Tafseer of The Romans · Ar-Room · 30:15
And as for those who had believed and done righteous deeds, they will be in a garden [of Paradise], delighted.
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.
As for those who believe in Allah and His Messenger and do good works, He says: and acted in accordance with what Allah commanded them, and abstained from that which He forbade them, they shall be made joyful in a garden, He says: they shall find themselves amid the fragrant herbs and the densely growing plants, and in the midst of the kinds of blossom in the gardens, rejoicing, and they delight in the listening and in the pleasant, blissful life. The Exalted, exalted be His praise, made the mention of the garden (rawḍa) particular in this place only because, in the estimation of both parties, there was nothing more beautiful to behold, nor more pleasant in fragrance, than the meadows. And that this is so is indicated by the saying of Aʿshā of the Banū Thaʿlaba:
"No garden of the gardens of beauty, luxuriantly grown, green, over which a descending, gentle rain poured abundantly,
upon which a gleaming star makes the sun to smile, girded about with abundant, fully grown vegetation,
is on any day more pleasant than she in the spreading of fragrance, nor more lovely than she when the evening twilight drew near." (3)
Thus the Exalted informed them thereby that those who believe and do good works are in a graceful aspect, and in the delightfulness of the fragrances, and the blissful life, in the midst of that which they love and in which they rejoice and for which they are envied. And "al-ḥabra" means, among the Arabs: joy and blissful enviableness. Al-ʿAjjāj said:
"Praise be to Allah who bestowed the joy upon the lords of the truth; verily, the lord is thankful." (4)
And the exegetes differed concerning the meaning of that. Some of them said: the meaning of it is: they shall find themselves in a garden, honored.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: they shall be made joyful in a garden, he said: they shall be honored.
And others said: the meaning of it is: they shall be in luxury.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: they shall be made joyful, he said: they shall be in luxury.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: they shall be made joyful in a garden, he said: they shall be in luxury.
And others said: they shall delight in the listening and the singing.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḥarasī related to me, saying: ʿĀmir ibn Yasāf related to me, saying: I asked Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr about the saying of Allah: they shall be made joyful in a garden, he said: al-ḥabra is the delight and the listening.
ʿUbaydallāh ibn Muḥammad al-Firyābī related to us, saying: Ḍamra ibn Rabīʿa related to us, on the authority of al-Awzāʿī, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, concerning His saying: they shall be made joyful, he said: the listening in Paradise (janna).
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus related to us, on the authority of al-Awzāʿī, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, the like of it.
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of ʿĀmir ibn Yasāf, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, the like of it.
And all these expressions which we have mentioned from those from whom we have transmitted them come back to the meaning of what we have said.
------------------- Footnotes:
(3) The three verses are by Aʿshā of the Banū Qays ibn Thaʿlaba (his dīwān, Cairo edition with the commentary of Dr. Muḥammad Ḥusayn, p. 57), and the transmission therein reads: "of the gardens of al-ḥazn" (the elevated part of the land). Abū ʿUbayda, in Majāz al-Qurʾān (folio 187), cited the first and the third verse, and the transmission therein reads: "of the gardens of al-ḥazm", which has the same meaning as al-ḥazn, namely the rough, rugged part of the land. Abū ʿUbayda said: made joyful in a garden: the figurative meaning of it is: they rejoice and are glad. And among the Arabs there is nothing more lovely than the luxuriantly grown meadows, nor more pleasant in fragrance; Aʿshā said: "No garden ..." and so forth. End. I say: the transmission "al-ḥazn" or "al-ḥazm" is the best of the transmissions, and the gardens of the highland are more pleasant than the gardens of the lowland plains, because the wind blows over them and stirs up their fragrance, and because feet do not tread upon them, and because the sun shines upon them from all sides, so that their growth thrives and blossoms. "Al-musbil" is the rain, and "al-haṭil" is the abundant; "al-kawkab" is the light, "al-shariq" is the radiant, "al-muʾazzar" is that around which there is other vegetation, so that it is as a girdle for it; "al-muktahil" is that which has come to maturity and is completed; "al-nashr" is the welling up of the fragrance; and "al-uṣul" is the plural of "aṣīl", which is the time of sunset, or shortly before it, when the sun turns yellow and the setting draws near.
(4) The two verses are by al-ʿAjjāj (his dīwān, Leipzig edition 1903, p. 15), from a rajaz poem in which he praises ʿUmar ibn ʿUbaydallāh ibn Maʿmar; and (Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda, folio 187-b), where it is cited following on from the previously mentioned saying of Aʿshā. And in (al-Lisān: ḥabr): "al-ḥabr" (with fatḥa followed by sukūn), and "al-ḥabar" (with two fatḥas), and "al-ḥabra" (with fatḥa followed by sukūn), and "al-ḥubūr": all of that means joy. Al-ʿAjjāj said: "Praise be to Allah ..." the verse, from their saying "ḥabaranī hādhā al-amr ḥabran", that is to say: this matter rejoiced me. And the bāʾ has been moved (vocalized) in both, whereas the original form is the sukūn (the absence of a vowel). And "aḥbaranī al-amr": it rejoiced me. And it is also read "al-shabr". End.
