وَبَشِّرِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُۖ

كُلَّمَا رُزِقُوا مِنْهَا مِنْ ثَمَرَةٍ رِزْقًاۙ

قَالُوا هَٰذَا الَّذِي رُزِقْنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ

وَأُتُوا بِهِ مُتَشَابِهًا

وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا أَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ

وَهُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ

"And give good tidings to those who believe and do what is virtuous, that for them there are gardens beneath which rivers flow. Every time they are given a fruit from there to eat, they will say, 'this is what we have been given before'; and they are given one resembling the other. And for them there shall be wives purified; and there they are eternal." [2:25]

Verse 24 spoke of the fire of hell which has been prepared to punish those who do not believe in the Holy Qur'an; the present verse announces the reward for those who believe.

As for the fruits with which believers will be regaled in Paradise, some commentators say that this concerns only the fruits of Paradise which would be alike in shape, but each time different in taste. Others say that these fruits would resemble the fruits of the earth in shape alone, but their taste would be totally different. Anyhow, the point is that the believers would have a kind of joy in Paradise they had never known before, and that this joy would keep renewing itself at every moment.

Thus, the fruits of Paradise may share a common name with the fruits of the earth, but they will be of a different nature. The wives which the believers will have in Paradise, will be clean externally and pure internally - that is to say, free from everything that is physically disgusting like excrement and menstruation, and from everything that is morally disgusting like bad temper or unfaithfulness.

The joys of Paradise will also be unlike the joys of the earth in that they will not be short-lived, nor will one have to be trembling with the fear of losing them, for the believers shall live in perpetual bliss for ever.

In giving these good tidings to those who believe, the Holy Qur'an adds another condition - that of good deeds -, for without good deeds, one cannot deserve such good tidings on the merit of "Imaan (faith) alone.

'Imaan itself can, no doubt, save a man from being consigned to the fires of hell for ever, and every Muslim, even if he is a great sinner, will finally be taken out of hell, once he has undergone a period of punishment. But no one can altogether escape the fires of hell unless he has been doing good deeds defined by the Shari'ah.

(Ruh al-Bayan; Tafsir al-Qurtubi) [Ma'ariful Qur'an]

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 11th January 2011

0 Comments