Wim Raven. Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an. Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Volume 4, Brill Academic Publishers, 2003.
The Relevant Qurʿanic Terminology
The term ajr, “wage, pay, reward,” is frequently used in suras of all periods. It sometimes refers to work or services rendered in everyday human contexts. Pharaoh’s (q.v.) sorcerers expect payment (Q 26:41); Moses (q.v.; Musa) was payed for being a shepherd (Q 28:25-7); wives and girl slaves are entitled to an ajr (Q 4:24-5; 5:5; 60:10; cf. 33:50); and divorced wives receive payment (pl. ujur) for nursing the children of their former husbands (Q 65:6). A recurrent motif throughout the Meccan suras is that the Prophet does not ask a wage for conveying the message (e.g. Q 6:90; 38:86; 68:46; in Q 23:72 with kharj and kharaj); that is to God’s account (e.g. Q 34:47). The same is true for the prophets of the past (e.g. Q 26:109; cf. 36:21). In most places, and predominantly so in the Medinan suras, ajr is the reward given by God for righteous conduct. One may be rewarded in this world, as e.g. Joseph (q.v.; Yusuf) was (Q 12:56), but nearly always ajr refers to the reward in the world to come, i.e. in paradise. The word is never used in the sense of “punishment.”
Thawab, mathuba and cognates occur nineteen times in suras of all periods, the basic meaning being “recompense, compensation, requital.” Only twice are they used in a negative sense (Q 3:153; 83:36); in the other cases they are virtually synonymous with “reward.” They always refer to the recompense for human actions from God, either in this world or in the world to come (e.g. Q 3:145, 148). Jazaʿ means “compensation, requital, satisfaction, payment.” With its cognates, it occurs frequently throughout the Qurʿan. It refers to both reward and punishment on earth, but far more often in the life to come. In the later suras the connotation of “punishment” is more dominant. Sometimes the word is embedded in the clausula phrase (see Neuwirth, Form, esp. p. 253): “That is how we recompense the doers of good,” which occurs in the later Meccan stories about the prophets (Q 6:84; 12:22; 28:14; 37:105-31) but had already been used in an early evocation of the day of judgment (Q 77:44; cf. also Q 5:85; 39:34) or in the often-repeated phrase: “… so that God may recompense them for the best of their deeds” (Q 9:121; 29:7; cf. 39:35).
Among punishment terms in the Qurʿan, ʿadhab and cognates are by far the most frequent in all periods. They mean “pain, torment,” and more specifically “pain or torment inflicted by way of chastisement; punishment.” The flogging (q.v.) of adulterers is called ʿadhab (Q 24:2, 8) but otherwise this word mainly refers to the torment in hell. God ‘seizes’ the sinners with the torment (e.g. Q 23:64; 43:48), or the torment is personified: it “seizes” the sinners (Q 11:64; 16:113; 26:156, 158, 189), as does the “cry” (see below under ṣayḥa); or torment “covers them from above them and from under their feet” (Q 29:55). In some 150 places, especially in the Medinan suras, the word is embedded in often-repeated clausula phrases, such as “For them is a painful punishment” (e.g. Q 5:36), or phrases ending with the words “a demeaning (or painful, or severe) punishment,” e.g. “he will have a painful punishment” (Q 2:178). About ʿadhab al-qabr, “the punishment in the grave,” see at the end of this article.
ʿIqab is the verbal noun of ʿaqaba, a verb which means “to do alternately” and “to punish for crime, sin, fault or offence.” It is absent from the earliest, and rare in the middle Meccan suras. Finite verb forms of the root ʿ-q-b occur six times in the Qurʿan and always refer to human activities, meaning both “punishing” and “doing what induces punishment.” The frequently used ʿiqab always refers to God’s punishment. In Medinan suras it occurs almost exclusively in concluding clausula phrases, which aim at underlining a command or interdiction, as e.g. “God is severe in punishment” (Q 3:11). Unusually, in Q 5:98 this phrase does not occur at the end of the verse: “Know that God is severe in punishment and that God is all-forgiving.” Indeed God’s punishment is placed in contrast to his willingess to forgive already in late Meccan verses (Q 6:165; 7:167; 13:6; 40:3; 41:43).
