[And God] will say: "Join those hosts of invisible beings and humans who have gone before you into the fire!" [And] every time a host enters [the fire], it will curse its fellow-host - so much so that, when they all shall have passed into it, one after another, the last of them will speak [thus] of the first of them:
28 "O our, Sustainer! It is they who have led us astray: give, them, therefore, double suffering through fire!" He will reply: "Every one of you deserves double, suffering
29 - but you know it not."
Asad Translation Note Number :
The terms "first" and "last" refer here either to a sequence in time ("those who came earlier" and "those who came later") or in status ("leaders" and "followers"); and in both cases they relate, as the next sentence indicates, to the evil influence which the former exerted on the latter during their lifetime - either directly, as leaders of thought and persons of distinction, or indirectly, as forerunners in time, whose example was followed by later generations.
Lit., "to everyone a double [suffering]": i.e., for
having gone astray and for having, by his example, led
others astray. Cf. 16:25 - "on Resurrection Day they
shall bear the full weight of their own burdens, as well
as some of the burdens of those ignorant ones whom they
have led astray".
