Surah Ar-Rahman 55:46-78 - Towards Understanding the Quran - Quran Translation Commentary

Translation

(55:46) For any who fears to stand before his Lord⁴⁰ are two Gardens.⁴¹

(55:47) Which of your Lord's favours will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?⁴²

(55:48) These Gardens will abound in green, blooming branches.

(55:49) Which of your Lord's favours will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:50) In each of the two Gardens are two flowing springs.

(55:51) Which of your Lord's favours will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:52) In both these is a pair of every fruit.⁴³

(55:53) Which of your Lord's favours will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:54) They shall recline on couches lined with brocade,⁴⁴ and within reach shall hang the fruits of the two Gardens.

(55:55) Which of your Lord's favours will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:56) In the midst of these shall be maidens with modest, restrained glances;⁴⁵ maidens whom no man or jinn has ever touched before.⁴⁶

(55:57) Which of your Lord's favours will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:58) Lovely as rubies and pearls.

(55:59) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:60) Can the reward of goodness be any other than goodness?⁴⁷

(55:61) Which of the laudable attributes of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?⁴⁸

(55:62) And besides these two there shall be two other Gardens.⁴⁹

(55:63) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:64) Two Gardens, dark green and fresh.⁵⁰

(55:65) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:66) In them will be two gushing springs.

(55:67) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:68) Therein will be fruits and dates and pomegranates.

(55:69) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:70) In the midst of these will be maidens, good and comely.

(55:71) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:72) There shall be maidens sheltered in tents.⁵¹

(55:73) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:74) No man or jinn ever touched them before.

(55:75) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:76) They shall be reclining on green cushions and splendid carpets.⁵²

(55:77) Which of the favours of your Lord will you twain – you men and jinn – then deny?

(55:78) Blessed be the name of your Lord, the Lord of Majesty and Glory.

Commentary

40. Who fears...Lord: who fears God in whatever he does in the world, and dreads his accountability before Him in the Hereafter. Whoever holds this belief will inevitably avoid serving the lusts of his self, will avoid following every path blindly, will distinguish between the truth and falsehood, justice and injustice, pure and impure, and the lawful and the unlawful, and will not turn away deliberately from following the commands of God. This is the real ground for the reward that is being mentioned below.

41. Jannat actually means a garden. At some places in the Quran the entire world in which the righteous people will be kept, has been called Jannat, as though the whole of it was a garden. And at others it has been said that they will have Jannaat (Gardens) under which canals will be flowing. This means that that big Garden will comprise countless other gardens; and here precisely it has been stated that every pious man will be given two gardens in that big Garden, which will be particularly meant for him; it will have his own palaces in which he will live with his family and attendants like a king, and in it he will be provided with all that is being mentioned below.

42. From here till the end, the word alaa has been used both for the blessings and for the powers, and there is an aspect of the praiseworthy qualities too in it. If we take the first meaning, the meaning of repeating the refrain in this context will be: If you like to deny the blessings of Allah, you may do so. The righteous will certainly receive these blessings from their Lord. In the second case the meaning would be: If you think it is impossible for Allah to create the Garden and bless His righteous servants with these bounties in it, you may think so. Allah certainly has the power to do this work and He will surely accomplish it. According to the third meaning, it means: You think that after having created this big world Allah now doesn’t bother whether a person behaves unjustly here or justly, works to promote the truth or falsehood, spreads evil or good, He will neither punish the oppressor nor redress the grievances of the oppressed, will neither appreciate good nor abhor evil, then, as you think, He is helpless too. He can build the heavens and the earth but cannot prepare Hell for punishing the wicked and cannot make Heaven for rewarding the followers of the truth. Thus, you may deny His praiseworthy attributes as you may, but tomorrow when He hurls the evildoers into Hell and blesses the worshipers of the truth in Heaven, will you even then be able to deny His these attributes.

43. This can have two meanings:

(1) The fruits of the two gardens will have their own special flavors and tastes. In one garden he will find one kind of the fruit clustering on its branches, and in the other, another kind.

(2) In each garden there will be two kinds of fruit; one kind of the familiar fruit known and tasted in the world, though much superior to that found in the world, and the other kind of the rare fruit never imagined and tasted before.

44. That is, when their lining will be of such superior quality, you may imagine what will be the quality of the outer layer of the carpets.

45. This is the real character of the woman. She should neither be shameless nor immodest, but should have modesty in her looks. That is why Allah while making a mention of women among the blessings of Paradise has first of all praised their modesty and chastity and not their beauty and physical charms. Beautiful women can get together in mixed clubs and film studios and beauty contests where only the beautiful women are admitted, but a person of only low taste and mentality can show any interest in them. No noble person can find any charm in the beauty that attracts every evil look and is ready to fall in every lap.

46. This means that in the worldly life whether a woman died a spinster, or as the wife of somebody, or died young, or as an old woman, in the Hereafter when all the righteous women enter Paradise, they will be made young and virgins. And any of the women who is made a life-partner of a righteous man, will not have been possessed by anyone before that husband, in Paradise.

This verse also shows that the righteous jinn too will enter Paradise like the righteous men. Men will have women from their own kind and the jinn their wives from their own kind: both the kinds will have their mates from their own particular kind. No person of one kind will be made a partner of a member of another kind with whom he cannot live as husband or wife naturally. The words of the verse “...whom neither man nor jinn will have touched before them,” do not mean that the women there will only be of human species and they will not have been touched by any man or jinn before their husbands, but its real meaning is: In Paradise there will be women of both the jinn and the human species; they all will he modest and untouched: neither a jinn female will have been touched by a jinn male before her husband in Paradise, nor a human female will have been touched by a human male before her husband in Paradise.

