Tafseer of The Pilgrimage · Al-Hajj · 22:23
Indeed, Allah will admit those who believe and do righteous deeds to gardens beneath which rivers flow. They will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold and pearl, and their garments therein will be silk.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah the Exalted says: But those who have faith in Allah and His Messenger and have obeyed them by performing the good deeds that Allah has commanded them, them Allah will admit into gardens of perpetual abode (jannāt ʿadn) beneath which rivers flow, and therein they will be adorned with bracelets of gold and pearls.
The reciters differed over the reading of His words وَلُؤْلُؤًا : most of the reciters of Medina and a portion of the people of Kūfa read it in the accusative, in conformity with its reading in Sūrat al-Malāʾika (35:33), with the meaning: they are adorned therein with bracelets of gold and with pearls — the luʾluʾ as a conjunction upon the position of the bracelets (al-asāwir), for although the bracelets are in the genitive on account of the preposition "min," they are in reality in the accusative. They also say: the word is written in the script of the muṣḥaf with an alif, which is an indication of the correctness of the accusative reading. Most of the reciters of Iraq and the two great cities read وَلُؤْلُؤٍ in the genitive, as a conjunction upon the apparent grammatical case of al-asāwir.
Those who read in the genitive differed over the reason for retaining the alif in it: Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ said, according to what has been transmitted to me from him: the alif was placed in it just as it is placed in qālū (they said) and kālū (they measured). Al-Kisāʾī said: they placed it before the hamza, because the hamza is one of the letters.
The correct judgment regarding this, in my view, is that both readings are well-known readings, each of which has been read by learned reciters, equivalent in meaning and grammatically correct in Arabic; whichever of the two one reads, he has attained correctness.
As for His words وَلِبَاسُهُمْ فِيهَا حَرِيرٌ (and their clothing therein is silk): He says: the clothing that touches their skin therein are silken garments.
