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See n. 5223 above.
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Lit., "those [or "the people"] of the right side": see note [25] on 74:39 .
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Lit., "those [or "the people"] of the left side". Similarly to the use of the expression maymanah as a metonym for "attaining to what is right", the term mash'amah is used to denote "losing oneself in evil" (e.g., in 90:19 ). The origin of both these metonyms is based on the belief of the pre-Islamic Arabs that future events could be predicted by observing the direction of the flight of birds at certain times: if they flew to the right, the event in question promised to be auspicious; if to the left, the contrary. This ancient belief was gradually absorbed by linguistic usage, so that "right" and "left" became more or less synonymous with "auspicious" and "inauspicious". In the idiom of the Qur'an, these two concepts have been deepened into "righteousness" and unrighteousness", respectively.
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Foremost (in Faith)": there are two meanings, and both are implied (1) Those who have reached the highest degree in spiritual understanding, such as the great prophets and teachers of mankind, will also take precedence in the Hereafter. (2) Those who are the first in time-the quickest and readiest-to accept Allah's Message-will have the first place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Verses 8, 9 and 10 mention the three main categories or classifications after Judgment. In the subsequent verses their happiness or misery are described. This category, Foremost in Faith, is nearest to Allah.
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See n. 5223 above. Nearness to Allah is the test of the highest Bliss.
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Of great Prophets and Teachers there were many before the time of the holy Prophet Muhammad. As he was the last of the Prophets, he and the great Teachers under his Dispensation will be comparatively fewer in number, but their teaching is the sum and flower of all mankind's spiritual experience.
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The above stress on the "many" and the "few" contains an allusion to the progressive diminution, in the historical sense, of the element of excellence in men's faith and ethical achievements. (See also note [16] on verses {39-40}.)
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Cf. xv. 47; xxxvii. 44, Iii. 20, and xxxviii. 13.
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See note [34] on 15:47 , which explains the symbolism of the above two verses.
But they will not be separate each in his own corner. They will face each other. For they are all one, and their mutual society will be part of their Bliss.
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Cf. lii. 24, and n. 5058. The youth and freshness with which the attendants will serve is a symbol of true service such as we may expect in the next world. That freshness will be perpetual, and not subject to any moods, or chances, or changes.
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This is evidently a symbolic allusion to the imperishable quality - the eternal youthfulness, as it were - of all the experiences in the state described as "paradise". (See also next two notes.)
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The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul are typified by all that is best in the feasts in this imperfect world, but there will be none of the disadvantages incident to such feasts in this world, such as satiety, aches, excess, a sense of exhaustion, or loss of senses, etc. Cf. xxxvii. 47, and n. 4063. A goblet is a bowl without handles; a beaker has a "lip" and a stem; "cup" is a general term.
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Regarding this and any other Qur'anic description of the joys of paradise, see 32:17 and, in particular, the corresponding note [15]. The famous hadith quoted in that note must be kept in mind when reading any Qur'anic reference to the state or quality of human life in the hereafter.
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The noun hur - rendered by me as "companions pure" - is a plural of both ahwar (masc.) and hawra' (fem.), either of which describes "a person distinguished by hawar", which latter term primarily denotes "intense whiteness of the eyeballs and lustrous black of the iris" (Qamus). In a more general sense, hawar signifies simply "whiteness" (Asas) or, as a moral qualification, "purity" (cf. Tabari, Razi and Ibn Kathir in their explanations of the term hawariyyun in 3:52 ). Hence, the compound expression hur 'in signifies, approximately, "pure beings [or, more specifically, "companions pure"], most beautiful of eye" (which latter is the meaning of 'in, the plural of a'yan). In his comments on the identical expression in 52:20 , Razi observes that inasmuch as a person's eye reflects his soul more clearly than any other part of the human body, 'in may be understood as "rich of soul" or "soulful". As regards the term hur in its more current, feminine, connotation, quite a number of the earliest Qur'an-commentators - among them Al-Hasan al-Basri - understood it as signifying no more and no less than "the righteous among the women of the human kind" (Tabari) - "[even] those toothless old women of yours whom God will resurrect as new beings" (Al-Hasan, as quoted by Razi in his comments on 44:54 ). See in this connection also note [46] on 38:52 .
Cf. xliv. 54, and n. 4729. The companionship of Beauty and Grace is one of the highest pleasures of life. In this bodily life it takes bodily form. In the higher life it takes a higher form.
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Cf. lii. 24, where this description is applied to the youths who serve. See also n. 5058 there. In lvi. 78 below the adjective maknun is applied to the Qur-an, "the well guarded Book".
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Cf. lii. 23. Apart from physical ills worldly feasts or delights are apt to suffer from vain or frivolous discourse, idle boasting, foolish flattery, or phrases pointed with secret venom or moral mischief. The negation of these from the enjoyment of the Garden.
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