Tafsir of Al-Kahf 18:52

"And [mention] the Day He will say, 'Call your 'partners'..."

• "He will say" (yaqūl): Read with both yā' (He) and nūn (We).
• "Your partners": Attributing them to Him is according to their own false claims, serving as a rebuke to them.

"...whom you claimed,' and We will make between them a mawbiq (a place of destruction)."

• The intended meaning: The jinn (demons).
• "Mawbiq": That which destroys. It comes from wabaqa-yabūqu-wubūqan and wabiqa-yabiqu-wabaqan, meaning: when one perishes. Awbaqahu means another caused him to perish.
• Alternative interpretation: It may be a noun of place (like mawrid or maw‘id), meaning: We placed between them a valley of the valleys of Hell—a place of destruction and severe torment—which they share, and in which they all perish.
• Al-Hasan’s view: Mawbiq means "enmity." The meaning is: an enmity that is, in its intensity, a destruction. This is like the saying: "Let not your love be an obsession, and let not your hatred be a destruction."
• Al-Farra’s view: The "separation" (bayn) is actually a "connection." Meaning: We made their connection in the world a cause of destruction on the Day of Resurrection.
• Another interpretation: It may refer to the angels, Ezra, Jesus, and Mary. In this case, mawbiq means a vast barrier (barzakh), meaning: We placed between them a vast distance in which the paths perish due to its extreme length, for they are in the depths of Hell while the others are in the highest reaches of Paradise.

"And the criminals will see the Fire and will be certain that they are to fall into it..."

• "They will see" (fadhannū): They will be certain.
• "Falling into it" (muwāqi‘ūhā): They will be mingled with it; they will fall into it.

"...and they will not find from it any maṣrifan (escape/diversion)."

• "Maṣrifan": A place to turn away to. As the poet said:
  • O Zuhayr, is there any escape from old age?

"And We have certainly diversified in this Qur’an for the people from every [kind of] example. And man has ever been, most of anything, [prone to] argument."