Tafsir of Fussilat 41:24

(If they have patience, then the Fire is a dwelling place for them) meaning a place of stay and eternal residence for them, such that there is no departure for them from it. The consequence (the Fire) is structured upon the condition (patience) because the estimation is: if they have patience—and it is assumed that patience benefits them as it is the key to relief—their patience shall not avail them, as it did not encounter its proper place, for the Fire is their dwelling place inevitably.

It is said that there is an omission in the discourse, and the estimation is: "Or if they do not have patience," similar to His saying, the Exalted: (Endure it or do not endure it; it is all the same for you).

It is also said that the meaning is: if they have patience in abandoning your religion and following their desires, then the Fire is a dwelling place for them—though this is not very strong. The shift [in pronoun usage] serves to notify that their state necessitates turning away from them and narrating their wretched condition to others, or to indicate their removal from the sphere of address and their being cast into the depths of the Fire’s levels.

(And if they seek to appease) meaning, if they ask for al-ʿutba, which is a return to what they love out of panic at what they are in, (then they are not of those who are granted appeasement) meaning, they are not answered in that.

Al-Dahhak said: The meaning is, if they offer excuses, then they are not of those whose excuses are accepted.

Al-Hasan, ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd, and Musa al-Aswari read: (Wa-in yustaʿtabu) [passive voice], and (fama hum min al-muʿtabin) as an active participle, meaning: if it were requested of them that they please their Lord, they would not be able to do so. This will not happen, because they have already departed from the world, the abode of deeds, as the Prophet—may Allah exalt him and grant him peace—said: "There is no seeking of appeasement after death."

It is possible that this reading carries the same meaning as His, the Almighty’s, saying: (But if they were returned, they would certainly revert to that which they were forbidden).