Aw yakhuthahum AAala takhawwufin fainna rabbakum laraoofun raheemun
English
Ahmed Ali
Or He may seize them by diminishing their portion. Yet your Lord is compassionate and kind.
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (or that he will not seize them with a gradual wasting) of their leaders and companions? (lo! thy lord is indeed full of pity, merciful!) towards him who repents; it is also said that this means: he is full of pity in that he defers his punishment.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : or that he will not seize them amid [growing] fear?, [amid] a gradual diminishing [of their numbers] little by little, until all are destroyed (‘alā takhawwufin is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb [god] or the object). indeed then your lord is gentle, merciful, insofar as he does not hasten for them their punishment.
