“twofold.” The others recited it as yuḍāʿafu (“it will be multiplied”), with an alif and a fathah on the letter ʿayn, with “the punishment” in the nominative. Both are linguistic variants, like baʿʿada and bāʿada. Abu Amr and Abu Ubaydah said: You say ḍaʿʿafta something when you make it twice its original amount, and ḍāʿaftahu when you make it many times over.

“And that is easy for Allah.” Muqatil said: Her punishment is easy for Allah. Their punishment for disobedience is doubled because of their noble rank, just as the punishment of a free woman is doubled in comparison to that of a slave woman; and their reward is doubled because of their elevated standing. This indicates that they are the noblest women of all the worlds.