Tafsir of Al-Waqi'ah 56:45

This is a justification for their affliction with the aforementioned punishment. This approach was adopted in justifying the initiation of punishment to emphasize the refutation of any suspicion of injustice in the torment. Since the bestowal of reward is a matter in which there is no suspicion of deficiency whatsoever, such an approach was not taken regarding it.

The mutraf (affluent one) here, by the implication of the context, is one who is left to do whatever he wills, unrestrained. The meaning is that they were punished because, prior to the aforementioned punishment in this world, they were followers of their own desires, having no restraint from within themselves to deter them from disobeying His commands—Mighty and Majestic is He—or from committing His prohibitions—Glorified is He. This is what has been said.

It is also said: It is the insolent one who is too arrogant to accept the truth and submit to it. The meaning is that they were punished because they were, in this world, arrogant toward accepting what their messengers brought them of faith in Allah—Mighty and Majestic is He—and what came from Him—Glorified is He.

It is also said: It is the one whom blessings have made mutraf—that is, made insolent and tyrannical. Similar to this is what is said: It is the one living in luxury who is immersed in desires. Upon this is the statement of Abu al-Sa’ud, meaning that before the aforementioned evil punishment, they were in this world blessed with various types of favors, such as food, drink, pleasant dwellings, and honorable positions, all the while being immersed in desires; thus, inevitably, they were punished with the opposites of these things. This has been critiqued by the observation that many of the People of the Left (Ahl al-Shimal) are not "affluent" in the sense that was considered, so how can the punishment of all of them be justified by this? This objection does not apply to the two previously mentioned interpretations, as is not hidden.

Some people have interpreted the mutraf in the manner mentioned and escaped the objection by stating that justifying the punishment of the collective by what was mentioned, in the realm of causality, does not necessitate that every one of the aforementioned qualities must be present in every one of the People of the Left, but rather that the total set of qualities exists within the total set of individuals. It does not matter if some qualities are specific to some individuals; consider this.

It is also said: The mutraf is one who has been provided with turfah—that is, vast blessings. All of them are affluent in comparison to the state they will be in on the Day of Resurrection, which is the state of that [punishment] in which the matter of justification does not manifest upon them.