِهَتَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ فَاعِلِينَ ۝ قُلْنَا يَا نَارُ كُونِي بَرْدًا وَسَلَامًا عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ

“They said: Burn him and support your gods, if you are going to act. We said: Fire, be coolness and safety for Abraham.”

Al-Anbiya 21:68, 21:69

Al-‘Ankabut says:

فَمَا كَانَ جَوَابَ قَوْمِهِ إِلَّا أَنْ قَالُوا اقْتُلُوهُ أَوْ حَرِّقُوهُ فَأَنْجَاهُ اللَّهُ مِنَ النَّارِ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ

“His people’s only answer was to say: Kill him or burn him. Then The God saved him from the fire. In that are signs for people who believe.”

Al-‘Ankabut 29:24

This internal comparison is revealing. The fire in the same story can be called both نار and جحيم. The two words need not identify two different fires; they present different aspects. Nār is the general word for fire, while jaḥīm highlights intense heat and burning.

ابْنُوا لَهُ بُنْيَانًا commands the construction of a structure for this purpose. The sentence itself gives no details about a pit, the shape of a furnace, or the building’s architecture. Such details should not be added to the meaning of jaḥīm.

From Abraham’s fire to the fire of the Hereafter

As-Saffat 37:97 is the sole clear use of jaḥīm for an earthly fire. The other 25 occurrences concern punishment in the Hereafter. This predominance gives jaḥīm a strong religious association with otherworldly fire, but a predominant referent is not the same as lexical meaning.

For example, the Qur’an says:

وَبُرِّزَتِ الْجَحِيمُ لِلْغَاوِينَ

“The fiercely burning fire was brought into view for those who had gone astray.”

Ash-Shu‘ara 26:91

And:

وَبُرِّزَتِ الْجَحِيمُ لِمَنْ يَرَىٰ

“The fiercely burning fire was brought into view for whoever sees.”

An-Nazi‘at 79:36

A few verses later:

فَإِنَّ الْجَحِيمَ هِيَ الْمَأْوَىٰ

“Then the fiercely burning fire is the abode.”

An-Nazi‘at 79:39

Here jaḥīm is not simply a description of one isolated flame. In the Qur’an’s portrayal of the Hereafter, this fire can be presented as a realm of punishment, with an abode, a path, a midst, a base, and a return to it.

These uses should not turn the basic definition into ‘a place.’ Jaḥīm belongs to the field of fire and heat; the context of the Hereafter presents it as an abode and realm of punishment.

Definite and indefinite jaḥīm

Most occurrences have the form الْجَحِيم, but three lack the definite article:

وَتَصْلِيَةُ جَحِيمٍ

“And burning in a fiercely blazing fire.”

Al-Waqi‘ah 56:94

إِنَّ لَدَيْنَا أَنْكَالًا وَجَحِيمًا

“With Us are heavy fetters and a fiercely burning fire.”

Al-Muzzammil 73:12

وَإِنَّ الْفُجَّارَ لَفِي جَحِيمٍ

“The wicked are in a fiercely burning fire.”

Al-Infitar 82:14

In all three, jaḥīm is indefinite and has nunation. The Qur’an therefore does not use the word only in the fixed form al-jaḥīm.

Nunation alone does not conclusively establish that a noun is common rather than proper: some Arabic proper names also take nunation. But these forms, together with the earthly use in As-Saffat 37:97, make it clearer that Qur’anic jaḥīm retains the capacity to describe fire and should not be assumed from the outset to be solely a proper name equivalent to Jahannam.

Jaḥīm alongside Saʿīr and Ṣ L Y

One verse says:

وَإِذَا الْجَحِيمُ سُعِّرَتْ

“And when the fiercely burning fire is kindled.”

At-Takwir 81:12

سُعِّرَتْ is a passive perfect verb in form II from S ʿ R. In this sentence, jaḥīm names the fire and the verb expresses its kindling. ‘Is made to blaze more fiercely’ would add a comparison not required by the verbal form itself.

The noun and verb have clearly different roles, but the co-occurrence of two families does not create an absolute semantic boundary between them. Nor must jaḥīm independently describe the fire’s state before the event expressed by suʿʿirat. The sentence names the fire and describes its being kindled.

The root ص ل ي also occurs alongside jaḥīm, including in As-Saffat 37:163, Al-Waqi‘ah 56:94, Al-Haqqah 69:31, and Al-Mutaffifin 83:16.

In these sentences, jaḥīm identifies the fire, while forms of Ṣ L Y describe a person’s relation to it. Their co-occurrence helps clarify each word’s role in the sentence, rather than transferring an entire family’s meaning to the other.

