Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:37
They will wish to get out of the Fire, but never are they to emerge therefrom, and for them is an enduring punishment.
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.
Explanation of the saying of Him, mighty is His mention: يُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يَخْرُجُوا مِنَ النَّارِ وَمَا هُمْ بِخَارِجِينَ مِنْهَا وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُقِيمٌ (They wish to escape from the Fire, but they will not escape from it, and for them is a lasting punishment) (37).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted be His praise — means by His words "they wish to escape from the Fire": these who disbelieved in their Lord wish, on the Day of Resurrection, to escape from the Fire after they have entered it, but they will not escape from it — "and for them is a lasting punishment." He says: for them is a punishment (ʿadhāb) that is continual and enduring, which never departs from them nor shifts away, as the poet said: (1)
For verily, for you there is, on account of the day of the mountain pass, on account of me,
a punishment that endures, lasting upon you. (2)
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
Mention of those who said that:
11906 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to us, on the authority of Yazīd al-Naḥwī, on the authority of ʿIkrima: that Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq said to Ibn ʿAbbās — may Allah have mercy on him —: "Blind of sight, blind of heart, he claims that a people will escape from the Fire (3), while Allah — mighty and exalted is He — has said: 'but they will not escape from it'?" Then Ibn ʿAbbās said: Woe to you, read what is above it! This concerns the disbelievers (kuffār).