“Or has he taken from the Most Merciful a promise?” That is, he declared that there is no deity except Allah. Qatadah said: This means a righteous deed that he has sent ahead. Al-Kalbi said: Has he been promised that he will enter Paradise?
“No indeed! We shall record what he says and prolong for him the punishment ever more. And We shall inherit from him what he speaks of, and he will come to Us alone. Yet they have taken gods besides Allah so that they might be a source of strength for them. No indeed! They will reject their worship and become adversaries against them. Have you not seen that We have sent the devils against the disbelievers, driving them ever onward?” (79–83)
“No indeed!” is a refutation of him; that is, he has not done so. “We shall record” means: We shall preserve against him “what he says,” [and then requite him for it in the Hereafter. It was also said: We shall command the angels to record what he says.] (1) “And prolong for him the punishment ever more” means: We shall increase his punishment upon punishment. It was also said: We shall lengthen the duration of his punishment.
“And We shall inherit from him what he speaks of” means what he possesses of wealth and children, by causing him to perish and nullifying his ownership. The wording “what he speaks of” is used because he claimed that he would have wealth and children “in the Hereafter”; (2) that is, We shall not give it to him, but shall give it to another. Thus, the inheritance relates to what is implied by his statement, not to the statement itself.
It was also said that the meaning of His saying, “And We shall inherit from him what he speaks of,” is: We shall preserve what he says until We requite him for it.
“And he will come to Us alone,” on the Day of Resurrection, without wealth or children. Allah, exalted is He, says: “Yet they have taken gods besides Allah”: that is, the idolaters of Quraysh took idols as gods, worshipping them, “so that they might be a source of strength for them”—that is, a protection for them, so that they might intercede for them and shield them from punishment. “No indeed!” That is, the matter is not as they claimed. “They will reject their worship”: the idols and deities which they used to worship will deny the idolaters’ worship of them and disown them, as Allah, exalted is He, has stated: “We disown before You that they used to worship us” (al-Qasas: 63).
“And they will become adversaries against them”: that is, enemies to them, though they had been their allies in this world. It was also said: They will become helpers against them, declaring them liars and cursing them. Allah, exalted is He, says: “Have you not seen that We have sent the devils against the disbelievers?” That is, We have given them power over them. This was when He said to Iblis: “And incite whoever of them you can with your voice”—the verse (al-Isra: 64)—“driving them ever onward.”