7لا يُسمِنُ وَلا يُغني مِن جوعٍMuhammad Asadwhich gives no strength and neither stills hunger.1According to Al-Qiffal (as quoted by Razi), this kind of hellish drink and food is a metonym for utter hopelessness and abasement. As regards the noun dari' - which is said to be a bitter, thorny plant in its dried state (Jawhari) - it is to be borne in mind that it is derived from the verb dara'a or dari'a, which signifies "he [or "it"] became abject" or "abased" (ibid.): hence my rendering of this (obviously metaphorical) expression as "the bitterness of dry thorns". A similarly metaphorical meaning attaches to the expression "a boiling spring" in verse 5, which recalls the term hamim so often mentioned in the Qur'an (see note 62 on the last sentence of 6:70).