The Zaqqum
S 17:60 And when we said to you: Your lord has encompassed people. And we did not make the vision which we showed you but fitnah for people and the cursed tree in the Quran. And we frighten them but it does not increase them except in big oppression.
The anonymous 'we' said to an equally anonymous 'you': "Your lord has encompassed people." So, who are "we"? And what vision? Is the "cursed tree" part of the vision? As it is in "the quran", how might this verse be part of it? And one assumes that this tree is the zaqqum. "We" frighten people and they are oppressed?
S 37:62 Is that better as a lodging or the zaqqum tree?
What does "that" refer to? And is this tree a lodging?
S 44:43 The zaqqum tree
"Tree" is misspelled, ending in ta' rather than ta' marbutah. The following verse says: "Is the food of the immoral man." Supposedly in hell. But it is not the only 'food' that would be eaten there.
S 56:52 Eat from a tree, from zaqqum
Now, there would appear to be grounds for wondering as to whether the author heard the word zaqqum and assumed it to be the name of a tree. But in tafsir we read:
"Abu Jahl, Allah's curse!, said [in his speech, Bring us dates and butter, and he began to eat and to say, Gobble it up! For we know of no zaqqum other than this.
And:
"And its fitnah when they were threatened with it, Abu Jahl said mockingly, This Muhammad threatens you with fire that burns stones, then he claims that it grows trees, and fire consumes trees, and we know no zaqqum but dates and butter. Then Abu Jahl ordered a female slave to bring dates and butter and he said to his companions, Gobble it down! And it has been said: The one who said, We know no zaqqum but dates and butter, is Ibn al-Zub'ara, when he said, May Allah increase the zaqqum in your home, for it is dates with butter in the language of the Yemen."
And:
"Abu Jahl said, Is Ibn Abi Kabshah trying to frighten me with the zaqqum tree? Then he called for dates and butter, and began to say, Feed me!"
Also in this tafsir we read:
"This companion of yours has claimed that there is a tree in the fire, and fire consumes trees, and we, by Allah, know no zaqqum but dates and butter, so gobble up!"
One might object and point to the words تَزَقَّمُوا and زَقِّمْنِي tazzaqamu "gobble up!" and zaqqimni "Feed me!" and dismiss the claim, but one might make a mocking play on an existing word.
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