“Then you, O misguided deniers, will surely eat from the tree of Zaqqūm, filling your bellies with it; then you will drink scalding water over it, drinking as thirsty camels drink. This will be their hospitality on the Day of Recompense. We created you, so why do you not believe? Have you considered the semen that you emit? Is it you who create it, or are We the Creator? We have apportioned death among you, and We cannot be overcome.” (51–60)

“Or our forefathers of old as well? Say, ‘Indeed, the former and the latter generations will certainly be gathered together at the appointed time of a known Day. Then you, O misguided deniers, will surely eat from the tree of Zaqqūm, filling your bellies with it; then you will drink scalding water over it, drinking as thirsty camels drink.’”

The reciters of Medina, ‘Āṣim, and Ḥamzah read shurb, with a u-vowel on the letter shin. The rest recited it with an a-vowel, sharb. Both are accepted linguistic forms: the form with a is the verbal noun, while the form with u is a noun bearing the meaning of the verbal noun, like ḍa‘f and ḍu‘f (weakness). Hīm means thirsty camels. ‘Ikrimah and Qatādah said: huyām is a disease that afflicts camels, so that they cannot quench their thirst and continue drinking until they perish. One says: a male camel is ahyām, a she-camel is haymā’, and the plural is hīm. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk and Ibn ‘Uyaynah said that hīm means level, sandy ground.

“This will be their hospitality,” that is, the Zaqqūm and scalding water just mentioned: their provision, food, and what has been prepared for them, “on the Day of Recompense”—the Day when they will be repaid for their deeds. He then presented proof against them regarding the Resurrection, saying: “We created you.” Muqātil said: “We created you when you were nothing, and you know that.” ⦗151/b⦘ “So why do you not believe?”—that is, why do you not affirm the Resurrection?

“Have you considered the semen that you emit?” That is, the drops of semen which you discharge into the wombs. “Is it you who create it?” Meaning, is it you who create what you emit as a human being, “or are We the Creator? We have apportioned death among you.” Ibn Kathīr read qadarnā with a light dāl, while the others read it with a doubled dāl; both are linguistic forms. Muqātil said: Among you are those who reach old age, and among you are those who die as children or as youths. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: Its meaning is that He has made the inhabitants of heaven and the inhabitants of earth equal in this respect. Accordingly, “We have apportioned” means: We have decreed.

“And We cannot be overcome,” meaning, We are not defeated or incapable of destroying you and replacing you with others like yourselves. Thus is His saying, exalted is He: “to replace you with others like yourselves.”