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Or that He will not seize them amid [growing] fear?, [amid] a gradual diminishing [of their numbers] little by little, until all are destroyed ('alā takhawwufin is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb [Allahu ta’ālā] or the object). Indeed then your Rabb is Gentle, Merciful, insofar as He does not hasten for them their punishment.