Eternal Destruction and the Touch of Torment

God has threatened those Christians who believe in the Trinity and who knowingly and deliberately utter it and do not repent and do not accept God’s prohibition in this matter with the touch of torment: “And if they do not desist from what they say, a painful torment will surely touch those who disbelieve among them.” Since they have become afflicted with polytheism (shirk), many Christians who believe in the Trinity only through mere imitation (taqlīd) or out of pure devotion (taʿabbud) are not included in the aforementioned threat.

This touch of torment is not a sign of the smallness of the original torment, but rather indicates that the torment is to such a degree that merely its contact and encounter causes eternal destruction; how much more so its comprehension and tasting. Tasting differs from eating and drinking, but that very tasting: “Taste! Indeed, you are the mighty, the noble”(37) is sufficient for destruction. Among the characteristics of touch (mass) and taste (dhawq) is that the contact exists in the entire mass of the body, even in the digestive system, otherwise when hot food entered it, a person would not feel pain and burning; or if torment reached from the outer surface to flesh and bone, one should not feel pain, whereas that organ suffers more pain.

In summary, either divine torment is such that “On that day, no one will punish as He punishes, and no one will bind as He binds” (89:25-26) - to convey the severity of that torment, He expressed it as “touch” (mass): “A painful torment will surely touch those who disbelieve among them.”

The word “among them” (minhum) is to exclude those who have previously repented and embraced Islam and are now also on the path of repentance, as stated in the subsequent verse.