Tafsir of Al-`Ankabut 29:54

This is an initiation of discourse brought forth for the purpose of demonstrating their ignorance and the frailty of their reasoning. It is evident that what they are urging to be hastened is the punishment of the Hereafter. The sentence (Indeed, Hell) and what follows it is in the position of a circumstantial clause (hal); that is, "They urge you to hasten the punishment while the place of punishment—the likes of which has no equal—is encompassing them."

It is as if it were said: "They urge you to hasten the punishment, and the punishment is encompassing them," meaning it will encompass them, intending the future tense from the active participle, or that it is as if it is encompassing them now, due to the fact that disbelief and acts of disobedience—which necessitate it—are currently encompassing them. This is based on the premise that the discourse contains an eloquent simile, a metaphor, a synecdoche, or a figurative attribution.

It is also said that disbelief and acts of disobedience are, in reality, the Fire itself, but they have manifested in this existence in this form. The term "the disbelievers" refers to those who are urging the haste. Placing the noun (al-kāfirīn) in place of the pronoun is to signal the cause of the ruling, or it may refer to the genus of disbelievers, of which they are the primary subjects.