What does it mean that Hell 'lies in wait' (mirṣād) in Surah An-Naba 78:21?

Answer

In Surah An-Naba 78:21, the phrase 'Indeed, Hell lies in wait' translates the Arabic كَانَتْ مِرْصَادًا (kānat mirṣādan). A mirṣād is a place of ambush or a lookout point — a position from which something watches and waits for whatever passes by. The classical exegetes explain the image in two complementary ways. Al-Ṭabarī and al-Qurṭubī note that Hell is depicted as lying in ambush, prepared and watching for the transgressors so that none of them escapes it. Ibn Kathīr adds the report that Hell lies in wait along the route the disbelievers must traverse, so that it intercepts them as they pass. The imagery is deliberately vivid: rather than a passive pit, Hell is portrayed as alert and waiting, underscoring that punishment is not arbitrary but the appointed end for those who persistently rejected faith. The verse opens a short, tightly structured passage (78:21–26) describing the destination of 'those who transgress' (al-ṭāghīn) — people whose defining trait, established earlier in the surah, was denial of the resurrection. Reading mirṣād this way frames the entire passage as a sober warning rather than a description of cruelty for its own sake.