62أَذٰلِكَ خَيرٌ نُزُلًا أَم شَجَرَةُ الزَّقّومِMuhammad AsadIs such [a paradise] the better welcome - or the [hellish] tree of deadly fruit?1According to the lexicographers, the noun zaqqam (which occurs, apart from the present instance, in 44:43 and in 56:52 as well) denotes any "deadly food"; hence, the expression shajarat az-zaqqum, a symbol of hell, may be appropriately rendered as "the tree of deadly fruit" (undoubtedly identical with "the tree cursed in this Qur'an", mentioned in 17:60), symbolizing the fact that the otherworldly sufferings which the Qur'an describes as "hell" are but the fruit - i.e., organic consequence - of one's evil deeds done on earth.