of humiliation for what you used to say about Allah without any right, and because you were arrogantly disdainful of His signs.⦗1⦘ This address is directed to them at the very moment of death, and the angels—who never utter anything but the truth—inform them that right then and there they will receive the humiliating punishment. Had that punishment been postponed until the end of the world, it would not have been fitting to say, “Today you shall be repaid,” which proves that what is meant is the torment of the grave.
2 – Allah, the Exalted, says: “So leave them until they meet their Day when they will be struck down, the Day when their plotting will avail them nothing, nor will they be helped. Yet for those who have done wrong there is a punishment before that, though most of them do not know.”⦗2⦘ This may refer to the punishment they suffer through killing and the like in this world, and it may refer to their torment in the barzakh—the intermediate realm after death—which is the clearer meaning, for many of them died without tasting any worldly retribution. The most evident explanation is that whoever among them dies is punished in the barzakh, while whoever remains alive is punished in this world through being killed and the like; thus the verse threatens them with punishment both in this life and in the barzakh.
3 – Among the proofs is His statement: “So Allah protected him from the evil of what they plotted, while the people of Pharaoh were encompassed by the worst torment—the Fire! They are exposed to it morning and evening, and on the Day the Hour is established it will be said, ‘Admit the people of Pharaoh to the most severe punishment.’”⦗3⦘ Here the punishments of both abodes are mentioned explicitly and unequivocally, confirming the reality of the punishment of the grave.
4 – The Exalted also says: “Then why, when the soul reaches the throat and you at that moment are looking on—while We are nearer to him than you are, but you do not see—why, if you are not to be called to account, do you not restore it, if you are truthful? Now, if he is one of those brought near, then for him is comfort, fragrance, and a garden of bliss. But if he is one of those who denied and went astray, then his hospitality will be scalding water and burning in Hellfire.”⦗4⦘ In this passage He sets out the fate of souls at the time of death, whereas at the beginning of the same sūrah He had already detailed their conditions on the greatest Day of Return, mentioning that first because it is the ultimate goal and therefore most deserving of emphasis. At the instant of death He divides people into three categories, just as He divides them into three categories in the Hereafter.