This transcript and translation are being published for the first time. It is from one of the Tafsir classes of Sayyid Mojtaba Khamenei.

When the day comes in which the disbelievers are presented before the Fire, it will be said to them:

وَيَوْمَ يُعْرَضُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ عَلَى ٱلنَّارِ أَذْهَبْتُمْ طَيِّبَـٰتِكُمْ فِى حَيَاتِكُمُ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱسْتَمْتَعْتُم بِهَا فَٱلْيَوْمَ تُجْزَوْنَ عَذَابَ ٱلْهُونِ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَسْتَكْبِرُونَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ وَبِمَا كُنتُمْ تَفْسُقُونَ

[46:20] And the day the disbelievers will be presented before the Fire, (it will be said to them,) “You have consumed your good things in your worldly life, and have enjoyed them. So, you will be punished today with the torment of humiliation for the arrogance you used to show on earth with no right (to do so), and for the sins you used to commit.

The blessings that were given to you, you used them up in the course of your worldly life and enjoyed them there. Since this is now the Day of Reckoning, you are given a particular kind of punishment: a humiliating punishment.

Why? Two reasons are mentioned here. One is that you were arrogant. Arrogance is not only arrogance toward God and the Prophet. The other reason is “because you used to commit disobedience.” That is, you would violate the commands and prohibitions that had been given.

It says here “a humiliating punishment” because there are many kinds of punishment. Punishment is not only the Fire. Much emphasis has been placed on the Fire, but, for example, regret itself is a very great punishment. Imagine someone who has an exam but does not study and ends up receiving a poor grade. Afterwards he regrets not using his time properly. Perhaps he regrets it once or twice and then eventually forgets about it. But there, in the Hereafter, such regret never ends.

Another form of punishment is mockery and humiliation. In Surah al-Dukhan it says:

ذُقْ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْكَرِيمُ

[44:49] “Have a taste! You are the ‘man of might’, the ‘man of honour’.

This is said to someone while he is experiencing the worst kind of suffering, and it is said in a tone of mockery.

Another form is the conflict among the people of the Fire themselves. The Qur’an repeatedly mentions how they argue and blame one another, and this itself is something terrible.

Another is fear and absolute despair. The despair that people experience in this world usually contains some small opening of hope, perhaps death will come, or perhaps the situation will change. But there, there is no end to it at all.

So there are many kinds of punishment. Here, one type is the punishment of humiliation, and another is the punishment of mockery, which appears in this tone, phrases like “taste!” and similar expressions. It is as though they are told: when you were supposed to make proper use of the blessings given to you, you did not. Now taste the consequences. This mockery intensifies their regret, and many different forms of punishment are present there.

Therefore, the punishments of the Hereafter do not all exist in the same form at every stage. Some punishments occur on the Day of Resurrection during the reckoning itself. At that stage, for example, the Fire may not yet be present in an obvious way, but punishments such as humiliation already exist.

There is a narration which says that a group of the arrogant will be resurrected in the form of ants. People will trample over them and pass over them in the plain of resurrection. In that moment, the Fire itself is not yet present, but the humiliation is already there.