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

Reviewed by a verified scholar · Sourced

Endorsed by the Quranicpedia Review Board · جون 2026

In Sūrah An-Naba, Hell is described as "lying in wait" (78:21) for the transgressors — a place of return where they abide for ages, tasting neither coolness nor drink but scalding water, "a recompense precisely fitting their deeds" (78:26).

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).

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.

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”

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.

References

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