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That Day will be a Day of Woe to the wrong doers described in two aspects, the rebels against Allah and Allah's Truth, just as it will be a Day of Joy and Thanksgiving to the Righteous, who are described in three aspects in verses 17 to 28. The rebels are here described as being those who openly defied Truth and plunged into wrong-doing, or who trifled with truth, who jested with serious matters, who had not the courage to plunge openly into wrong-doing but who secretly took profit out of it, who wasted their life in doubts and petty quibbles. It is difficult to say which attitude did more harm to themselves and to others. Both are aspects of deep-seated rebellion. But the mercy of Allah was open to all if they had repented and amended their lives.
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In face of the Realities, it will be borne in on them how wrong it was for them in this life to deny or forget that every wicked thought or deed had its own retributive chain of consequences.
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This is obviously the meaning of the term sihr in the present context (see surah {74}. note [12]).
Perhaps they had said that the Hereafter was a fake, mere old wives' tales! If they had given serious thought to the Signs of Allah, they would have been saved from that serious spiritual blindness: then they will see that the fault was their own, and that the warnings of the messengers of Truth were nothing but pure Truth.
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I.e., "you will have to endure it in either case, for it is but a consequence of your own doings and attitudes": a subtle allusion to the fact that the "punishments" and "rewards" in the life to come are but allegories of the logical consequences of the manner in which one acts or behaves in this life.
One gets the reward for being patient in difficult times in this world. As for the Hereafter, those who suffer patiently in Hell will not be rewarded for their patience.
At that stage they will have no justification for anger or impatience; for their whole position will have been due to their own conduct and their rejection of Allah's Grace. Nor will there be time then for patience or repentance, for their period of probation will then have been over.
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The Righteous will be in Bliss far beyond their merits: their sins and faults will be forgiven by the grace of Allah, which will save them from the penalties which they may have incurred from human frailty. It will be their own effort or striving which will win them Allah's grace: see verse 19 below. But the fruits will be greater than they could strictly have carned.
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The bliss of the Righteous is described in three aspects: (1) their individual bliss, verses 17-20: (2) their social bliss, verses 21-24; and (3) their satisfaction in the dissipation of past shadows, and their full understanding of the goodness of Allah, verses 25-28.
Individual satisfaction is expressed in three types or figures of speech. (1) eating and drinking (2) couches of dignity, and (3) the joy of individual companionship. But the eating and drinking will be free of all drawbacks, such as excess, aftereffects and satiety: here there will be pure health, profit, and enjoyment. So about the other two: see the notes following. Cf. with this the description of heaven in xxxvii 40-49: while the general account is the same, special phases are brought out in the two passages to correspond with the context.
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As explained by Razi in his comments on the above verse as well as on 18:31 and 55:54 , the "reclining on couches" or "on carpets" in paradise is a symbol of inner fulfilment and peace of mind; and he points out that this is also alluded to in the identity of the verbal root sarra ("he was [or "became"] happy") in both the nouns surur ("happiness") and sarir ("couch").
For an explanation of the expression hur'in, see surah {56}, note [8].
Every one will have a couch of dignity, but it does not follow that the dignity will be the same. Every one's Personality will be purified but it will not be merged into one general sameness.
Cf. xliv. 54, and notes 4728 and 4729, where the meaning of Hur is fully explained. This is the special sharing of individual Bliss one with another. The next verse refers to the general social satisfaction shared with all whom we loved in this earthly life.
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Implying that the righteousness of their children increases the merit of the parents.
I.e., the righteousness of the parents cannot absolve their offspring from individual responsibility.
Meaning, no one will carry the burden of another’s sins.
Zurriyat: literally, progeny, offspring, family; applied by extension to mean all near and dear ones. Love is unselfish, and works not merely, or chiefly, for Self, but for others; provided the others have Faith and respond according to their capacities or degrees, they will be joined together. Even though on individual merits their rank might be less.
