His words, Exalted is He:

Woe to every backbiter (humaza), [who is] a slanderer (lumaza),

Humaza means a ‘backbiter’ (mughtāb), [a word which is used] when a person maligns someone in their absence; lumaza means a person who defames (ṭāʿin), [that is] he defames someone when he sees them. [The verse] was revealed with reference to al-Wālid b. al-Mughīra.^{1Al-Walīd b. al-Mughīra was one of the chiefs among the Quraysh and head of the Makhzūm clan. It was he who decided in a council among the Quraysh that the best way to discourage people from following Muḥammad was to call him a sorcerer (sāḥir).}

who amasses wealth and counts it over.

He said:

He exploited his wealth for his worldly life.

He thinks that his wealth will make him live forever.

He said:

That is, [he thinks] it will make him live forever in the abode of permanent subsistence (dār al-baqāʾ). It has also been said: [he thinks] it will make him live forever, [saving him from] death.

His words, Exalted is He:

[It is] the fire of God, kept kindled,

That is, it will not die down through consuming the skin and flesh, but [will go on burning] until its heat reaches the very hearts.

Fire is of four kinds: the fire of lust (shahwa), the fire of wretchedness (shaqāwa), the fire of alienation [lit. being cut off, qaṭīʿa], and the fire of love (maḥabba). The fire of lust consumes acts of obedience (ṭāʿāt), the fire of wretchedness consumes the profession of God’s oneness (tawḥīd), the fire of alienation consumes hearts, but the fire of love consumes all fires.^{1This comment would be presenting a quite different perspective from that which prevails in Tustarī’s comments on the Fire in its eschatological meaning, unless it is simply a comment of the ‘keynote’ type.}

It has been related of ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn رضي الله عنهم that once he entered a cave with some of his companions and found a woman alone there.^{2The MSS (Z515, f. 140b, F638, f. 71a and F3488, f. 324a) appear to have mafāza, meaning a waterless desert place, instead of maghāra, meaning cave. However, given the poem that follows, cave seems appropriate.} He asked her who she was, and she answered, ‘I am one of God’s bondswomen. Get away from me so that this love (ḥubb) does not leave me!’ Then ʿAlī رضي الله عنه asked her, ‘What is love?’ She replied, ‘It is too hidden (akhfā) to be seen and too evident (abyan) to be concealed. Its concealment within a person’s interior is like the concealment of fire within a stone. When you strike it can be seen but when you leave it alone it remains hidden.^{3Ibn al-Jawzī, Dhamm al-hawā (Cairo, 1962), p. 346; Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī, Rabīʿ al-abrār wa-nuṣūṣ al-akhbār (Qum, 1989), vol. 4, p. 23; Dāwūd al-Anṭākī, Tazyīn al-aswāq fī tafṣīl ashwāq al-ʿushshāq (Beirut, 1987), p. 40; Sarrāj al-Qārī, Maṣāriʿ al-ʿushshāq (Beirut, 1969), vol. 1, p. 175, vol. 2, p. 217.} Then she started to recite the following:

Verily the lovers are preoccupied with their Master,

Like the young men of the Cave, they know not how long they tarried!^{4On the Companions of the Cave, see the commentary on Sūra 18 above.}