His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿I will cast him into Sakar﴾ ﴿And what can make you know what Sakar is?﴾ ﴿It does not leave anything nor does it spare﴾ ﴿It is a changer of the skins of mankind﴾ ﴿Upon it are nineteen﴾.

"Sakar" is the sixth level of Hellfire, according to what has been narrated. And "I will cast him into it" means: I will place him in it, directly in its fire. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And what can make you know what Sakar is?﴾ means: it does not spare anyone who is thrown into it, nor does it leave any limit of punishment except that it brings him to it.

His saying, exalted is He: ﴿It is a changer of the skins of mankind,﴾ Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, Qatadah, Abu Razin, and the majority of the people said: its meaning is: it changes the skins, burning them and turning them black. So "mankind" is the plural of "skin." The Arabs say: the fire "changed" something when it burned it and turned it black. And the poet said:

The blazing of summer and the change is a sign of a bow of the lost.

And Abu Ubaidah recited:

........... O daughter of my uncle, change me with the midday heat.

And Al-Hasan and Ibn Kaysan said: "It is a changer" is a form of exaggeration from "to shine" when it appears. So the meaning is that it appears to the people, who are mankind, from a distance of five hundred years, due to its greatness, horror, and roaring. And Atiyyah Al-Awfi read "a changer" in the accusative.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿Upon it are nineteen﴾ is a beginning, and its news is presented in the genitive. There is no disagreement among the scholars that they are the keepers of Hellfire, who are in charge of it, to whom the gathering of its tormentors is directed. Some people have said: they are equal to the number of the letters in "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" because by it they gain strength. It has been narrated that when the Quraysh heard this, they increased their mockery of it and said: if this is true, then this number is small. Abu Jahl said: These are nineteen, and you are the fools. Can ten of us not overpower one of them? And Abu Al-Ashad Al-Jumahi said: I will defeat them in the fire, among other foolish statements of theirs. Then the verse ﴿Woe to you, then woe﴾ [Al-Qiyamah: 34] was revealed concerning Abu Jahl. And Abu Ja'far Ibn Al-Qaqa' and Talhah Ibn Sulaiman read "nineteen" with the 'ain silent from "ten" due to the succession of movements. And Anas Ibn Malik and Abu Haywah read "nineteen" with the 'ta raised. It has been narrated from Anas Ibn Malik that he read: "nine tens," and Abu Hatim weakened it.

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And We did not make the companions of the Fire except angels﴾ [Al-Muddathir: 31] is a clarification of the invalidity of the words of Quraysh. That is: We made them a creation that no one among the people can contend with. We made their number a trial for the disbelievers, so that those who engage and covet in exaggeration may fall into what has occurred. The people of the Scripture, the Torah and the Gospel, may be certain that this Qur'an is from Allah, exalted is He; for they find this number in their revealed books, which Muhammad ﷺ has not read, nor is he among their people. However, his book confirms what is before it of the books of the prophets, blessings and peace be upon him and upon them; for all of that is truth that supports one another, revealed from Allah, exalted is He. This meaning was stated by Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, and others. With the arrival of the truths from Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, every believer's faith increases, and doubt is removed from the believers among the people of the Scripture and among the believers. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And let those in whose hearts is disease say﴾ [Al-Muddathir: 31]... is a type of trial for this hypocritical or disbelieving group. That is: they have deviated and have not been guided to the truth, so they began to inquire among themselves about Allah's intention with this parable, distancing themselves from the thought that this is from Allah, exalted is He. Al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl said: The surah is Meccan, and there was no hypocrisy in Mecca. Rather, the disease in this verse is the disturbance and weakness of faith.