ROOT خ م د

Important Words:

خامدین (reduced to ashes) is the plural of خامد which is active participle from خمد. They say خمدت النار i.e. the fire subsided. خمدت الـحمی means, the vehemence of the fever became allayed. خمد also means, he (a sick man) fainted or swooned; or he died. خامد means, silent; from whom no voice is heard; silent and dead or silent, having died, and become like extinguished ashes (Lane).

حصیدا (mown down). See 10:25.

Commentary:

The verse gives a graphic description of the people who are visited by the wrath of God. They are completely ruined. They lose all power and capacity for revival. The surest sign that the decline and downfall of a people has begun is that all their ambitions and aspirations become extinguished. The very will to live dies in them. They despair of their future and lose all initiative and thus to all intents and purposes become a dead people.

21:40; 36:50; 67:28.

Important Words:

خامدون (extinct) is the plural of خامد which is active participle from خمد. They say خمدت النار i.e. the fire subsided, its embers remaining unextinguished. خمد المریض means, the sick man fainted or swooned or died. خمدت الحمی means, the vehemence of the fever became allayed (Lane). See also 21:16.

Commentary:

The verse seems to describe the form of heavenly punishment which will overtake wicked people in the time of the Promised Messiah. The description seems to apply to the falling of shells, incendiary and atomic bombs, which come down with a crashing sound. The fire caused by the bombs destroys everything on which they fall and reduces it to rubble, and all life for miles around becomes extinct. Elsewhere the Quran describes this punishment in the words "We shall make all that is thereon a barren soil" (18:9).