Tafsir of Al-Anfal 8:14

This [verse], while being the one driving the threat through what was mentioned, explicitly states that the intended "punishment" is that which befell them immediately, regardless of whether "that" (dhalikum) is an indication of the punishment itself or of what is implied by the conditional structure regarding its establishment for them.

As for the first possibility: It is because the most apparent [grammatical] position is the accusative (nasb) via an implied verb required by "so taste it" (fadhūqūhu), and the wāw in "and indeed, for the disbelievers" (wa anna) means "along with." Thus, the meaning is: Experience that punishment which has befallen you, so taste it immediately, along with the fact that you will have the punishment of the Fire in the future. The explicit noun (al-kāfirīn) was placed in the position of the pronoun [i.e., instead of saying "for you"] to rebuke them for their disbelief and to provide the cause for the judgment.

As for the second possibility: It is because it is more probable that its position is the nominative (rafʿ) as the predicate of an omitted subject. His saying, "And indeed..." is coordinated with it. The meaning is: The judgment of Allah is "that"—i.e., the establishment of this punishment for you immediately—and the establishment of the punishment of the Fire in the future. His saying, "So taste it," is a parenthetical sentence inserted between the two coordinated parts for the purpose of threat, and the pronoun refers to the mentioned object in the first case, and to what is implied within it in the second.

An objection was raised against the first possibility: that the discourse would then be a matter of ishtighāl (preoccupation), which is only valid if we allow the correctness of the beginning with "that" (dhalikum). It is obvious that this is not allowed, because what follows the fāʾ cannot be a predicate unless the subject is a relative pronoun (mawṣūl) or an indefinite noun modified by an adjective. It was refuted by stating that this is not universally agreed upon, as al-Akhfash allowed it absolutely. Estimating the verb as "experience" (bāshirū) is among those [estimations] which Abu al-Baqa and others deemed favorable. They said: [It is estimated] so that the fāʾ may be coordinative, not superfluous, nor conditional—as in the expression "Zayd, strike him" (Zaydan fadribhu), regarding which there is debate. Some estimate it as "upon you" (ʿalaykum), acting as a verbal noun (ism fiʿl). Abu Hayyan objected to this by stating that verbal nouns cannot take implied pronouns. Al-Halabi excused this by saying that the one who estimated it likely followed the Kufans, as they treat the verbal noun exactly as a verb; hence, they make it govern a subsequent word, such as in "The book of Allah is upon you" (kitāb Allāhi ʿalaykum).

What his discourse points to—that his saying "and indeed for the disbelievers" is in the accusative because it is a mafʿūl maʿahu (comitative object) under the first estimation—is not free from problems, for putting the interpreted source (maṣdar muʾawwal) in the accusative as a comitative object is debatable. Hence, some chose to coordinate it with "that" (dhalikum) as in the second estimation, while others chose to coordinate it with His saying, "Indeed, I am with you," falling with it under the [scope of] revelation, or with the source in His saying, "Because they opposed Allah and His Messenger." It is not hidden that coordinating it with "that" requires the meaning to be: "Experience," or "Upon you," or "Taste that indeed for the disbelievers is the punishment of the Fire," which is rejected by refined taste. For this reason, the latter scholar said: It has no meaning. As for the other two coordinations, I do not know which of them is worse than the other. Therefore, some investigators have gone toward choosing that the source is the predicate of an omitted subject, or a subject whose predicate is omitted. It has also been said: It is in the accusative because of an implied "Know" (iʿlamū). Perhaps the most tolerable of the approaches regarding the verse is this last one.

The fair assessment is that it is manifest that what is intended by "punishment" is that which befell them immediately. The address within it is directed at the disbelievers by way of iltifāt (shifting of address) from the third-person in "opposed" (shāqqū) to the second-person. It is not a requirement in the address considered in iltifāt that it be through a name, as is popularly held, but it may be through the likes of "that" (dhalika), provided it is an address to those for whom the third-person was a reference. So it is said, though there is debate on this. Al-Hasan read it as wa inna ("And indeed...") with a kasra [at the start of the clause], in which case the sentence is an appended conclusion (tadhyīliyyah), the lām is for generic classification, and the wāw is for resumption.