(13–17) “Those who disbelieved said to their messengers, ‘We will surely drive you out of our land, or you must return to our faith.’ Their Lord then revealed to them, ‘We will surely destroy the wrongdoers, and We will surely settle you in the land after them. That is for whoever fears My watch over him and fears My warning.’ They sought a decisive judgment, and every stubborn tyrant was doomed to disappointment. Ahead of him is Hell, and he will be given putrid water to drink. He will force it down in gulps but will scarcely be able to swallow it. Death will come upon him from every direction, yet he will not die; and ahead of him is a terrible punishment.”
After mentioning the messengers’ call to their peoples, their perseverance in it, and their never tiring of it, Allah mentioned the extremity to which matters between them and their peoples had come. He said: “Those who disbelieved said to their messengers,” threatening them, “We will surely drive you out of our land, or you must return to our faith.” This was rejection in its most extreme form, and after this there was no hope that they would respond. It was not enough for them to turn away from guidance; they also threatened to expel the messengers from their homes, claimed those lands as their own, and alleged that the messengers had no right to remain there. This is among the gravest forms of wrongdoing, for Allah placed His servants upon the earth, commanded them to worship Him, and subjected the earth and all it contains to their service so that they might use it to worship Him.
Whoever uses these things to aid him in worshipping Allah may lawfully do so and incurs no blame. But whoever uses them for disbelief and all kinds of sin has no unrestricted right to them, nor is such use lawful for him. It is thus clear that, in reality, the enemies of the messengers owned nothing of the land from which they threatened to expel them. Even if the matter were judged solely by customary practice, the messengers were natives of those lands and members of their peoples. On what grounds, then, could they deny them an indisputable and manifest right? Is this anything but a complete absence of religion and honor?
Therefore, when their scheming against the messengers reached this point, nothing remained but for Allah’s decree to take effect and for Him to grant victory to His allies: “Their Lord then revealed to them, ‘We will surely destroy the wrongdoers’” with various kinds of punishment.
“And We will surely settle you in the land after them.” That is, the good outcome Allah granted the messengers and their followers was a reward “for whoever fears My watch over him” in this world and remains mindful of Allah as one who knows that He sees him, “and fears My warning”—that is, what I have threatened those who disobey Me with. This causes him to refrain from what Allah dislikes and hasten toward what Allah loves.
“They sought a decisive judgment”—that is, the disbelievers were the ones who demanded and sought to hasten Allah’s judgment and His decisive separation between His allies and His enemies. What they had sought therefore came upon them. Otherwise, Allah is Forbearing ⦗424⦘ and does not hasten to punish those who disobey Him. “And every stubborn tyrant was doomed to disappointment.” That is, whoever set himself arrogantly against Allah, the truth, and Allah’s servants, behaved haughtily upon the earth, and obstinately resisted and opposed the messengers suffered loss in this world and the Hereafter.
“Ahead of him is Hell.” That is, Hell lies in wait for this stubborn tyrant. He will inevitably arrive there and then taste its severe punishment. “And he will be given putrid water to drink,” foul in color, taste, and odor, and intensely hot.
“He will force it down in gulps” because of his extreme thirst, “but will scarcely be able to swallow it.” When it is brought near his face, it will scald him, and when it reaches his belly, it will tear through every part of his intestines that it touches. “Death will come upon him from every direction, yet he will not die.” That is, severe punishment will come upon him in every form. Each form will be so intense as to bring him to the point of death, but Allah has decreed that they shall not die, as He Most High says: “They will not be put to death so that they might die, nor will any of its punishment be lightened for them. Thus do We recompense every ungrateful disbeliever, while they cry out therein.”
“And ahead of him”—that is, ahead of the stubborn tyrant—“is a terrible punishment”: a mighty and severe punishment whose nature and intensity are known only to Allah Most High.