Why does An-Naba 78:30 say God will 'never increase them except in torment'?

Answer

An-Naba 78:30 concludes the passage with a severe address to the people of Hell: 'So taste — for We shall never increase you in anything but torment' (fa-dhūqū fa-lan nazīdakum illā ʿadhāban). The command 'taste' is a rebuke that turns their denial back upon them: they refused to believe in recompense, and now they experience it directly. Ibn Kathīr reports this as among the most severe verses in the Qur'an for the inhabitants of the Fire, because it forecloses every hope of relief — their suffering is only ever intensified, never reduced. Al-Qurṭubī likewise reports it among the harshest verses against the people of the Fire, since it cuts off any expectation of mitigation or pause. The verse should be read in context: it follows a sustained, willful rejection of God's signs and of the reckoning itself (verses 27–28), and a precise divine record of all deeds (verse 29). The punishment is thus presented as a just response to entrenched denial, not a disproportionate or random act. Al-Saʿdī notes that once recompense has begun there is no reduction; the finality expresses the gravity of having rejected truth that was clearly conveyed.