The Recompense of the Transgressors (in An-Naba) جَزَآءً وِفَاقًا

Overview

After the gentle signs of creation and the announcement of the Day of Decision, Sūrah An-Naba turns to the fate of those who rejected it. “Indeed, Hell has been lying in wait” (78:21) — a place of return for the transgressors (78:22) who abide in it for ages (78:23), tasting there neither coolness nor drink but scalding water (78:24–25). All of this the sūrah names “a recompense precisely fitting” their deeds (78:26). Read carefully, though, the warning is not the sūrah’s last word; it is spoken to people who can still hear it — and that is the whole point of speaking it.

Etymology and meaning

The phrase جَزَآءً وِفَاقًا (jazāʾan wifāqā) pairs jazāʾ, recompense or requital, with wifāq, exact correspondence or matching. The sense is a return that fits its cause without excess — the penalty answers the deed measure for measure. An-Naba also calls Hell مِرْصَادًا (mirṣād, 78:21), a place of ambush or watch that “lies in wait,” and names the transgressors ٱلطَّاغِينَ (aṭ-ṭāghīn, 78:22), those who overstepped all bounds. Grammatically the word is an active participle — it describes a standing, ongoing condition rather than a single act, the overstepper as such rather than one who slipped once.

Qur'anic references

• 78:21 — “Indeed, Hell has been lying in wait”
• 78:22 — “for the transgressors, a place of return”
• 78:23 — “in which they will remain for ages”
• 78:24 — “they will taste therein no coolness nor any drink”
• 78:25 — “except scalding water and purulent discharge”
• 78:26 — “an appropriate recompense”
• 78:39 — “so whoever wills may take a way back to his Lord”

Significance

The passage answers the sūrah’s opening question about “the great announcement”: the resurrection is not arbitrary but a reckoning in which outcomes match deeds. The recompense is framed as fitting, not vindictive — the transgressors receive the consequence of bounds they themselves overstepped. It stands in deliberate contrast to the verses that follow, where the God-conscious attain the gardens of Paradise (78:31–36). Read against the sūrah’s earlier signs of creation, the lesson is consistent: the same ordering wisdom that shaped the world also weighs the deeds within it on the Day of Decision.

And here the sūrah turns. Having set the warning down so plainly, it does not seal the door — it opens it: “That is the Day of Truth. So whoever wills may take a way back to his Lord” (78:39). Notice where the road leads: not merely away from the fire, but back to his Lord — the One with the sole right to be turned to, the One your heart was made to return to. A penalty no one is forced into can also be a penalty no one need suffer; the God who described the ambush so vividly did so for you, who can still avoid it. Whatever you have overstepped, the road back to your Lord is open today — and it is His own invitation that you are reading.

See also

• The Gardens of Paradise
• The Day of Decision
• Signs of Creation

References

1. The Qur'an, Sūrah An-Naba 78:21–26; with the contrasting reward at 78:31–36 and the open invitation at 78:39.