''Sijjin'' ( ar, سِجِّين lit. Netherworld, Underworld, Chthonian World) is in

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or ''Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the main ...

belief either a prison, vehement torment or straitened circumstances at the bottom of ''

Jahannam In Islam, the place of punishment for unbelievers and other evildoers in the afterlife, or hell, is an "integral part of Islamic theology", Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.401 and has "occupied an important place in the Muslim ima ...

'' or hell, below the earth (compare

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Tartarus In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; grc, , }) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's ''Gorgias'' (), souls are judg ...

), or, according to a different interpretation, a register for the damned or record of the wicked, which is mentioned in Quran 83:7. ''Sijjin'' is also considered to be a place for the souls of unbelievers until

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

. The idea that there is a hell underneath earth's surface roots in the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard 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 from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

, which speaks about "seven earths" (65:12), while describing hell as a subterranean pit, divided into seven compartments. Thus, many Muslim authors coincided hell with layers of the earth with ''sijjin'' at the bottom. For the lowest layer of hell, the term ''al-asfal'' is used too. The

antithesis Antithesis (Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together f ...

of ''Sijjin'' is ''

Illiyin ''Illiyin'', ''Illiyun'' or ''Elliyoun'' ( ar, عِلِّيِّين, عِلِّيُّون, ʿilliyyīn, -ūn literally: heaven, upperworld) is a Quranic term referring to either the "most high" and "supreme" places above Jannah, i.e. the Garden ...

''.

Etymology

The word as an adjective means "vehement" or "intense" and is derived from the root S-J-N () related to

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

ing or

imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

. The Arabic word for prison ( ar, سِجْن), along with verbs from the root, appears several times in Surah Yūsuf in relation to the account of Joseph in prison. A similar-sounding word (but of unrelated etymology from

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman c ...

via

Classical Syriac The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic dialect that emerged during the first century ...

), ( ar, سِّجِلّ) appears in a verse () and is translated as "scroll". Some exegetes who interpret the word as a register for the damned or a book listing the names of the sinful draw a connection between the two words.

Interpretations

Sunni Islam

Tabari ( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari i ...

reports essentially two different opinions regarding the meaning of ''Sijjin'' in his ''

Tafsir Tafsir ( ar, تفسير, tafsīr ) refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' ( ar, مُفسّر; plural: ar, مفسّرون, mufassirūn). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, in ...

'': * It is a book containing the evil deeds of the sinners: "their works are in a book in the lowest earth." * A prison for the damned: "it is the seventh lowest earth, in which

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...

(''

Iblis Iblis ( ar, إِبْلِيس, translit=Iblīs), alternatively known as Eblīs, is the leader of the devils () in Islam. According to the Quran, Iblis was thrown out of heaven, after he refused to prostrate himself before Adam. Regarding the o ...

'') is chained, and in it are the souls (''arwah'') of the infidels (''kufar'').

Shia tradition

According to some

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the ...

traditions, the enemies of

Ahl al-Bayt Ahl al-Bayt ( ar, أَهْل ٱلْبَيْت, ) refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but the term has also been extended in Sunni Islam to apply to all descendants of the Banu Hashim (Muhammad's clan) and even to all Muslims. ...

are created from the earth of ''Sijjin''.

Sufi cosmology

According to

Annemarie Schimmel Annemarie Schimmel (7 April 1922 – 26 January 2003) was an influential German Orientalist and scholar who wrote extensively on Islam, especially Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992. Early life and education ...

, traditional Sufi leaders linked the seven gates of hell each to a specific sin. This image of an ethical hell often associates each sin with a specific body part. ''

Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya ''The Meccan Revelations'' () is the major work of the philosopher and Sufi Ibn Arabi, written between 1203 and 1240. The Andalusi thinker exposes his spiritual journey, his theology, his metaphysics and his mysticism, using sometimes pro ...

'', written between 1203 and 1240 by

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 influen ...

, visualises this idea, correlating each layer of hell to one specific body part, ''sijjin'' being the gravest: ''jahannam'' – feet, ''al-jahim'' – genitals, ''al-sa'ir'' – belly, ''saqar'' – hands, ''laza'' – tongue, ''al-hutama'' – ears, ''sijjin'' – eyes. According to

al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polym ...

otherworld (''

akhira al-Ākhirah ( ar, الآخرة, derived from ''Akhir'' which means last, ultimate, end or close) is an Arabic term for "the Hereafter". In Islamic eschatology, on the Day of Last Judgment, the natural or temporal world (''dunya'') will come to ...

'') is a dream like realm unfolding its existence postmortem. In his work ''

The Incoherence of the Philosophers ''The Incoherence of the Philosophers'' (تهافت الفلاسفة ''Tahāfut al-Falāsifaʰ'' in Arabic) is the title of a landmark 11th-century work by the Persian theologian Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazali and a student o ...

'', he explains that this doesn't lower the deceased experience of the afterlife, but they perceive pleasure and pain like when they were alive. According to ''

The Alchemy of Happiness ) , translator = Muhammad Mustafa an-Nawali, Claud Field, Jay Crook , image = Alchemy of Happiness.png , caption = Cover of a 1308 Persian copy held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France , author = Al-Gha ...

'', ''sijjin'' will be a manifestation of the earthly life, presented to those who pursued worldy matters instead of religious bliss. The earthly world turns out to be a prison, and their bodily desires manifest as chains binding them to the earthly world, which turns out to be a prison (''sijjin''), surrounded by tempations they gave in, embodied by

devils A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in many and various cultures and religious traditions. Devil or Devils may also refer to: * Satan * Devil in Christianity * Demon * Folk devil Art, entertainment, and media Film and ...

(''shayāṭīn'').Al Ghazali ''The Exlixir of Bliss'' Eugen Diederichs Verlag p. 50

In popular culture

The

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities ...

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction ** Korean horror, Korean horror fiction *Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing on ...

film series ''

Siccîn ''Sijjin'' is a supernatural horror film series from Turkey debuted in 2014. The original title ''SİCCÎN'' is a Kurmanji Kurdish word, literally translating 'violent' or 'vehement', according to the country of origin. Director Alper Mestçi ...

'' is named after this Islamic term.

References

Quranic words and phrases Jahannam {{Islam-stub