Tafseer of The Criterion · Al-Furqaan · 25:24
The companions of Paradise, that Day, are [in] a better settlement and better resting place.
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.
And His word, glorious is His praise: أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا — Allah, exalted is His mention, says: The inhabitants of the Garden (janna) are, on the Day of Resurrection, better in dwelling-place — that is to say: the place where they settle in their abodes in the Garden — than the dwelling-place of these polytheists who boast of their possessions and of what has been given to them in this worldly life of worldly goods, and they are better than them in resting-place therein.
If someone asks: Is there a midday rest in the Garden? Why then is it said: وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا therein? Then we answer: its meaning is: and better therein is the rest at the time of their midday rest in the worldly life. For it has been transmitted that the inhabitants of the Garden in the Hereafter experience only the span of a single day, from its beginning until the moment of the midday rest, before they take up their abodes in the Garden. That is the meaning of His word وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا .
* Mention of the transmission of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا — he said: they took their midday rest in the upper chambers of the Garden, and their reckoning consisted in their being presented to their Lord once; that is the light reckoning, and it is as His word: فَأَمَّا مَنْ أُوتِيَ كِتَابَهُ بِيَمِينِهِ * فَسَوْفَ يُحَاسَبُ حِسَابًا يَسِيرًا * وَيَنْقَلِبُ إِلَى أَهْلِهِ مَسْرُورًا .
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning His word أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا — he said: they held that on the Day of Resurrection the judgment over the people would be completed by the middle of the day, so that these (the inhabitants of the Garden) take their midday rest in the Garden and these (the inhabitants of the Fire) in the Fire (al-nār).
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj — أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا — he said: the noon hour had not yet arrived before Allah had already judged between them; so that the inhabitants of the Garden take their midday rest in the Garden and the inhabitants of the Fire in the Fire. He said: and in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it stands: (ثُمَّ إِنَّ مَقِيلَهُمْ لَإِلَى الْجَحِيمِ).
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا — he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: the judgment took place at the beginning of it, and the people took their midday rest while they were in their abodes in the Garden; and he recited أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا .
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed us, that Saʿīd al-Ṣawwāf related to him, that it had reached him that on the Day of Resurrection the judgment over the believers will be completed until it is like the time from the afternoon to sunset, and that they take their midday rest in the gardens of the Garden until the judgment over the people is completed; that is the word of Allah: أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا .
Abū Jaʿfar said: We said that the meaning of this is: better in dwelling-place in the Garden than they are in the worldly life, because Allah, exalted is His mention, made His word أَصْحَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَئِذٍ خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا وَأَحْسَنُ مَقِيلا apply generally to all the states of the Garden in the Hereafter — that those are better in settlement therein and in midday rest than all the states of the inhabitants of the Fire — without restricting that to better than their state in the Fire and not the worldly life, or in the worldly life and not the Hereafter. It is therefore obligatory to let it apply generally just as our Lord, glorious is His praise, has let it apply generally. So it must be said: the inhabitants of the Garden are, on the Day of Resurrection, better in dwelling-place in the Garden than the inhabitants of the Fire are in the worldly life and the Hereafter, and better than them in midday rest. When this is its meaning, it becomes clear that the view of whoever held that Allah favors the inhabitants of the Garden with His word خَيْرٌ مُسْتَقَرًّا — in a manner other than the well-known way in which people speak among themselves when they say: "this is better than that" and "this is finer than that" — is incorrect.