The term intiqam, “revenge, to avenge oneself, take revenge, to bear a grudge,” and cognates are used for the grudge that human beings bear against believers for the very fact that they are believers (Q 5:59; 7:126; 85:8) and enjoy God’s blessing (Q 9:74). More frequently they are used to denote God’s punishment. From the second Meccan period onward, God presents himself as an avenger. He will take vengeance on the evildoers, both here (Q 43:41) and in the life to come (Q 44:16), as he had done in the past, according to the punishment stories (q.v.; Q 7:136; 15:79; 30:47; 43:25, 55). A few Meccan and Medinan verses end in the clausula phrase “God is mighty and vengeful” (Q 3:4; 5:95; 14:47; 39:37). Al-muntaqim, “the avenger,” is one of God’s “most beautiful names”.
Additional terminology includes khizy, “shame, disgrace, ignominy.” From the second Meccan period onward, this word and its cognates are often bracketed with God’s punishment (e.g. Q 20:134). Disgrace in this world is terrible, but the torment in the hereafter is worse (Q 39:26). On the day of resurrection (q.v.), God will disgrace the evildoers (Q 16:27), as he had already done in the past, witness several punishment stories (e.g. Q 11:39; 41:16). The stay in hell is, among other things, an ignominy (Q 3:192; 9:63). In Q 5:33, where some heavy physical punishments are enumerated, it is not the pain that is emphasized, but the disgrace. Also the roots dh-l-l and k-b-t which denote “humiliation” express this aspect of the divine punishment (e.g. Q 10:26; 58:5), as well as the frequent collocation “a demeaning punishment” (ʿadhab muhin; e.g. Q 2:90). Mathula, “exemplary punishment,” occurs once in the plural (al-mathulat) in a Medinan sura, where it refers to an unspecified past time (Q 13:6). Nakal and tankil have a similiar meaning. Punishments meted out to the Jews and to Pharaoh are presented as warnings and exhortations for the God-fearing (Q 2:66; 79:25). In a lawgiving Medinan verse nakal is used for the cutting off of the hands of thieves (Q 5:38).
Rijz, rijs, rujz: rijz is “abomination, filth, impurity”. In some punishment stories, however, it denotes a scourge which was sent from heaven (Q 2:59; 7:134-5, 162; 29:34) and, in the phrase “the punishment of a painful scourge” (Q 34:5; 45:11), it refers to the future. Also the word rijs has a twofold meaning: in six places it means “abomination, filth, punishable act”; in three verses “scourge” (Q 6:125; 7:71; 10:100). Both rijz and rijs occur in late Meccan and Medinan suras. Rujz, in the early verse Q 74:5, is sometimes considered to be identical with rijz, “abomination,” or is taken to be cognate with Syriac rugza, “wrath” (Jeffery, For. vocab., 139). Finally, ṣayḥa, “cry,” occurs in the second and third Meccan periods. In Q 50:42 it is the cry or clamor that announces the resurrection on the day of judgment. Mostly, however, the cry has more than a heralding and warning function: it is the punishment itself, or at least part of it. This is hinted at in Q 38:15 and is more obvious in Q 36:49: “they are only awaiting a single cry to seize them.” Elsewhere it is the torment that “seizes” them (see above under ʿadhab). In the punishment stories the cry is destructive. Of Thamud (q.v.) and al-Ḥijr (q.v.) it is said: “We released upon them a single cry and they became like the dry twigs of a pen-builder” (Q 54:31; cf. 11:67, 94; 15:83), but it also occurs in other stories, e.g. in Q 36:29: “It was but one cry, and behold, they were extinguished.”
