(And they say: The Fire (of punishment) will not touch us save for a certain number of days…) [2:80]. Isma'il ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Sufi informed us> Abu'l-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Hamid al-'Attar> Ahmad ibn al-Hasan ibn 'Abd al-Jabbar> Abu'l-Qasim 'Abd Allah ibn Sa'd al-Zuhri> his father and paternal uncle> their father> Ibn Ishaq> Muhammad ibn Abi Muhammad> 'Ikrima> Ibn 'Abbas who said: “Allah's Messenger, Allah bless him and give him peace, came to Medina and found the Jews saying: 'This worldly life will last seven thousand years. And for every one thousand years of the days of this worldly life people will be tormented in hell fire for one day of the days of the Afterlife. Thus, the torment will last for only seven days'. Allah, exalted is He, revealed concerning this saying: (And they say: The Fire (of punishment) will not touch us save for a certain number of days)”. Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tamimi informed us> 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Hayyan> Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Razi> Sahl ibn 'Uthman> Marwan ibn Mu'awiyah> Juwaybir> al-Dahhak> Ibn 'Abbas said concerning the verse (And they say: The Fire (of punishment) will not touch us save for a certain number of days): “The people of the Book found out that from one end of hell fire to the other a journey of forty years was needed, and, therefore, they said: 'We shall not be tormented in hell fire except for the period of time specified in the Torah'. And so they proceeded in their torment until they reached Saqar wherein is the tree of Zaqqum until the certain number of days which they mentioned came to an end. The denizens of hell fire then said to them: 'you claimed you will not be tormented in hell fire except for a certain number of days. Well, those certain number of days has elapsed, but eternity remains' ”.
Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi , trans. Mokrane Guezzou
