According to the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

, Zaqqoum or Zaqqum ( ar, زقوم) is a tree that "springs out of the bottom of Hell". It is mentioned in verses 17:60 (as the "cursed tree"), 37:62-68, 44:43, and 56:52, of the Quran.

Religious references

The Qur'an says: : 4.43Surely the tree of Zaqqum, : 4.44Is the food of the

sin In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...

ful : 4.45Like dregs of oil; it shall boil in (their) bellies, : 4.46Like the boiling of hot water. The fruits of ''Zaqqum'' are shaped like heads of devils (Qur'an 37:62-68). Some

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of reli ...

s believe in a literal meaning of this tree grown in fire, showing the inverted flora of

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

. The inhabitants of hell are forced to eat the tree's fruits, which tears their bodies apart and releases bodily fluids as a punishment. According to Umar Sulayman Al-Ashqar, a leading

Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a reform branch movement within Sunni Islam that originated during the nineteenth century. The name refers to advocacy of a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors" (), the first three generat ...

scholar and professor at the University of Jordan, once the palate of the sinners is satiated, the fruit in their bellies churns like burning oil. Other scholars suggest the tree is grown by the seeds of the evil deeds of the sinners, therefore the devilish fruits are the fruits of their bad actions during lifetime; as

Ibn Arabi Ibn ʿArabī ( ar, ابن عربي, ; full name: , ; 1165–1240), nicknamed al-Qushayrī (, ) and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn (, , 'Sultan of the Knowers'), was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influenti ...

stated, the tree stands for the arrogant

self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...

Botany

The name ''zaqqum'' has been applied to the species '' Euphorbia abyssinica'' by the Beja people in eastern

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

. In

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, it is applied to the species '' Balanites aegyptiaca''.The Waters That Heal
Kirk Albrecht and Bill Lyons, ''Saudi Aramco World'', March/April 1995, pp. 34–39. In Turkey, zakkum is the vernacular for '' Nerium oleander''; and
zıkkım
', a Turkish cognate, means "poison".

References

{{Qur'anic people Trees in mythology Trees in Islam Jahannam