47. That is, how, after all, is it possible that Allah should allow to go waste the sacrifices of those righteous servants and should deny them their rewards, who kept themselves subjected to restrictions throughout their lives for the sake of Allah, who avoided the unlawful and remained content with the lawful, who performed their duties faithfully and sincerely, rendered the rights of those to whom rights were due, and endured hardships against evil and upheld good?

48. Obviously, the person who is a denier of Paradise and its rewards, actually denies many of Allah Almighty’s praiseworthy attributes. Even if he believes in Allah, he holds a bad opinion about Him. In his view, He is a perverse ruler in whose lawless kingdom doing good is an exercise in futility. He is either blind or deaf and is, therefore, wholly unaware as to who in his kingdom is making sacrifices of life, wealth and labor for His sake. He is un-appreciative and cannot distinguish between good and evil. Or as he seems to think, He is helpless and powerless. He may be very appreciative of the good but is unable to reward the doer of it. That is why it has been said: When in the Hereafter good will be rewarded with good in front of your very eyes, will you even then disavow the praiseworthy attributes of your Lord.

49. The word doon as used in min doon-i-hima Jannatan is employed in three different meanings in Arabic:

(1) To be situated at a lower level than another thing.

(2) To be inferior to something of better and nobler quality.

(3) To be over and above something else.

On account of this difference in meaning, one probable meaning of these words is that every dweller of Paradise will be given two more gardens besides the two previously mentioned. Another probable meaning is that these two gardens will be inferior in quality and rank to both the first mentioned gardens: that is, the first two gardens will either be situated at a higher level than these two, or the first two gardens will be of a superior kind and these two of an inferior kind as compared to them. If the first probability is adopted, it would mean that these two additional gardens also will be for those dwellers of Paradise, who have been mentioned above, And in case the second probability is adopted, the meaning would be that the first two gardens will be for those nearest to Allah, and these two for the people of the right hand. This second probability is strengthened by the two kinds of the righteous men as mentioned in Surah Al-Waqiah. First, the foremost, who have also been called the muqarrabun; second, the people of the right hand, who have also been entitled ashab almaimanah; and for both these separate qualities of the two kinds of the gardens have been mentioned. Furthermore, this probability is also strengthened by the Hadith which Abu Bakr has related on the authority of his father, Abu Musa al-Ashari. In this he says: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Two jannaat (gardens) will be for the foremost among the righteous (or the muqarrabin), in which the utensils and articles of decoration will be of gold, and two jannaat for the followers (or the ashab al yamin), in which everything will be of silver. (Fath al-Bari, Kitab at- Tafsir: Surah Ar-Rahman).

50. The word madhammatan has been used in praise of these gardens. Mudhamma is such luxuriant vegetation which because of its extreme luxuriance assumes a darkish hue.

51. For the explanation of hoor see ( E.Ns 28, 29 of Surah As-Saaffat) and (E.N. 42 of Surah Ad-Dukhan). The pavilions probably will be similar to those pitched for the nobles and rich people in the public parks. Most probably the wives of the dwellers of Paradise will live with them in their palaces, and in their parks there will be tents pitched here and there in which there will be the hoors to entertain them. Our this presumption is based on this that in the foregoing verses beautiful and chaste wives have been mentioned; now, here, mention of the hoors signifies that they will be a different kind of women from the wives. This presumption is further strengthened by the Hadith which Umm Salamah has reported. She says: I asked: O messenger of Allah, who are better, the women of the world or the hoors. The Prophet replied (peace be upon him), the women of the world are superior to the hoors in the same way as the outer layer of a garment is superior to its lining. I asked: On what grounds? He replied: On the ground that the women have offered their Prayers, observed their Fasts, and performed other devotions. (Tabarani). This shows that the wives of the dwellers of Paradise will be the women who affirmed the faith in the world and left the world while they practiced good and right. They will enter Paradise in consequence of their faith and good deeds, and will deserve the blessings of Paradise on merit. They would either become the wives of their previous husbands of their own free will and choice if they (the previous husbands) too happened to be dwellers of Paradise. Otherwise, Allah will wed them to some other dweller of Paradise, if the two would like to live together as husband and wife. As for the hoors, they will not be entitled to dwell in Paradise as a result of any righteous deed of their own, but Allah will create them as young, beautiful women and bestow them also as a blessing among the other blessings on the dwellers of Paradise so that they may enjoy their companionship. But they will not in any case be creatures of the kind of the jinn and fairies, for man cannot cohabit with a kind other than his own. Therefore, most probably these would be those innocent girls who died immature and Allah will recreate them as young and beautiful women.

52. The word abqari in the original is from abqar, the capital city of the jinn in the legends of the pre-Islamic Arabia. It was on that account that the Arabs called every fine and rare thing abqari as if it belonged to the fairyland and had no match in the material world. So much so that in their idiom the man who possessed extraordinary abilities and who performed wonderful works was also called abqari. The English word genius also is spoken in the same sense and is also derived from genii which is a synonym of jinn. That is why the word abqari has been used here to give an idea of the extraordinary exquisiteness of the provisions of Paradise to the