Question: What is the meaning of Allah’s words, “But the word of punishment has been fulfilled against the disbelievers” (al-Zumar 39:71)?
Answer: It refers to the divine decree and predestination. Allah decreed this recompense for them because of their disbelief and obstinate defiance—by their own doing. They refused to heed Allah’s messengers and failed to comply with the teachings contained in His revealed books, so He decreed that fate for them in justice for their evil deeds.

Question: And what is the meaning of His words, “He caused us to inherit the land so that we may settle in Paradise wherever we wish” (al-Zumar 39:74)?
Answer: Allah will bequeath Paradise to the believers, as He says: “Those are the inheritors—who will inherit al-Firdaus; they will abide therein forever” (al-Mu’minun 23:10–11). Some exegetes add that the believers will inherit the dwellings that would have belonged to the disbelievers in Paradise. Had the disbelievers embraced faith, those residences would have been theirs, but their disbelief deprived them of that, and the believers inherited them instead.

Question: Does the expression natabawaʾ (“we settle”) here mean “to occupy”?
Answer: Natabawaʾ means that we choose and expand within it—that is, we select our places and dwell freely therein.

Question: Is there a subtle reason for the presence or absence of the conjunction waw in the two verses: “until, when they arrive there, its gates are opened” (al-Zumar 39:71) and, concerning the God-fearing, “until, when they arrive there, and its gates are opened” (al-Zumar 39:73)?
Answer: Some commentators say that this waw points to the fact that the gates of Paradise are eight. It is therefore called the “waw of eight,” just as in Allah’s words: “They will say, ‘[They were] seven, and their dog was the eighth of them’” (al-Kahf 18:22). Hence the waw alludes to the eight gates of Paradise, an inference possibly drawn from the numerical values assigned to the Arabic letters in the Abjad system.