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"Until, when We open upon them a door of severe punishment" — meaning the punishment of the Hereafter, as is indicated by the alarm caused by the "opening of a door" and the description of it as "severe." Al-Jubba'i held this view. The word "until" (hatta), while being the termination point for the preceding negation, acts as the beginning for what follows it regarding the content of the conditional sentence. It is as if it were said: They persist in this state until, when We open upon them on the Day of Resurrection a door of severe punishment, "then behold, they are therein" — that is, in that door, or in that punishment, or because of the opening; there are various views — "in despair."

"Bewildered, despairing of all good, or possessors of grief due to the intensity of the affliction. This is like His saying, Exalted is He: 'And on the Day the Hour is established, the criminals will be in despair' (30:12), 'It will not be lightened for them, and they will be therein in despair' (43:75). It has been said: This door is the prevalence of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and the believers over them on the Day of the Conquest (of Mecca), and they despaired on that day of all the good they had imagined. Ibn Jarir narrated that it is the hunger by which they were forced to eat al-'ilhiz (a mixture of camel hair and blood). From Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), it is said that it is the killing on the Day of Badr. The Imami sect—and they are the household of falsehood—narrated from Abu Ja'far (may Allah be pleased with him) that it is a punishment with which they will be punished during the Raj'a (the Return). By my life, they have fabricated a lie against Allah, Exalted is He, and have strayed far into misguidance. The sound view on this verse, in my opinion, is what has preceded. It is apparent that these verses are Medinan, and some of those who claimed they are Meccan asserted that it contains a report of the future in the past tense to indicate the certainty of its occurrence."