Overall meaning : Allah Almighty addresses His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saying: These are some of the accounts of the fate of those ancient communities which We relate to you. The dwellings of some are still standing, but the dwellings of some others were destroyed without a trace. We did not wrong them or punish them for something they had not done, but they wronged themselves for their unbelief and for spreading corruption in the land. The gods they use to called on besides Allah to protect them from harm proved of no avail to them whatsoever when your Lord’s command to destroy them came to pass. In fact, they only added to their ruin and loss. Just as your Lord, Muhammad, seized these evildoing communities when they obstinately disobeyed My commands and disbelieved My messengers, so I seize the communities that wrong themselves by persisting in their unbelief and sins. Indeed, His punishment, when He seizes the wrongdoers, is very painful and severe. The terrible punishment I meted out to these evildoing past communities serves as a lesson and warning for those who fear Allah’s punishment in the hereafter. That will be the day for which all mankind will be gathered together before Allah to judge them and repay them according to their deeds, and it will be witnessed by all creatures. We delay the Day of Judgement only for a term that We have already fixed as We deem appropriate.
When that day comes, no one will speak except by His permission. Some will be miserable, deserving of Allah’s punishment; while some others will be happy, deserving of Allah’s grace and bliss. Those who will be wretched on that day will be in the Fire, violently sighing and sobbing on account of the intense torment to which they will be subjected. They will remain in Hell for ever, except for whoever of the disobedient believers who declared Allah’s unity, your Lord, Muhammad, wills to take out of Hell after remaining sometime in it and then admit into Paradise, by His grace and mercy. Your Lord, Muhammad, does whatever He wills.
As for those whom Allah will grant bliss, they will enter Paradise and remain in it for ever, with the exception of those your Lord, Muhammad, wills to admit into Hell first, namely the disobedient believers who declared Allah’s unity, after which time He will take them out of it and admit them into Paradise, by His grace and mercy. Your Lord will grant these in Paradise a bounty which will not be interrupted.