"Certainly those who disbelieve...

"Certainly those who disbelieve, if they had what is in the earth all together and the like of it with it, to ransom themselves with it from the punishment of the Day of Resurrection, it shall not be accepted from them, and for them there will be a painful chastisement." 37.

"They would desire to get out from the Fire but they shall not get out of it, and for them there is a permanent chastisement." To pursue the subject matter of the previous verse in which the believers are enjoined upon piety, holy struggle, and preparing the means, this verse, as the statement of reason for that commandment, points to the fate of unbelieving and filthy persons when it says: "Certainly those who disbelieve, if they had what is in the earth all together and the like of it with it, to ransom themselves with it from the punishment of the Day of Resurrection, it shall not be accepted from them, and for them there will be a painful chastisement." The only possible way to delivery is through Faith, piety, struggle, and good deeds.

Then, in the second verse (verse 37), the perpetuity of this retribution is referred to. It says: "They would desire to get out from the Fire but they shall not get out of it, and for them there is a permanent chastisement." However, in the Hereafter, all the ways of deliverance are shut to the unbelievers. They enjoy neither the grace of Allah, since it is specific to the pious ones, nor the intercession, because it relates only to those with whom Allah is pleased.

"As for the thief, both male and female, cut off their hands as a recompense for what they have earned. It is an exemplary punishment from Allah; and Allah is the Mighty, the Wise." In this verse, at first, the Qur'an refers to the male thief and then to the female thief. But in Surah An-Nur, verse 2, where the ordinance of fornication has been stated, at first, the Qur'an refers to the 'adulteress' and then to the 'adulterer'.