Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:88
Abiding eternally therein. The punishment will not be lightened for them, nor will they be reprieved.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
= "Abiding eternally therein" (khālidīna fīhā) — that is to say: remaining therein, namely in the punishment of Allah.
= "The punishment will not be lightened for them" — nothing of the punishment (ʿadhāb) will be diminished for them in any state whatsoever, and no respite is granted to them therein.
= "nor will they be granted reprieve" — that is to say: nor will any regard be given to them for any excuse they might wish to put forward. And all of this is precisely the very essence of the eternal abiding in the punishment in the Hereafter.
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The footnotes:
(15) See the explanation of "abiding eternally" (khālidīn) in what has passed before, volume 1: 397, 398 / 2: 287 / 4: 317, and the linguistic registers.
(16) See the explanation of "to lighten" (yukhaffaf) in what has passed before, volume 2: 316, 317; and by "al-tanfīs" is here meant respite, relief, and easing.
(17) See the explanation of "they are granted reprieve" (yunẓarūn) in the counterpart of this verse in what has passed before, volume 3: 264, 265, and prior to that 2: 467, 468.
(18) In the manuscript and the printed edition it reads: "And all of this, I mean the eternal abiding in the punishment in the Hereafter", and that is a sentence which is corrupt in both construction and meaning. The copyist misunderstood the intent of Abū Jaʿfar and wrote what he wrote, whereas the correct reading is what has been established here. For Abū Jaʿfar in many places in his tafsīr had recourse to concision, including in this place, such that he did not clarify the grammatical parsing (iʿrāb) of His saying — exalted is He — "The punishment will not be lightened for them, nor will they be granted reprieve". The scholars of grammar parse this as an interlinked circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) — that is to say a ḥāl of a ḥāl — because "abiding eternally" (khālidīn) is a circumstantial qualifier to the pronoun in "over them". But Abū Jaʿfar reckons it to be an independent, newly commenced sentence, and thereby it is a clarification of the eternal abiding in the Fire (al-nār). The proof for the correctness of that, and for the correctness of what has been established here as a correction in the text of Abū Jaʿfar, is that in the explanation of the counterpart of this verse from "Surah Al-Baqarah: 162" in volume 3: 264 he said the following:
"And as for His saying: 'The punishment will not be lightened for them', that is a notification from Allah — exalted be His mention — concerning the everlasting perpetuity of the punishment forever, without the fixing of a term and without lightening." This, then, is a conclusive proof that the grammatical parsing of Ṭabarī for this place of the verse is what I have defended, and that he holds the view that the meaning of this part of the verse is precisely the meaning of "the eternal abiding" (al-khulūd) itself. And all praise is due to Allah, first and last.