The Eschatological Division
A roughly chronological reading of the entire Qurʿan gives a better insight into the qurʿanic system of reward and punishment than does a mere enumeration of the relevant vocabulary. Both reward and punishment belong to the oldest stratum of the message. On the day of judgment, God will separate the unbelieving evildoers, who are to be punished, from the god-fearing believers, who will be rewarded. The first Meccan suras describe the guilty as “he who is given his book (q.v.) behind his back” (Q 84:10-12) or “in his left hand” (Q 69:25), as “companions of the left,” (Q 56:9), as “one whose scales are light” (Q 101:8) and as the one whom “we will brand him upon the muzzle” (Q 68:16). Those who are not condemned are called “companions of the right,” (Q 56:8, 27), “he who has been given his book in his right hand” (Q 69:19); he “whose scales shall be weighty” (Q 101:6-7). Finally, reward and punishment are strictly individual: on the day of judgment, no soul will be of help to another (Q 82:19).
Who Will Be Rewarded?
The suras of the first Meccan period mention those “who purify themselves, remember the lord’s name and perform the prayers” (cf. Q 87:14-5), those “who give and fear God and believe in the fairest [reward]” (Q 92:5-6), and “those who believe and do good deeds” (Q 84:25; 85:11; 95:6). The early verses Q 90:13-7 give a short description of the types of deeds that may be rewarded: “freeing a slave; feeding, on a day of famine (q.v.), an orphan near of kin, or a poor person in misery,” as well as belonging to the believers, who urge one another to be steadfast and merciful. Q 51:17-9 emphasizes asceticism (q.v.): “They used to sleep (q.v.) little and to ask for forgiveness at daybreak; the beggar and the destitute had a share in their wealth (q.v.).” In short, belief, devotion and responsible social behavior are decisive already in the earliest suras, and they remain so throughout the Qurʿan. Enumerations of rewardable behavior in various Meccan passages specify these good deeds (Q 23:1-9; 25:63-74; 32:15-6; 70:22-34).
A similar Medinan enumeration (Q 3:130-5) explicitly mentions “hastening to obtain forgiveness” as rewardable. God’s forgiveness can reduce punishment and tip the scales towards reward. Repentance is of course a necessary precondition for obtaining forgiveness (Q 66:8). Another Medinan passage, Q 33:35, makes clear that the good deeds of both men and women will be rewarded. In the Medinan period, donating wealth for military activities (fi sabili llahi) without making a fuss about it (Q 2:262), or even better, participating in the fight physically (Q 4:95; 9:88-9; 61:11; cf. 4:100) and, eventually, being killed on the battlefield are emphasized. Also the bedouins will be rewarded, when they take part in fighting (Q 48:16). Other groups that are explicitly promised a reward in the later suras are those who emigrate to God and his messenger (q.v.; Q 4:100), the first Emigrants and Helpers (q.v.; Q 9:100) and the believers among the People of the Book (q.v.; Q 2:62; 3:199; 5:69, 85). Occasionally very specific actions are mentioned as meriting reward: not talking loudly in the presence of the Prophet (Q 49:2-3) and not discriminating among prophets (Q 4:152).
Those Who Are Punished
The people on the left who will be punished, according to the Meccan suras, are primarily those who do not believe in God and deny his signs (q.v.; e.g. Q 90:19-20); who turn away; who doubt the resurrection and the reality of the day of judgment (Q 56:47); who declare the prophetic message a lie (q.v.; e.g. Q 52:11; 56:51); and who call the Prophet a sorcerer, a madman or a poet (e.g. Q 10:2; 37:36). Concomitant with their unbelief are their deeds, notably involving antisocial behavior. The unbelievers are impudent (Q 79:37-8) and cheat (Q 83:1-3); they do not look after the poor (e.g. Q 69:34), notably the orphans (Q 89:17; 93:9; 107:2); and they live in luxury (Q 56:45), or heap up fortunes (Q 92:8; 104:2). Furthermore, they “obstruct God’s way and make a breach with the messenger” (Q 47:32), persecute the believers (Q 85:10) or even forbid them to pray (Q 96:9-10). In Q 74:43-6, the evil-doers in hell explain to the believers why they are there: “We were not among those who prayed, and we were not among those who fed the destitute; we used to talk nonsense with others, and we used to deny the day of judgment….”
