Tafsir of Al-Qamar 54:48

(The day they are dragged) i.e., they are pulled (into the Fire on their faces). This is connected to an implied word after it, meaning: On the day they are dragged, it is said to them, "Taste the touch of Saqar."

It is also permitted that it be connected to an implied word preceding it, meaning: They are punished, or they are humiliated, or something similar. The sentence "the saying is upon him" is a circumstantial qualifier (hal) for the pronoun in "they are dragged." It is also permitted that it be connected to "taste," on the basis that the address is to the deniers mentioned in His saying, "Are your disbelievers better than those [others]?"—meaning: Taste, O you who deny Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—on the day the criminals are dragged. This refers to their gathering with them and the equality between them in the Hereafter, just as they were equal in the worldly life, and it is [an interpretation] that is as you see.

The "touch of Saqar" refers to its pain, being a figurative expression (majaz mursal) for it via the relationship of causality, for its touch is the cause of being pained by it. The connection of "tasting" to such things is common in usage. In al-Kashshaf: "The touch of Saqar" is like saying "found the touch of fever" and "tasted the blow of the beating," for when the Fire strikes them with its heat and reaches them with its pain, it is as if it touches them with that touch, just as an animal is touched and comes into contact with that which harms it. This implies that the discourse contains an implicit metaphor (isti'arah makniyyah) similar to "they break the covenant of Allah," though other interpretations are possible.

(Saqar) is a proper name for Hell—may Allah the Exalted protect us from it by the blessing of His Great Speech and the sanctity of His Beloved, upon him be the best of prayers and the most perfect of salutations—derived from saqarat-hu (it scorched him) for the fire, and saqarat-hu (changing the sin to sad for the sake of the qaf) when it scorches it and alters its color. Dhu al-Rumma said, describing a wild bull: "When the sun melts, he guards against its scorching heat (saqarat) with the branches of a middle-aged tree, straight and arrow-like." It is indeclinable (ghayr mursal) due to being a proper noun and feminine. Abdullah read: "to the Fire." Mahbub read from Abu 'Amr: "from Saqar," assimilating the sin into the sin. Ibn Mujahid critiqued this, saying that its assimilation is an error because it is doubled; the assumption regarding Abu 'Amr is that he did not assimilate until he deleted one of the two sins due to the convergence of similar letters, then assimilated [the remainder].