Tafseer of Consultation · Ash-Shura · 42:22
You will see the wrongdoers fearful of what they have earned, and it will [certainly] befall them. And those who have believed and done righteous deeds will be in lush regions of the gardens [in Paradise] having whatever they will in the presence of their Lord. That is what is the great bounty.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement, the Exalted: تَرَى الظَّالِمِينَ مُشْفِقِينَ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا وَهُوَ وَاقِعٌ بِهِمْ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فِي رَوْضَاتِ الْجَنَّاتِ لَهُمْ مَا يَشَاءُونَ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ ذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَضْلُ الْكَبِيرُ (42:22) (You will see the wrongdoers fearful of what they have earned, while it will befall them. And those who believe and do righteous deeds are in the meadows of the Gardens; they have whatever they wish from their Lord. That is the great bounty. (22))
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: You will see, O Muḥammad, those who disbelieved in Allah on the Day of Resurrection مُشْفِقِينَ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا (fearful of what they have earned). He says: dreading and terrified of the punishment of Allah on account of what they earned of their evil deeds in the life of this world. وَهُوَ وَاقِعٌ بِهِمْ (while it will befall them). He says: and that of the punishment of Allah which they dread will descend upon them, and they will inevitably taste it.
And His statement: وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فِي رَوْضَاتِ الْجَنَّاتِ (And those who believe and do righteous deeds are in the meadows of the Gardens), the Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: and those who believed in Allah and obeyed Him in what He commanded and forbade in the life of this world are in the meadows of the gardens in the Hereafter. And by "the meadows" (al-rawḍāt) is meant: the plural of rawḍa, and that is the place where the vegetation is abundant. The Arabs do not call the places of trees riyāḍ. Of this is the saying of Abū al-Najm:
And the ostrich, like the mangy camel smeared with tar,
The gardens of the meadow that have not been trodden (1)
He means by al-rawḍ: the plural of rawḍa. And He, exalted be His praise, means thereby only: the report about what they are in of joy and bounty.
As: 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 statement: وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فِي رَوْضَاتِ الْجَنَّاتِ (And those who believe and do righteous deeds are in the meadows of the Gardens) to the end of the verse. He said: In the meadows of the Garden and its bounty.
And His statement: لَهُمْ مَا يَشَاءُونَ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ (they have whatever they wish from their Lord). He says: for those who believe and do righteous deeds there is, with their Lord in the Hereafter, what their souls desire and what delights their eyes. That is the great triumph. The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: this which Allah has given them of this bounty and this honor in the Hereafter—that is the bounty of Allah upon them, the great one that surpasses every bounty and honor in the life of this world of some of its inhabitants over others.
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The footnotes:
(1) These are two verses in the broken rajaz meter, by Abū al-Najm al-Faḍl ibn Qudāma al-ʿIjlī, and the complete urjūza is in the journal of the Scientific Academy (vol. 8: 472). The first of these two verses is transmitted and explained by Ibn Qutayba in his book (al-Maʿānī al-Kabīr, Indian edition, 332-333). Al-naghḍ is among the names of the male ostrich, because he moves his head when he runs. And al-mudajjal: the one smeared with tar. He compared him to the mangy one, because he has grown old and lost his feathers around his groins. And in (al-Lisān: dajal): the abundant smearing of mange with tar. And al-mudajjal: the one smeared with tar. And naghaḍa bi-raʾsihi yanghuḍu naghḍan: he moved it. And the male ostrich was called naghḍ only because, when he hastens in his gait, he rises and descends. And al-naghḍ is governed by the verb "rāʿat" (she watched / heeded) in the preceding verse, that is: she kept watch over him and looked at him. And al-ḥadāʾiq: the plural of ḥadīqa, and that is the patch of vegetation; and every garden around which there is a wall is a ḥadīqa, and what has no wall around it is not called a ḥadīqa. And al-Zajjāj said: al-ḥadāʾiq are the gardens and the densely intertwined trees. And ḥadāʾiq al-rawḍ: what of it is verdant and densely intertwined. One says: the meadow of the sons of so-and-so is nothing but a ḥadīqa. And when there is no grass in it, then it is a rawḍa (al-Lisān: ḥadaq). And "ḥadāʾiq" is governed by his statement "tabaqqalat" (began to sprout) in "min awwal al-tabaqqul," and that is a verse at the beginning of the urjūza. And "allatī lam tuḥlal": that which has not been trodden and not grazed bare by the animals, so that its vegetation becomes scarce.