The Medinan suras repeat what has been said before but add some elements that reflect the changed political circumstances. There is a certain emphasis on the hypocrites, who were lukewarm in their allegiance to Muḥammad or became outright disloyal to him. They are as bad as the unbelievers (Q 4:138, 140, 145; 9:101; 48:6; 66:9); they will not be forgiven (Q 63:6); and they are “in the lowest depth of hell” (Q 4:145). Close to them, or even identical with them (Q 9:97, 101), are the bedouins insofar as they are unreliable allies. Since at a crucial moment they failed to participate in military activities, they are threatened with a painful punishment (Q 48:16; 9:90). In Q 9, those who refuse to take part in war are a main preoccupation. Q 9:81-5 promises them hell, but they are punished in this life as well: they will not be invited for future expeditions (which is a disgrace; cf. Q 9:39), and the believers are not supposed to pray for them on their death. Even worse are those who actively try to restrain the believers from warfare (li-yaṣudduʿan sabili llahi, Q 8:36).
Other punishable acts mentioned in the Medinan suras are, for example, mockery (q.v.; Q 9:79), believing in the Trinity (q.v.; Q 5:73), opposing God’s messenger (Q 8:13; 9:61, 63) and killing his prophets (Q 3:21; cf. Mt 23:37). Already in Meccan passages apostates had been threatened with punishment (Q 16:106) but are so again with still more emphasis in Medinan passages (Q 2:217; 3:176-7; 9:74). Certain mundane perpetrators, like murderers (Q 4:93) and adulterers (Q 25:68-9) are explicitly threatened with punishment in the afterlife.
The Nature of the Retribution in the Hereafter
What exactly awaits humankind in the world to come is made abundantly clear throughout the Qurʿan and is described in detail elsewhere in the present work (see e.g. the various cross-referenced articles). The reward is that the believers will abide in a luscious garden, or gardens, with rivers flowing underneath, where they are given fine food and drink (q.v.) and costly clothing (q.v.), where they will be served by youths and enjoy the company of attractive women. The guilty, i.e. the unbelievers, will be punished by being thrown into the hellfire, where they will neither die nor live, where they are skinned and tortured and will burn forever.
Divine Recompense on Earth
God rewards and punishes not only in the hereafter but in this life as well (Q 3:145, 148; 4:134). To the Emigrants, God will give “a good lodging in this world, but the reward in the world to come is greater, if they only knew” (Q 16:41; cf. 16:30-1). Those who pledged allegiance under the tree, i.e. at Ḥudaybiya (q.v.), were rewarded “with a victory (q.v.) near at hand” (Q 48:18).
Already in the past God’s punishment was imposed on earth. Stubborn individuals and peoples who had not taken heed of the warnings of God’s messengers were punished for behavior not unlike that of Muḥammad’s environment: unbelief, polytheism, disobedience (q.v.), arrogance (q.v.). The punishment had consisted in destruction by stones thrown from heaven, by earthquakes, wind or rain, or by drowning (q.v.). These stories aim, among other things, at convincing the Prophet’s contemporaries that the punishment is imminent and real (see Horovitz, KU, 10-32).
But these ancient peoples were not the only ones to be punished on earth. Indeed “there is no city but we will destroy it before the day of resurrection, or will punish it terribly” (Q 17:58). Unbelievers (Q 13:34), in particular disaffected hypocrites (Q 9:74) and those who slander married women (Q 24:23), will be punished both now and in the hereafter. An earthly punishment may lead to repentance (Q 32:21). The agony of the unjust on their deathbeds, when the angels of death visit them, is called “the punishment of disgrace” (Q 6:93). Sometimes a twofold punishment is announced: disgrace in this life and a severe torment in the world to come (Q 2:85, 114; 5:41; 22:9; 39:26). Human beings may be the instruments of God’s wrath on earth, as in Q 59:5, where they cut down palm trees with God’s permission, to disgrace the vicious. In the battle of Ḥunayn (q.v.), human fighters were helped by invisible soldiers sent down by God, “and he punished the unbelievers” (Q 9:26).
