disbelieved and turned others away from the path of Allah—We shall heap punishment upon punishment on them for the corruption they used to spread.’ 88 (1) Because they disbelieved and kept Allah’s servants from His path, He metes out two kinds of punishment: one for their unbelief and another for their obstruction.

When disbelief is mentioned by itself, the punishment is not itemized, as in His saying, ‘For the disbelievers there is a painful punishment.’ 104 (2)

His words, ‘Those people will receive their allotted share from the Book,’ mean that they will take whatever has been written for them in this world—life-span, provision, and so forth.

‘Until, when Our messengers come to take their souls, they will ask, “Where is what you used to call upon beside Allah?”’—that is, Where are those for whose sake you forged alliances and enmities, whom you hoped in and feared instead of Allah? (3)

‘They will answer, “They have left us,”’ meaning they have vanished and abandoned us, and the claim of their intercession has collapsed.

‘They will bear witness against themselves that they had been disbelievers. 37 He will say, “Enter among the nations of jinn and humankind who passed away before you, into the Fire,”’—join the ranks of those earlier nations.

‘Whenever a nation enters, it will curse its sister nation, and when they have all caught up with one another therein, the last of them will say to the first of them…’—every later community went astray because of the generations before it. (4)

‘Our Lord, these are the ones who led us astray, so give them a double punishment in the Fire,’ i.e., double the torment for them.