As already explained in the last note, though the love poured out by Prophets, ancestors, descendants, friends, or good men and women, will secure for their loved ones the enjoyment of their society, it is an indispensable condition that the loved ones should also, according to their lights, have shown their faith and their goodness in deeds. Each individual is responsible for his conduct. In the kingdom of heaven there is no boasting of ancestors or friends. But it is part of the satisfaction of the good ones who poured out their love that those who were in any way worthy to receive their love should also be admitted to their society, and this satisfaction shall in no way be diminished to them.
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That is, their eternal Punishment in the Hereafter, as well as any punishment that may come to them in this life.
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Cf. 37:47 - "no headiness will there be in it, and they will not get drunk thereon": and 56:19 - "by which their minds will not be clouded, and which will not make them drunk": an allegory of conscious, joyful elation. As regards the preceding reference to "fruit and meat in abundance - whatever they may desire", Razi observes that this symbolic "abundance" of sensual satisfaction will not lead to satiety but, rather, to a pleasureable desire which - contrary to what is man's lot in this world - can always be gratified.
Drinking or loving cups, in our life on this earth, are apt to be misused in two ways: (1) they may be occasions for mere frivolity or the wasting of time; (2) they may lead to evil thoughts, evil suggestions, evil talk, or evil deeds.
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See note [6] on {56:17-18}.
Thus Razi, explaining the selfless devotion implied in the pronoun lahum (lit., "for them" i.e., "of their own").
Maknun: well-guarded, kept close, concealed from exposure: the beautiful nacreous lustre of Pearls is disfigured by exposure to gases, vapours, or acids; when not actually in use they are best kept in closed caskets, guarded from deteriorating agencies.
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This symbolic "asking one another about their past lives" is meant to bring out the fact, often stressed in the Qur'an, that man's individual consciousness invariably survives his bodily death, to continue unbroken in the life to come.
It is assumed that they will ask each other about their lives in the world and what led them to Paradise.
The third-and the highest-stage of Bliss, after individual Bliss and social Bliss, is the satisfaction of looking to the Past without its shadows and realising to the full in the Present the goodness of Allah. See n. 5050. This, again, is shared in mutual converse and confidence.
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Thus do all classical commentators - without, to my knowledge, any exception - interpret the above verse.
A man may be good, and may with limits have found goodness in his own spiritual life, but may have anxieties about his family or friends whom he loves. All such shadows are removed in heaven by the Grace of Allah, and he is free to dwell on it in his confidential converse with other men similarly circumstanced.
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"Us" includes the good man or woman and all whom he or she cared for. This would be an ever-expanding circle, until it includes all mankind through Teachers like the Chosen One.
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Sc., "through our own, actual experience". This interpolation is based on the reading of the subsequent word as annahu ("that He is"), according to the Medina school, in contrast with the more conventional Kufah and Basrah reading innahu ("verily, He is"). As Tabari stresses, either of these two readings is correct; I have chosen for my rendering the former inasmuch as it points to the overwhelming, direct insight which will be granted to the blessed on resurrection.
'Before this, we called upon Him, in faith that He is good: now we know in our inmost souls that He is indeed good-the Beneficent, the Merciful.' This is the climax of the description of Heaven.
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The greatest of the Prophets was called a soothsayer, i.e., one who tells fortunes by divination, or a madman possessed of some evil spirit, or a poet singing spiteful satires. Much more may lesser men be called by such names because they proclaim the Truth. They should go on in spite of it all.
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Lit., "let us await for him the evil happenings of time", i.e., brought about by time: this is the meaning given by Jawhari and Zamakhshari (in the Asas) to the expression raybal-manun (which latter word is, according to these two authorities, a synonym of dahr, "time"). In the present context, the phrase obviously denotes the expectation of the Prophet's detractors that time would prove his teachings to have been false or, at best, a delusion.
If a spiteful poet foretells evil calamities for men, men can afford to laugh at him, hoping that time will bring about its revenge, and spite will come to an evil end. For the various meanings of Raib, see n. 1884 to xiv. 9. Some Commentators suggest Death as the Calamity hatched by Time.
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