As for gassaq: Hamzah, al-Kisa’i, and Hafs read it as ghassaq, with the consonant doubled, wherever it occurs (1), while the others read it without doubling. Those who doubled it treated it as a noun on the intensive pattern, like “baker” and “cook”; those who did not treated it as a simple noun-form, like the word for “punishment.”

They differed over the meaning of gassaq. Ibn ‘Abbas said: “It is the bitter cold that burns them with its cold, just as the Fire burns them with its heat.” Muqatil and Mujahid said: “It is that whose cold has reached its utmost intensity.” It was also said that, in the Turkish language, it means something foul-smelling.

Qatadah said: It is that which flows—that is, the pus and bloody discharge flowing from the skins and flesh of the people of the Fire, and from the private parts of those guilty of fornication. This derives from the expression used when an eye overflows; ghasaqan means flowing.

“And other punishments of the same kind, in diverse forms. (58) This is a company plunging in with you. No welcome for them! Indeed, they will enter the Fire. (59)”

Regarding “and other,” the scholars of Basrah recited it as “and others,” with an initial dammah, as the plural of “another,” like the plural of “greater.” Abu ‘Ubaydah preferred this recitation because it is described by the plural word “kinds.” The others recited it with an elongated fathah on the initial hamzah, as a singular. “Of the same kind” means: like the scalding water and gassaq; “in diverse forms” means: other kinds of punishment.

“This is a company plunging in with you.” Ibn ‘Abbas said: This refers to when the leaders enter the Fire and their followers enter after them. The keepers say to the leaders (2): “This”—meaning the followers—“is a company,” that is, a group, “plunging into the Fire with you,” meaning, entering it as you entered it. A company is a band of people; its plural is companies. Plunging in means entering something by casting oneself into it. Al-Kalbi said: They will be struck with iron maces until, out of fear of those maces, they throw themselves into the Fire. Then the leaders will say: “No welcome for them,” meaning the followers, “for they will enter the Fire,” that is, they will enter it as we have entered it.

“They will say”: the followers will say to the leaders, “Rather, no welcome for you!” The expression translated as “welcome,” as well as the related word, denotes spaciousness. The Arabs say, “Welcome, among kin, and in ease,” meaning, “You have come to spaciousness and ease.” They also say, “No welcome to you,” meaning, “May the land not be spacious for you.”

“You brought this upon us”: the followers will say to the leaders, “You began in disbelief before us, introduced it, and established its precedent for us.” It was also said: “You brought this punishment upon us by calling us to disbelief.” “What an evil abode!” That is: how evil is Hell, the everlasting abode (3).