J Ḥ M compared with nār, Jahannam, and ḥamīm

Nār is the more general word for fire. Abraham’s story provides the clearest internal Qur’anic example of one referent being called both nār and jaḥīm. Jaḥīm gives greater prominence to intense heat and burning; this does not make them two entirely separate material types of fire.

Jahannam and jaḥīm refer in many otherworldly passages to the same realm of punishment. Sharing a referent in some contexts does not establish lexical synonymy. As-Saffat 37:97 alone shows that jaḥīm has a wider range than the hellfire of the Hereafter. Translating every jaḥīm as ‘Jahannam’ would therefore erase a lexical distinction in the Qur’an.

Ḥ M M is another family. Similarity of sound alone does not establish a historical relationship with J Ḥ M. As-Saffat 37:67, 37:68 first mentions حَمِيم in connection with a drink, then a return to الْجَحِيم. In this context, one identifies hot liquid and the other fire.

Intense fire, not its architecture or physics

The poetic example presents embers gathered for warmth; As-Saffat 37:97 uses jaḥīm for the fire into which Abraham is to be thrown. These examples clarify the field of fire and heat.

A linguistic description of fire is not the same as specifying its physical properties.

The evidence does not entail that every jaḥīm must occupy a pit, have a particular size, consist of several layers of fire, reach a specified temperature, or burn in one particular way.

صراط الجحيم occurs in As-Saffat 37:23, سواء الجحيم in As-Saffat 37:55 and Ad-Dukhan 44:47, and أصل الجحيم in As-Saffat 37:64. These expressions convey spatial relations within their respective scenes, but do not by themselves provide a precise map or architecture of the Hereafter.

The root informs us about intensity and burning; further details must come from the verses themselves.

Does jaḥīm inherently carry a negative moral judgment?

Almost all Qur’anic occurrences concern punishment in the Hereafter. Within Qur’anic usage, the word therefore has a very strong association with punishment and an adverse outcome.

That is different from defining the root lexically as ‘the fire of criminals’ or ‘the fire of evil.’

As-Saffat 37:97 is important evidence against such a definition. The same word describes the fire that Abraham’s opponents prepared to burn him. In that scene, the wrongdoing lies in the decision of those seeking to throw him into it; jaḥīm describes the fire.

Since this is the Qur’an’s only non-otherworldly example, it should not support a claim beyond its scope. What can be said confidently is that the Qur’an itself uses jaḥīm once for earthly fire, so the word’s lexical meaning cannot be restricted from the outset to otherworldly punishment or moral desert. At the same time, its overwhelmingly otherworldly distribution must be acknowledged.

Translation proposals for Forqan

A translation of jaḥīm should make both fire and its intensity explicit without automatically replacing it with ‘Hell.’

The basic proposal is:

Fiercely burning fire

This rendering highlights intensity. ‘Blazing fire’ is also natural in some sentences, but neither should become a physical specification of flame size, the quantity of embers, or temperature.

In As-Saffat 37:97:

فَأَلْقُوهُ فِي الْجَحِيمِ

“Cast him into the fiercely burning fire.”

For the indefinite forms, English should naturally preserve that distinction:

وَتَصْلِيَةُ جَحِيمٍ

“And burning in a fiercely blazing fire.”

إِنَّ لَدَيْنَا أَنْكَالًا وَجَحِيمًا

“With Us are heavy fetters and a fiercely burning fire.”

وَإِنَّ الْفُجَّارَ لَفِي جَحِيمٍ

“The wicked are in a fiercely burning fire.”

The lexical distinction should also be preserved in passages about the Hereafter. Directly replacing jaḥīm with ‘Hell’ loses part of the text’s choice of wording, even where its ultimate referent is the fire of the Hereafter.

Conclusion

J Ḥ M is associated with intense heat and burning, and jaḥīm can be understood as fiercely burning fire.

As-Saffat 37:97 shows that the Qur’anic range of jaḥīm is not confined to otherworldly fire. The fire called nār in other Qur’anic accounts of Abraham is called jaḥīm in As-Saffat. The other 25 occurrences concern punishment in the Hereafter. This distribution demonstrates the range of Qur’anic usage, but cannot by itself establish which use arose first historically.

The central distinction is between the meaning of the word and its referent in context.

J Ḥ M: intense heat and burning, especially in fire. Jaḥīm is fiercely burning fire whose heat and intensity are prominent. Its Qur’anic use predominantly concerns punishment in the Hereafter, but the word itself is not restricted to the Hereafter, a particular place, moral desert, or a specified physical structure.