Tafsir for verse: 96:18
سَنَدۡعُ ٱلزَّبَانِيَةَ ١٨ ﴿18
18We will call the soldiers of the Hell.
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Commentary

And when it was as if it was said: So if he calls his helpers, what will happen? He said: ﴿We will call﴾, meaning with a promise that there is no breaking of it. ﴿the keepers of Hell﴾, meaning the assistants assigned to the Fire to drag him to it. They are originally the condition; one is called a zabaniyah like a hibriyah, from zabn, which means to push, or zabani on the basis of the root, its origin being zabani and the ta is a substitute for the ya. They are all those whose creation is great and whose strength is intense. The Uthmanic manuscripts have unanimously omitted the waw from this [verb] mistakenly, and there is no reason to omit it from the Arabic language in terms of wording. And it seems that the meaning in that - and Allah knows best - is that one should not think that they called for their own elevation in themselves to be assisted by it, because the meaning of the waw among the divine beings is elevation and exaltation, indicating that they have no strength except by the Strong, the Mighty. Or it could be said that the omission indicates the comparison of the action to the command to show that this calling is a matter that must be realized in its content and in the response of those being called to what they have called for, and that all of this will be with the utmost precision and coherence between its wording and meaning and organization, especially with the emphasis by the sin, which indicates the necessity of unity and empowerment. Or the meaning could be: We call them with the easiest supplication and the simplest matter, and there will be from them what cannot be tolerated or defended in any way. So how if we were to strengthen their call and bolster their resolve?

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