“Indeed, the criminals will abide forever in the punishment of Hell. It will not be lightened for them, and there they will be in despair. We did not wrong them, but they were the wrongdoers. They will call, ‘O Malik, let your Lord put an end to us!’ He will say, ‘You will remain.’” (74–77)

“And that is Paradise, which you have been made to inherit for what you used to do. You will have abundant fruit therein, from which you will eat.” It is related in the hadith: “No man plucks a fruit in Paradise except that two like it grow in its place.” (1)

“Indeed, the criminals”—that is, the polytheists—“will abide forever in the punishment of Hell. It will not be lightened for them, and there they will be in despair. We did not wrong them, but they were the wrongdoers. They will call, ‘O Malik’”—calling upon the keeper of the Fire—“let your Lord put an end to us,” meaning, let your Lord cause us to die so that we may find relief. Malik will answer them after a thousand years: “You will remain,” that is, remaining in the punishment.

Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abi Tawbah informed us; Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Harith informed us; Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Kisa’i informed us; Abd Allah ibn Mahmud informed us; Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah al-Khallal informed us; Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak related to us, from Sa‘id ibn Abi Arubah, from Qatadah, who related it from Abu Ayyub, from Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As, who said that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said (2): “The people of the Fire will call upon Malik, but he will not answer them for forty years. Then he will answer them, ‘You will remain.’” He said: “By Allah, their plea will matter little to Malik