Tafseer of The Prostration · As-Sajda · 32:17
And no soul knows what has been hidden for them of comfort for eyes as reward for what they used to do.
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.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ مَا أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أَعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do") (32:17).
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: no soul of any animate being knows what Allah has hidden for these, whose qualities He—praise be to His praise—has described in these two verses, of that by which their eyes are comforted in His gardens on the Day of Resurrection. جَزَاءً بِما كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("as a reward for what they used to do")—He says: as recompense for them for their deeds which they used to perform in the worldly life.
And in accordance with what we have said about that, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Muḥāribī related to me, saying: Abū al-Aḥwaṣ related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Abū ʿUbayda, saying: ʿAbd Allāh (Ibn Masʿūd) said: verily, in the Torah it is written: truly, Allah has prepared for those whose sides part from the sleeping-places that which no eye has seen, which has not occurred to the heart of a human being, which no ear has heard, and which not even a near angel has heard. He said: and we recite it as: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them").
Khallād related to us, saying: al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl informed us, saying: Isrāʾīl informed us, saying: Abū Isḥāq informed us, on the authority of ʿUbayda ibn Rabīʿa, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, saying: in the Torah it is written: with Allah, for those whose sides part from the sleeping-places, is that which no eye has seen, which no ear has heard, and which has not occurred to the heart of a human being; in the Qurʾān it is: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ منْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُن جَزَاءً بِمَا كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do").
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Abū ʿUbayda, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, saying: there has been hidden for them what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being. Sufyān said: as far as I know, without any doubt.
Muhammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, saying: I heard Abū ʿUbayda say: ʿAbd Allāh said that—that is to say: Allah—said: "I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a beholder: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ من قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بما كانُوا يعْمَلونَ ('No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do')."
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn al-Ṣalt related to us, on the authority of Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿUbayda ibn Rabīʿa al-Ḥārithī, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, saying: verily, in the Torah there is for those whose sides part from the sleeping-places, as an honoring, that which no eye has seen, which has not occurred to the heart of a human being, and which no ear has heard; and verily, it is in the Qurʾān: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُن ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them").
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: al-Ashjaʿī related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abjar, saying: I heard al-Shaʿbī say: I heard al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba say upon the pulpit (minbar): verily, Mūsā (Moses) ﷺ asked about the one of the people of Paradise who has the smallest share therein. It was said to him: a man who is brought after the people of Paradise have already entered Paradise. He said: it is then said to him: "Enter." Whereupon he says: "Where, then, when the people have already taken their places?" Then it is said: "Count four kings of the kings of the worldly life, and you shall have the like of what was for them; and you shall have, in addition, that which your soul desires." Whereupon he says: "I desire this and that, and I desire that." And He said: "You shall have yet more; you shall have the delight of your eye." Whereupon he says: "I wish to enjoy this and that." Then it is said: "You shall have ten times the like thereof." And he asked about the one of the people of Paradise who has the greatest share therein, whereupon He said: "That is something over which I have placed the seal on the day I created the heavens and the earth." Al-Shaʿbī said: and verily, it is in the Qurʾān: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ مَا أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أَعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do").
Aḥmad ibn Muhammad al-Ṭūsī related to me, saying: al-Ḥumaydī related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us; and al-Qarqasānī related it to me, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, on the authority of Muṭarrif ibn Ṭarīf and Ibn Abjar: we heard al-Shaʿbī say: I heard al-Mughīra ibn Shuʿba upon the pulpit, raising it up to the Prophet ﷺ: "Verily, Mūsā asked his Lord: O my Lord, who of the people of Paradise is of the lowest rank? He said: A man who comes after the people of Paradise have already entered Paradise, and to whom it is said: 'Enter.' Whereupon he says: 'How shall I enter, when they have already occupied their places?' Then it is said to him: 'Would you be content that you should have the like of what was for a king of the kings of the worldly life?' Whereupon he says: 'Excellent! O my Lord, I am content.' Then it is said to him: 'Verily, you shall have this, and the like thereof, and the like thereof, and the like thereof.' Whereupon he says: 'I am content, O my Lord, I am content.' Then it is said to him: 'Verily, you shall have this, and ten times the like thereof with it.' Whereupon he says: 'I am content, O my Lord.' Then it is said to him: 'And verily, you shall have, together with this, that which your soul desires and what delights your eye.'" He said: then Mūsā said: "O my Lord, and who of the people of Paradise is of the highest rank?" He said: "Them I have intended; and I shall tell you about them: I have planted their honoring with My hand, and I have set My seal upon it, so that no eye has seen it, no ear has heard it, and it has not occurred to the heart of a human being." He said: and the confirmation of that is in the Book of Allah: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِي لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُن جِزَاءً بِمَا كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do").
Muhammad ibn Manṣūr al-Ṭūsī related to us, saying: Isḥāq ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Abī Qays related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Laylā, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ ("And His Throne was upon the water"): the Throne of Allah was upon the water, then He took for Himself a garden, then He took below it another garden, then He enclosed it with a single pearl. He said: وَمِنْ دُونِهِمَا جَنَّتَانِ ("And below those two are two more gardens"). He said: and they are the ones which no soul knows—or he said: they both are the ones which no soul knows—what has been hidden for them of comfort of the eyes, as a reward for what they used to do. He said: and they are the ones of which the creatures do not know what is in it—or: what is in both of them—while every day a gift comes to them from it—or from both of them.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaʿqūb related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Sālim al-Afṭas, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, something similar.
