Tafsir of Al-Infitar 82:16

And they are not absent from it even for the blink of an eye. For the intended meaning is the continuity of the negation, not the negation of continuity, similar to His saying—the Exalted—"And they are not to emerge from therein," in its indication of the everlasting nature of the punishment and that they will remain perpetually experiencing the Fire.

It is said that the meaning is: they were not absent from it before that at all; rather, they used to experience its scorching heat in their graves, as the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: "The grave is either a garden from the gardens of Paradise or a pit from the pits of the Fire." This is based on [the understanding] that "absent" is a narration of a past state, and the sentence—according to both interpretations—is in the place of a circumstantial qualifier (hal). However, according to the first, it is a prospective circumstantial qualifier (hal muqaddara), and according to the second, it is of the category of "they came to you [while] their chests were constricted."

It is also said that it is a circumstantial qualifier according to the first interpretation, but not the second, due to the separation between the entering of the Fire and the punishment of the grave by the Resurrection and the station of the Reckoning. Rather, in this view, it is coordinated with what precedes it. It is also possible that the active participle in it—namely, "absent"—is in the present tense, meaning: they are not absent from it now, due to the difference from the coordinated-to, which was intended for the future. The speech follows what is known in the reports of the Exalted regarding the expression of the future through other than it due to its certainty. Thus, it cannot be countered that some of the wicked are in the company of the living after [death/resurrection] and some have not yet been created, and [that] the punishment of the grave is after death, so how can "absent" be applied to the present?