The Imagery of the Qurʿan
With reference to reward and punishment the Qurʿan employs two sets of imagery. One of them is that of commerce (see Torrey, Commercial-theological terms; Rippin, Commerce). “God buys from the believers their lives and their wealth in return for paradise” (Q 9:111; cf. 4:74). The transaction with God is also called a loan. On his loan to God, the believer will obtain a good or a double advantage, or even more (Q 2:245; 57:11, 18; 64:17). If the believer does not deliver, his soul (q.v.) is impounded: “Every soul is a pledge to what it has earned, except for those of the right hand side” (Q 74:38-9; cf. 52:21). Unbelievers suffer a loss (khusr): “Humankind is in the way of loss, save those who believe” (Q 103:2-3).
On the day of resurrection everyone will be confronted with his book (kitab; see Madigan, Book, 243-4) in which his standing is recorded. That day will be the “day of reckoning” (ḥisab, Q 38:16, 26, 53; 40:27), on which the account between God and humanity will be settled. A similar term is aḥṣa, “counting, calculating.” Both al-ḥasib, “the reckoner,” and al-muḥṣi, “the calculator,” are among God’s most beautiful names (see Böwering, God, 319). Another commercial metaphor (q.v.) is that of the scales on which all deeds will be exactly weighed: “We set up the just scales for the day of resurrection, so that no soul shall be wronged anything…” (Q 21:47). For God’s payment the late Meccan and the Medinan suras often use the word waffa, “to pay in full, to let someone have his full share,” which has a more commercial ring than jazaʿ or thawab: “every soul shall be paid in full for what it did; they shall not be dealt with unjustly” (e.g. Q 16:111). In executing his part of the deal with humankind in full, God is not “dealing unfairly” (ẓalama), he does not “defraud” or “cheat” (bakhasa, alata), nor squander the advantage of man (aḍaʿa) — all terms with a commercial connotation.
The other set of imagery is of a judicial nature. In a few verses, the day of judgment reminds us of an earthly court, where the guilty are punished and the innocent are released. “He who is given his book in his right hand… shall go back to his people happily” (Q 84:7-9). “Only the most wretched will roast in the blazing fire; the god-fearing will be kept away from it” (Q 92:15-7). On the day of judgment, however, “guilty” or “not guilty” are not exclusively decisive. Above all, God is merciful and inclined to forgive. Numerous are the places in the Qurʿan where punishment is contrasted not with release, but with mercy: “He punishes whom he will and he has mercy upon whom he will,” or “forgives whom he will” (e.g. Q 2:284; 3:129; 5:18, 40; 29:21; 48:14). The divine judge punishes or for gives simply because he is mighty enough to do so: “Should you punish them, [you do so since] they are your servants (q.v.); but should you forgive them, [you do so since] you are the mighty one, the wise one” (Q 5:118). Here is neither an accu rate bookkeeper at work, nor an honest judge in some mundane court, but a sovereign and almighty king. Bravmann (Allah’s liberty, 236) has pointed out that such a king-judge resembles the Arabic rulers and grandees that figure in pre-Islamic poetry and early Islamic historiography. The adduced parallels are striking; yet they must be seen in the far wider perspective of divine kingship in the ancient Near East.
Reward may then be, in the first place, associated with trade, profit, gain, etc., whereas punishment and release belong to the realm of legal jurisdiction. Mercy still fits into the judicial imagery, when we keep the nature of the judge in mind. But all the images are blended, and each of them is evocative of only one aspect of God’s justice. Those who were released in the above quoted Q 74:38 we see in paradise already in the very next verse. Indeed, in the overwhelming majority of verses release from punishment is connected with bliss in paradise.