Sahl ibn Mūsā al-Rāzī related to us, saying: al-Walīd ibn Muslim related to us, on the authority of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Abū al-Yamān al-Hawzanī or another, saying: Paradise consists of one hundred degrees. The first of them is a degree of silver: its ground is silver, its dwellings are silver, its vessels are silver, and its earth is musk. And the second is gold: its ground is gold, its dwellings are gold, its vessels are gold, and its earth is musk. And the third is pearl: its ground is pearl, its dwellings are pearl, its vessels are pearl, and its earth is musk. And the ninety-seven thereafter are that which no eye has seen, which no ear has heard, and which has not occurred to the heart of a human being. And he recited this verse: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do").
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: al-Muḥāribī and ʿAbd al-Raḥīm related to us, on the authority of Muhammad ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, saying: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Allah has said: I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being; and recite, if you wish: Allah said: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ('No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do')."
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya and Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, saying: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being." Abū Hurayra said: and apart from what He has shown you; recite, if you wish: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ جَزَاءً بِمَا كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them, as a reward for what they used to do"). Abū Hurayra said: we recite it as: قُرَّاتِ أعْيُنٍ (qurrāt aʿyun, plural: "comforts of the eyes").
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn Abān, on the authority of al-Ghaṭrīf, on the authority of Jābir ibn Zayd, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, on the authority of the Trustworthy Spirit (al-Rūḥ al-Amīn), he said: "The good deeds of the servant and his evil deeds are brought, and the one is subtracted from the other; and if a single good deed remains, Allah grants him spaciousness in Paradise." He said: then I entered upon Yazdād, and he related something similar; he said: I said: and where, then, did that single good deed go? He said: أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ نَتَقَبَّلُ عَنْهُمْ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا وَنَتَجَاوَزُ عَنْ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ فِي أَصْحَابِ الْجَنَّةِ وَعْدَ الصِّدْقِ الَّذِي كَانُوا يُوعَدُونَ ("Those are the ones from whom We accept the best of what they have done, and whose evil deeds We pass over, among the people of Paradise—the true promise that they were promised"). I said: His saying: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them")? He said: the servant performs a deed in secret which he entrusts in confidence to Allah and of which the people do not know; then Allah hides for him on the Day of Resurrection a comfort of the eyes.
Al-ʿAbbās ibn Abī Ṭālib related to me, saying: Muʿallā ibn Asad related to us, saying: Sallām ibn Abī Muṭīʿ related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of ʿUqba ibn ʿAbd al-Ghāfir, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who relates it from his Lord, he said: "I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being."
Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Abū Ṣakhr related to me, that Abū Ḥāzim related to him, saying: I heard Sahl ibn Saʿd say: I attended a gathering of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in which he described Paradise until he had finished, and then he said at the close of his narration: "Therein is what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being." Then he recited this verse: تَتَجَافَى جُنُوبُهُمْ عَنِ الْمَضَاجِعِ ... ("Their sides part from the sleeping-places ...") up to His saying: جَزَاءً بِمَا كانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ("as a reward for what they used to do").
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Ibn Abī ʿAdī related to us, on the authority of ʿAwf, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, saying: it has reached me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Your Lord has said: I have prepared for My servants who believe and perform good works what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being."
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, saying: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, relating this from his Lord: "Your Lord has said: I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being."
Ibn Wakīʿ related to me, saying: Sahl ibn Yūsuf related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them"), he said: they hid a deed in the worldly life, and Allah rewarded them for their deeds.
Al-Qāsim ibn Bishr related to me, saying: Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb related to us, saying: Ḥammād ibn Salama related to us, on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of Abū Rāfiʿ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra—Ḥammād said: I think it is on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ—he said: "Whoever enters Paradise enjoys bliss and suffers no misery; his clothing does not wear out and his youth does not perish. In Paradise is what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of a human being."
And the reciters differed over the recitation of His saying: فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ مِنْ قُرَّةِ أعْيُنٍ ("No soul knows what comfort of the eyes has been hidden for them"). Some of the Medinans and Basrans, and some of the Kufans, recited it as أُخْفِيَ (ukhfiya) with a ḍamma on the alif and a fatḥa on the yāʾ, with the meaning of fuʿila (passive form: "was hidden"). And some of the Kufans recited: أُخْفِي لَهُمْ (ukhfī lahum) with a ḍamma on the alif and a smooth (unvocalized) yāʾ, with the meaning of afʿalu (first person: "I hide for them").
And the correct view about that, according to us, is that they are two well-known recitations, closely related in meaning, for when Allah hides it, then it is hidden, and when it is hidden, then it has no hider other than Him. And "mā" in His saying فَلا تَعْلَمُ نَفْسٌ ما أُخْفِيَ لَهُمْ ("No soul knows what has been hidden for them"): when it takes the meaning of "alladhī" (that which), then it is in the accusative (naṣb) by "taʿlamu" (knows) falling upon it, regardless of how the reciter recites "ukhfī"; and when one directs it toward the meaning of "ayy" (which), then it is in the nominative (rafʿ) when one recites "ukhfiya" with a fatḥa on the yāʾ and a ḍamma on the alif, because the agent of it is not named; and when one recites "ukhfī" with a smooth yāʾ, then it is in the accusative by "ukhfī" falling upon it.
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Footnotes:
(5) ʿUbayda ibn Rabīʿa, with a ḍamma on the ʿayn. It has been said: he is ʿUbayd, with a fatḥa upon it and without a hāʾ. And he is the one from whom Abū Isḥāq narrates, as in al-Khulāṣa; in the original it reads: Abū ʿUbayda, and perhaps "Abū" is an addition by the copyist.
