Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 344
344 and “seventy” are often used in Arabic as meaning several or many. But even if seven be taken as having a precise significance in this context it may be said that the torments associated with the concept of hell will be experienced through seven senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, the feeling of heat and cold, and what may be called the muscular sense, or feeling of fatigue. The Quran refers to the various torments which might be experienced by a diseased soul. When the transgressors see the torment they will realise that all power belongs to God and that God is severe in punishment (2:166). They will hear its raging and roaring from afar (25:13). They will drink boiling water; they will sip it and will not be able to swallow it easily (14:17 ⎯ 18). They will taste neither coolness nor pleasant drink save boiling water and a fluid that stinks (78:25 ⎯ 26). Their food will be dry, bitter, thorny herbage; it will neither nourish nor satisfy hunger (88:7 ⎯ 8). Hell will be for them a bed as well as a covering, so that the torment will affect them through the sense of touch (7:42). When they are thrown into a confined place chained together, they will wish for death, but death will not come to them (25:14). Their drink will be either boiling or intensely cold, both difficult to swallow, and various kinds of other torments of a similar nature they shall endure (38:58 ⎯ 59). There will be chains and iron collars imposing the torment of close confinement (76:5).