Ṣād – Verse 58

وَآخَرُ مِن شَكلِهِ أَزواجٌ

And other kinds [of torments] resembling it.

EXEGESIS

In the word shaklihī (resembling it), it should be referring to the punishment of hell.[1]

Azwāj (kinds) is the plural of zawj, meaning a pair of like things.[2] As mentioned earlier, each verse describing hell here is juxtaposed to the preceding blessings of heaven. The third blessing mentioned for them was the maidens of restrained glances of a like age. This third description of hell stands in contrast to that. The contrast is presented in the form of a clever word play, as azwāj is the plural of spouses or wives. Instead of the maidens, the people of hell will be paired off with similar punishments.

EXPOSITION

In addition to the punishments mentioned, even more torments are in store for the people of hell which are similar in terror and dreadfulness. The Quran outlines various torments for the people of hell elsewhere.

The inhabitants of hell are described as eating from the painful fruit of the tree of zaqqūm (56:52, 37:62, 44:43), its fruit being as if they were devils’ heads (37:65), or consuming the thorny ḍarīʿ (88:6). Their garments shall not be the silken robes worn in heaven, but rather cloaks of fire will be cut out for them, and boiling water will be poured over their heads, with which their skins and entrails will be fused, and there will be clubs of iron for them (22:19-21). There are no visiting neighbours and friends, they are bound in a chain whose length is seventy cubits (69:32). The punishment is relentless, as often as their skins become scorched, We shall replace them with other skins, so that they may taste the punishment (4:56). This is why life in hell is no life at all; the one who is made to enter it will neither live in it, nor die (87:13).

Some have said other kinds is used because there are punishments in store for them that are unknown to people in this world.[3]

[1] Tibyan, 8/575.
[2] Raghib, p. 384.
[3] Tibyan, 8/575; Tabari, 23/114.