“50–52. If only you could see when the angels take the souls of those who disbelieved, striking their faces and backs and saying, ‘Taste the torment of the Blazing Fire. * That is because of what your own hands have sent forth, and because Allah is never unjust to His servants. * Their fate was like that of Pharaoh’s people and those before them: they disbelieved in Allah’s signs, so Allah seized them for their sins. Surely Allah is All-Powerful, severe in punishment.’”

Allah Most High says: If only you could see those who disbelieved in Allah’s signs when the angels charged with taking their souls come to them, while their distress has become intense and their anguish immense. “The angels strike their faces and backs,” saying to them, “Bring out your souls!” Yet their souls resist and refuse to depart because they know the painful punishment awaiting them.

Hence He says, “Taste the torment of the Blazing Fire,” meaning the severe, burning punishment. This punishment has befallen you without any wrongdoing or injustice from your Lord; rather, it is because of the sins your own hands sent forth and the consequences they brought upon you. This is Allah’s established way with earlier and later peoples. The pattern followed with these deniers—that is, their way and the destruction Allah brings upon them for their sins—is “like that of Pharaoh’s people and those before them” among the disbelieving nations. “They disbelieved in Allah’s signs, so Allah seized them” with punishment “for their sins. Surely Allah is All-Powerful, severe in punishment.” No one whom He wills to seize can escape Him. ⦗324⦘ “There is no creature except that He holds it by its forelock.”