{ So inform, for indeed you are an informer, you are not lord over them; except whoever turns away and disbelieves, Allah will punish him with the greatest punishment } Al-ghashiya 21-24

{ Allah will punish him with the greatest punishment } : this being Hellfire, the punishment of which is everlasting. Indeed He said { greatest } because they were already punished in this world with hunger, drought, imprisonment, and killing. Evidence for this interpretation is the recitation of Ibn Mas’ud: { Except that whoever turns away and disbelieves, indeed Allah will punish him } . It is said that this is an adjoining exception, the meaning being: You are not charged to be a ruler, except over those who turn away and disbelieve; over these you are a ruler by jihad, and Allah will punish them afterwards with the greatest punishment. There is no abrogation in this verse by this reckoning. It is narrated that a certain man who had apostatized was brought to ‘Ali, and he gave him three days to repent, but he did not come back to Islam, so he beheaded him, and recited: { except whoever turns away and disbelieves } .