So He will punish him with the severest punishment that neither the hardest iron nor the strongest mountains can bear. Allah, meaning the Greatest King, because of his arrogance towards the truth and his opposition to Your command that is obeyed and Your will, which is all good and beautiful. And perhaps He depicted it while it is disconnected in the form of that which is connected by the expression, indicating that the punishment from Allah is a punishment from him, blessings and peace be upon him, because the reason for it is their denial of him. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, read 'Ala' with a fathah and lightening, considering it an opening phrase. The greater punishment means the punishment of the Hereafter. It is permissible that the exception is connected, and the meaning would be: whoever insists on disbelief, Allah will empower him over it, so He will kill him, and Allah will punish him in the Hereafter.