The Measurement of Reward and Punishment
The insufficiency of all metaphors is perhaps best illustrated by how the Qurʿan deals with the measurement of the requital. Good and evil deeds are requited proportionally and precisely. “He who has a done an atom’s weight of good shall see it, and he who has a done an atom’s weight of evil shall see it” (Q 99:7-8). Hence, there are various degrees of reward and punishment. “All shall have their degrees, according to what they did” (Q 46:19). For polytheists, murderers and adulterers “punishment shall be doubled… on the day of resurrection” (Q 25:69). Liable to an extra punishment are also “those who obstruct the way of God” (Q 11:19-20; 16:88). The unbelievers in hell even dare to demand double punishment for those who misguided them (Q 7:38; 33:68; 38:61). The measure of the reward is variable as well. The believers among the wives of the Prophet (q.v.; Q 33:31) and the People of the Book (Q 28:54) are promised a double reward. Active fighters (Q 4:95) and early converts (Q 57:10) will be privileged. Yet the Qurʿan more than once promises a double reward without there being an extra merit. It sometimes corresponds to a twofold deed, or two deeds: “except those who believe and do a righteous deed. To those there will be double recompense for what they did” (Q 34:37; cf. 57:28). God may simply leave the account books aside: “if it is a good deed, he will multiply it and give from himself a great reward” (Q 4:40; cf. 4:173). While punishment is proportional, reward may be far more than doubled: “He who comes up with a good deed shall have ten times its like; and he who comes up with an evil deed will only be requited for it once” (Q 6:160). As a matter of fact, there is no point in being arithmetical about all this. The meas urements are mere indications of the immeasurable extent of God’s mercy, and of the sovereignty of his judgment. (In ḥadith, however, the idea of “two rewards” is elaborated in a down-to-earth manner; see Wensinck, Concordance, i, 20-1, s.v. ajran.)
Reward and Punishment in Theology
Within the Qurʿan, the various commercial and judicial metaphors are blended but not brought into harmony with each other. In theology they are neither, although attempts have been made to harmonize them. From wherever one may start, the central problem is that of free will. Were people not free to act — at least to some extent — they could not be held responsible for their deeds and consequently there would be no point in retribution. But the more freedom there is for people, the less sovereignty (q.v.) for God. Generally it can be said that in the Qurʿan, in ḥadith and in Islamic theology God’s control over human acts and intentions has been emphasised at the expense of human free will. But this was not always the case.
Three very brief sketches may give an idea of the possible theological viewpoints. The Muʿtazila (q.v.), in the third/ninth century, held that humans have the power to do what God requires of them, hence they are responsible for their deeds and will be rewarded or punished accordingly. By virtue of his justice, God has to be just and can do nothing else than deal out reward and punishment with greatest precision, almost mechanically (Watt, Islamic thought, 231-42; van Ess, TG, iii, 403-8; iv, 507-12). The orthodox who adhered to ḥadith and sunna (q.v.), without recourse to speculative reasoning, protested vigorously. Is God not free to punish and to forgive whom he wants? Anything less would impair his omnipotence and sovereignty as a creator, a ruler and a judge. God is not constrained to do anything. This line of thought was adopted by al-Ashʿari (260-324/873-935), an ex-Muʿtazili who defended orthodox tenets with arguments of reason. He held that a human “acquires” or “appropriates” (kasaba) his acts, which are, however, known, willed and created by God. In this manner he saves God’s omnipotence, but the individual remains responsible enough to really deserve his reward or punishment (Ashʿari, Maqalat, 291-2; McCarthy, Theology, 53-8). For al-Juwayni (d. 428/1085) there is no causal connection between human deeds and divine retribution at all: “According to the true believers, the reward is neither a determined right, nor an obligatory retribution. It is a favor on God’s part. The punishment is not necessary either. In so far as it takes place, it is justice on God’s part” (Juwayni, Irshad, 381).
