And We have appointed only angels as wardens of the Fire in other words and so they cannot be withstood as these disbelievers are wont to imagine; and We have made their number so only as a stumbling-block a cause for error for those who disbelieve when they then say ‘Why are there nineteen of them?’ so that those who were given the Scripture namely the Jews may be certain of the sincerity of the Prophet s in saying that they are nineteen for this concords with what is in their Scripture; and that those who believe from among the People of the Scripture may increase in faith in affirmation of the truth given that what the Prophet s has said concords with what is in their Scripture and that those given the Scripture and the believers those other than these Jews may not be in doubt concerning the number of these angels and that those in whose hearts there is a sickness an uncertainty those in Medina and the disbelievers in Mecca may say ‘What did God mean by this number as a similitude?’ mathalan they referred to it thus as a mathal on account of it being a curious matter; in terms of syntax it mathalan is a circumstantial qualifier. Thus that is just as the one who rejects this number is led astray and the one who affirms the truth of it is guided God leads astray whom He will and guides whom He will. And none knows the hosts of your Lord namely the angels none knows them in terms of their strength and their assistants except Him. And it that is Saqar is nothing but a reminder for humans.
