18 Preface وَأَنذِرهُم يَومَ الآزِفَةِ إِذِ القُلوبُ لَدَى الحَناجِرِ كاظِمينَ ۚ ما لِلظّالِمينَ مِن حَميمٍ وَلا شَفيعٍ يُطاعُYusuf AliWarn them of the Day that is (ever) drawing near, when the hearts will (come) right up to the Throats1 to choke (them); No intimate friend2 nor intercessor will the wrong-doers have, who could be listened to.Hearts will come right up to the Throats to choke them; an idiom implying that the whole of their life-functions will be choked up with terror. But a more subtle meaning emerges from further analysis. The heart (or the breast) is the seat of affection, emotion, and every kind of feeling, such as terror; pain, despair, etc. These things will as it were overflow right up to the throat and choke it. The throat is the vehicle for the voice; their voice will be choked, and they will be able to say nothing. The throat is the channel for food, which goes to the stomach and maintains a healthy functioning of life; the choking means that the healthy functioning will stop, and there will be nothing but woe.In that enforcement of personal responsibility, what sympathy or intercession can the wrongdoers get? Is Hamim in any way connected with the Abbreviated Letters Ha Mim attached to this Sūra? See Introduction.