The Punishment in the Grave
A punishment that does not fit into the qurʿanic system of retribution is the torment that will be inflicted on the dead in their graves. It is essentially a theme developed in ḥadith. Until the day of judgment, the bodies of the deceased lie in their graves, separated from their souls or spirits. In the intermediate state they continue to exist in some way and can feel pressure, pain or pleasure. Although the possible qurʿanic allusions to this state are sparse, ḥadith and popular texts discuss it in detail (see Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. “Graves”; Smith/Haddad, Understanding of death, 31-61; van Ess, TG, iv, 521-8). Some people receive a special reward immediately after their death. Those who are killed on the battlefield for the cause of God are not dead; rather “they are alive with their lord, well-provided for” (Q 3:169). According to a ḥadith, prophets, martyrs and innocent children immediately enter paradise (Abu Dawud, Sunan, K. al-Jihad, 25; Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, v, 58). Another ḥadith mentions ten persons by name, including the Prophet and the first four caliphs, who “are [already] in paradise” (Abu Dawud, Sunan, Sunna, 8; Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, i, 187-8; for other privileged categories, see Wensinck, Handbook, s.v. “Graves [who is free from the trial]”). Most mortals, however, are subject to interrogation (musaʿala) or torment in their graves (ʿadhab al-qabr). A dead man is made to sit up in his grave and asked to render account of his belief and deeds. If he has done any good deeds, these will answer for him. When the result of questioning is positive, the grave is widened, so that his body feels relief. Other wise, the torment consists in his being further compressed in the grave, which is made too narrow for the body; he may be beaten, flogged or bitten by a fiery snake. There is also the disgrace of his unbelief becoming publicly known (see Aḥwal al-qiyama, 39-41; trans. 69-73; Smith/Haddad, Understanding of death, 41-50; van Ess, TG, iv, 528-34; Wensinck/Tritton, ʿAdhab al-ḳabr). The torment may be performed by an unknown agent; a single angel, who is sometimes called Ruman; by two angels, who either remain anonymous or are called Munkar and Nakir (as early as Muqatil, Tafsir, ii, 193, 405-6; see Wensinck, Munkar wa-Nakir; id., Creed, 117-9, 163-5); or even by four angels (van Ess, TG, iv, 528, 531). The Qurʿan does not explicitly mention the punishment in the grave. Yet, in tafsir works various qurʿanic verses are brought into connection with it. According to Q 9:101, the hypocrites will be punished twice. This could be once in this world and once in the grave (ʿAbd al-Razzaq, Tafsir, i, 253; Ṭabari, Tafsir, xiv, 444; Zamakhshari, Kashshaf, ii, 211). Muqatil (d. 150/767; Tafsir, ii, 193) considers the earlier punishment to be death: “at the moment of death, the angels beat the faces and backs, and Munkar and Nakir [do so] in the graves.” Similarly in Q 32:21 “the nearer punishment, prior to the greater punishment” may consist either in suffering in this world or in the torment in the grave (Ṭabari, Tafsir, xxi, 68; Zamakhshari, Kashshaf, iii, 245). In Q 14:27, “God confirms those who believe with the firm word in the present life and in the hereafter,” the word “hereafter” cannot refer to paradise, since no support is needed there. Hence several exegetes relate it to the punishment in the grave. ʿAbd al-Razzaq (d. 211/827; Tafsir, i, 296) and al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1144; Kashshaf, ii, 377) mention it briefly, Muqatil (Tafsir, ii, 405-6) and al-Ṭabari (d. 310/923; Tafsir, xiii, 142-5) treat it at length. God’s guidance appar ently also remains in effect in the grave, helping the believers to profess the true creed. This is also Muqatil’s comment on Q 47:5 (Tafsir, iv, 45), where he interprets the words “he shall guide them,” i.e. those killed at Badr (q.v.), as “to the right guidance, i.e. the confession of God’s unity (tawḥid) in the grave.” At Q 40:11, “Our lord, you have caused us to be dead twice and brought us to life twice,” al-Ṭabari (Tafsir, xxiv, 31) mentions as one interpretation of which he was aware: “They were made to die in this world, then brought to life in their graves, then were interrogated or spoken to, then made to die in their graves and resurrected in the hereafter.” “The punishment other [or: less] than that” in Q 52:47 is also sometimes interpreted as the torment in the grave (ʿAbd al-Razzaq, Tafsir, ii, 201; Ṭabari, Tafsir, xxvii, 22; Zamakhshari, Kashshaf, iv, 26).
The punishment in the grave was once a much disputed theological issue. According to al-Ashʿari (Maqalat, 430), the Kharijis (q.v.) and the Muʿtazila denied its existence, but most Muslims asserted its reality. Notably Ḍirar b. ʿAmr (ca. 110-80/728-96) made a point of denying it, since he did not care for ḥadith, but later Muʿtazilis did not follow his opinion (van Ess, TG, iii, 52; iv, 529). Several creeds of the believers who stuck to ḥadith and sunna explicitly state that “the torment in the grave is a reality” (see Wensinck/Tritton, ʿAdhab al-ḳabr; Wensinck, Creed, index s.v. punishment).