إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ يُنَادَوْنَ لَمَقْتُ ٱللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ مِن مَّقْتِكُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ إِذْ تُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى ٱلْإِيمَٰنِ فَتَكْفُرُونَ
"Those who deny will be called to: 'God's loathing is greater than the loathing you feel for yourselves — you were being called to faith, and you kept denying.'"
There is a comparison in the sentence, and the second term of the comparison is worth recording: maqtikum anfusakum — the loathing you feel for yourselves.
I record this as my own reading: before it describes the punishment as something coming from outside, the verse names its counterpart inside the person. And the measure of magnitude is taken from there.
قَالُوا۟ رَبَّنَآ أَمَتَّنَا ٱثْنَتَيْنِ وَأَحْيَيْتَنَا ٱثْنَتَيْنِ فَٱعْتَرَفْنَا بِذُنُوبِنَا فَهَلْ إِلَىٰ خُرُوجٍ مِّن سَبِيلٍ
"'Our Lord! You made us die twice and gave us life twice. We confess our sins. Is there any way out?'"
How the "two deaths and two lives" are counted is debated in the classical commentaries, and the main explanation is this: the state of non-being counts as one "death", coming into the world is the first life, departing from the world is the second death, and rising in the hereafter is the second life. I transmit this as an explanation that is transmitted; other reckonings are also mentioned, and I do not impose a preference.
فَهَلْ إِلَىٰ خُرُوجٍ مِّن سَبِيلٍ — what is asked for is not pardon but a way out. I record this as an observation: they confess (fa'ʿtarafnā), but the thing requested is not forgiveness, it is a change of place.
ٱلَّذِى يُرِيكُمْ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ وَيُنَزِّلُ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ رِزْقًا وَمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ إِلَّا مَن يُنِيبُ — "only he who turns takes heed."
The root أ-ن-ب: to turn, to turn towards. It was treated at Qāf 50/8 (ʿabdin munīb); I rely on that treatment.
The condition must be recorded: the sign is shown to everyone (yurīkum āyātih), but taking heed is made to depend on turning. This is the same measure treated at Fuṣṣilat 41/44: the same text — a road for one, a weight for another.
رَفِيعُ ٱلدَّرَجَٰتِ ذُو ٱلْعَرْشِ يُلْقِى ٱلرُّوحَ مِنْ أَمْرِهِۦ عَلَىٰ مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ لِيُنذِرَ يَوْمَ ٱلتَّلَاقِ — yawmu't-talāq: "the day of meeting". The sūra will use three names in succession for the resurrection: yawmu't-talāq (15), yawmu't-tanād (32), yawmu'l-āzifa (18). All three name that day by way of a relation: meeting, calling to one another, drawing near.