“And leg will be entwined with leg. (29) To your Lord, on that Day, will be the driving. (30) For he neither believed nor prayed, (31) but rather denied and turned away. (32) Then he went off to his family, swaggering. (33) Woe to you, and woe again! (34) Again, woe to you, and woe again!” (35)
“And leg will be entwined with leg”: Qatadah said, “Hardship upon hardship.” ‘Ata’ said, “The hardship of death joined with the hardship of the Hereafter.” Sa‘id ibn Jubayr said, “Afflictions will come upon him one after another.” Al-Suddi said, “He does not emerge from one distress except that something more severe comes upon him.”
Ibn ‘Abbas said: “The affair of this world will be joined with the affair of the Hereafter; thus, he will be at the end of a day of this world and the beginning of the days of the Hereafter.”
Mujahid said: “Life and death will come together within him.”
Al-Dahhak said: “The people prepare his body, while the angels prepare his soul.”
Al-Hasan said: “They are his two legs when they are wrapped together in the shroud.” Al-Sha‘bi said: “They are his two legs at death.” (1)
“To your Lord, on that Day, will be the driving”: that is, the servants’ return [on that Day] (2) is to Allah, to whom they will be driven.
“For he neither believed nor prayed”: this refers to Abu Jahl; he neither believed in the Quran nor prayed to Allah. “But rather denied and turned away”: from faith. “Then he went off to his family”: he returned to them, “swaggering”—strutting and walking haughtily. It has also been said that it originally meant “stretching oneself,” for the root conveys the sense of extension.
“Woe to you, and woe again! Again, woe to you, and woe again!” This is threat upon threat from Allah to Abu Jahl. It is an expression used for intimidation and warning.
Some scholars said that it means: You are more deserving of this punishment, more entitled and more fitting for it. It is said to a man when a misfortune that he deserves befalls him.
It has also been said that it is an expression the Arabs use for one whom harm has drawn near. Its origin is [from walā’] (3), derived from mawlā, which is