''Sijjīn '' ( lit. Netherworld, Underworld, Chthonian World) is in

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

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

Jahannam In Islam, Jahannam () is the place of punishment for Islamic views on sin, evildoers in the afterlife, or hell. This notion is an integral part of Islamic theology,#ETISN2009, Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", ''Numen'', 56, 2009: p.401 and has occupied ...

'' or

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

, below the earth (compare

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

Tartarus In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; ) 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 judged after ...

), or, according to a different interpretation, a register for the damned or record of the wicked, which is mentioned in Quran . ''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. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

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

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, which speaks about "seven earths" (), 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 (: antitheses; 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 introd ...

of ''Sijjin'' is '' Illiyin''.

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, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cri ...

ing or

imprisonment Imprisonment or incarceration 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 considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

. The Arabic word for prison (), 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; Greek: ) 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 F ...

via Classical Syriac), () 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

Al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...

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

Tafsir Tafsir ( ; ) refers to an exegesis, or commentary, of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' (; plural: ). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding ...

'': * 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, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...

(''

Iblis Iblis (), alternatively known as Eblīs, also known as Shaitan, is the leader of the Shayatin, devils () in Islam. According to the Quran, Iblis was thrown out of Jannah#Jinn, angels, and devils, heaven after refusing to prostrate himself bef ...

'') is chained, and in it are the souls (''arwah'') of the infidels (''kufar''). The idea that ''Sijjin'' is the place after Iblis was cast out from heaven, is also held by other Sunni scholars, such as

Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi Abū Isḥāḳ Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Nīsābūrī al-Thaʿlabī ; died November 1035), who was simply known as Al-Tha'labi (), was an eleventh-century Sunni Muslim scholar of Persian origin. Al-Tha'labi was considered a leadin ...

and Nasafi.

Shia tradition

According to some

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

traditions, the enemies of

Ahl al-Bayt () refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In Sunni Islam, the term has also been extended to all descendants of the Banu Hashim (Muhammad's clan) and even to all Muslims. In Shia Islam, the term is limited to Muhammad, his daugh ...

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

Sufi cosmology

According to Annemarie Schimmel, 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'', written between 1203 and 1240 by

Ibn Arabi Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...

, 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), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

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

The Incoherence of the Philosophers ''The Incoherence of the Philosophers'' () is a landmark 11th-century work by the Muslim polymath al-Ghazali and a student of the Asharite school of Islamic theology criticizing the Avicennian school of early Islamic philosophy. Muslim philoso ...

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

In popular culture

The Turkish horror film series '' Siccîn'' is named after this Islamic term.

References

{{reflist Quranic words and phrases Jahannam