25 Preface مِمّا خَطيئَاتِهِم أُغرِقوا فَأُدخِلوا نارًا فَلَم يَجِدوا لَهُم مِن دونِ اللَّهِ أَنصارًاYusuf AliBecause of their sins they were drowned (in the flood),1 and were made to enter the Fire (of Punishment): and they found- in lieu of God. none to help them.The Punishment of sin seizes the soul from every side and in every form. Water (drowning) indicates death by suffocation, through the nose, ears, eyes, mouth, throat, and lungs. Fire has the opposite effects; it burns the skin, the limbs, the flesh, the brains, the bones, and every part of the body. So the destruction wrought by sin is complete from all points of view. And yet it is not death (20:74); for death would be a merciful release from the Penalty, and the soul steeped in sin has closed the gates of God’s Mercy on itself. There they will abide, unless and “except as God willeth” (6:128). For time and eternity, as we conceive them now, have no meaning in the wholly new world which the soul enters after death or Judgment.