The story of the believer and his companion is complete. Then he returned to mention the known provision, saying: "Is that provision better as a lodging, or the tree of Zaqqum?" The origin of "nuzul" (lodging) is favor and a place for food. It is said: "A lot of food is nuzul," so it is borrowed for what is obtained from something. The essence of the known provision is pleasure and joy, while the essence of the tree of Zaqqum is pain and sorrow. "Nuzul" is in the accusative as a specification, and you may consider it as a state, as one would say: "Did the palm tree bear better dates or fresh ones?" This means that the known provision is the lodging of the people of Paradise, while the lodging of the people of Hell is the tree of Zaqqum. So which of them is better as a lodging? It is known that there is no good in the tree of Zaqqum. However, since the believers chose what led to the known provision, and the disbelievers chose what led to the tree of Zaqqum, they were told this as a reproach for their poor choice: a trial for the wrongdoers, a punishment for them in the Hereafter, or a test for them in this world. They said: "How can there be a tree in the Fire when the Fire burns trees?" So they denied it. And it was read: "Nabita fi asl al-jahim" (growing at the root of Hell). It was said: Its roots are in the depths of Hell, and its branches rise to its levels. The "tal'" (fruit) is for the palm tree, so it is borrowed for what grows from the tree of Zaqqum from its bearing: either as a verbal metaphor or a conceptual one. It is likened to the heads of devils, indicating its extreme repulsiveness and ugly appearance, because the devil is disliked and repugnant in people's nature, as they believe he is pure evil with no good mixed in. They say of an ugly appearance: "It is like the face of a devil," or "It is like the head of a devil." When the artists depict him, they portray him in the ugliest and most terrifying way possible, just as they believe that angels are pure good with no evil in them, so they liken them to beautiful forms. Allah, the Exalted, said: "This is not a human; this is only a noble angel." This is a figurative comparison. It was said that the devil is a snake with a very hideous appearance. It was also said that there is a tree called Al-Astan, coarse, foul-smelling, and repulsive in appearance, whose fruit is called the heads of devils. The Arabs did not name this fruit the heads of devils except to aim at one of the comparisons. However, after naming it that, it returned to a third origin by which it is compared to something from the tree, meaning from its side. They are filled in their bellies due to the intense hunger that overcomes them, or they are compelled to eat it even though they dislike it, so it becomes a means of punishment. When they are full, they are overcome by thirst, and they are given to drink from Ghassaq or pus, mixed with Hameem, which burns their faces and cuts their intestines, as He said regarding the description of the drink of the people of Paradise: "And its mixture is from Tasneem." It was also read: "Lashuban," with a damma, which is the name of what is mixed with. The former is a naming by the source. If you ask: What is the meaning of the particle of delay in the saying: "Then indeed, for them upon it is a drink," and in the saying: "Then indeed, their return is...?" I say:

In the first, there are two opinions. One of them is that they fill their bellies with the tree of Zaqqum, which is hot and burns their bellies and makes them thirsty. They are not given to drink except after being filled, as a torment due to that thirst. Then they are given what is hotter, which is the drink mixed with boiling water. The second is that he mentioned food with that dislike and ugliness, then mentioned drink with what is more disliked and uglier. He used 'then' to indicate the delay of the state of the drink from the state of the food and the difference of its quality from its quality in being more than it. The meaning of the second is that they are taken away from their places and homes in Hell, which are the levels they have been settled in, to the tree of Zaqqum. They eat until they are filled, and then they are given to drink, after which they return to their levels. The meaning of the delay in that is between: And it is recited: 'Then indeed, their return is...' 'Then indeed, their destination is...' 'Then indeed, their exit is to Hell.' This indicates their deserving of falling into all those hardships due to imitating their forefathers in religion, following them in misguidance, and abandoning the following of the evidence. 'Al-Ihra' is the intense hastening, as if they are urging hastily. It was said: It is hastening that resembles trembling.