How, then, can you [disbelieve in Him and] deny what the One who has bestowed upon you these magnificent blessings (1)—whose worth cannot be measured and whose number cannot be counted—has told you about resurrection and rising from the dead?! And how can you use His blessings to aid you in disobeying Him and then deny them?
⦗907⦘
(17–30) “Indeed, the Day of Decision is an appointed time—* the Day the Trumpet is blown and you come forth in multitudes, * and heaven is opened and becomes gateways, * and the mountains are set in motion and become a mirage. * Indeed, Hell lies in wait, * a home for the transgressors, * where they will remain for ages. * There they will taste neither coolness nor any drink, * except boiling water and foul pus—* a fitting recompense. * Indeed, they did not expect any reckoning * and utterly denied Our signs. * Yet We have recorded everything in writing. * So taste! We shall only increase you in torment.”
Allah Most High describes what will take place on the Day of Resurrection—the day about which the deniers question one another and which the obstinate reject. It will be a momentous day, and Allah has made it “an appointed time” for creation.
“The Trumpet is blown and you come forth in multitudes.” On that day, upheavals and terrors will occur that would turn a newborn child’s hair gray and cause hearts to tremble. The mountains will be set in motion until they become like scattered dust; heaven will be split open (2) until it becomes gateways; and Allah will judge between all creatures with His judgment, which admits of no injustice. The Fire of Hell will be kindled—the Fire that Allah has made to lie in wait and prepared for the transgressors, making it their dwelling and final abode. They will remain there for many ages. According to many commentators, an “age” is eighty years.
When they enter it (3), “they will taste neither coolness nor any drink”—that is, nothing to cool their skins and nothing to quench their thirst.
“Except boiling water”—water so hot that it sears their faces and tears apart their intestines—“and foul pus,” namely the purulent discharge of the inhabitants of the Fire, which is utterly putrid and repulsive in taste. They deserve these dreadful punishments as a fitting recompense for the deeds that led them to them. Allah did not wrong them; rather, they wronged themselves. He therefore mentions the deeds for which they deserved this recompense, saying: “Indeed, they did not expect any reckoning.” That is, they did not believe in resurrection or that Allah would recompense creation for good and evil. They consequently neglected to work for the Hereafter.
“And utterly denied Our signs”—that is, they rejected them openly and unequivocally; when the clear proofs came to them, they stubbornly opposed them.
“Yet We have recorded everything”—whether small or great, good or evil—“in writing.” That is, We have written it (4) in the Preserved Tablet. Thus, the sinners need not fear that We will punish them for sins they did not commit, nor should they think that any of their deeds will be lost or that even an atom’s weight of them will be forgotten. As Allah Most High says:
“And the Record will be set down, and you will see the sinners fearful of what it contains. They will say, ‘Woe to us! What kind of record is this that leaves neither a small deed nor a great one without listing it?’ They will find all that they did present before them, and your Lord wrongs no one.”
“So taste,” O deniers, this painful torment and everlasting disgrace. “We shall only increase you in torment.” At every moment, their torment will increase. [This is the most severe verse concerning the intensity of the torment suffered by the inhabitants of the Fire. May Allah protect us from it.]