Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:85
So Allah rewarded them for what they said with gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally. And that is the reward of doers of good.
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: فَأَثَابَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ بِمَا قَالُوا۟ جَنَّٰتٍ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ خَٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ جَزَآءُ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ (5:85). (So Allah rewarded them for what they said with gardens beneath which the rivers flow, abiding therein eternally. And that is the reward of those who do good.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: So Allah recompensed them for their statement: رَبَّنَآ ءَامَنَّا فَٱكْتُبْنَا مَعَ ٱلشَّٰهِدِينَ * وَمَا لَنَا لَا نُؤْمِنُ بِٱللَّهِ وَمَا جَآءَنَا مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ وَنَطْمَعُ أَن يُدْخِلَنَا رَبُّنَا مَعَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ (Our Lord, we have believed, so record us among the witnesses * And why should we not believe in Allah and in what has come to us of the truth, while we long that our Lord should admit us along with the righteous people).
"gardens beneath which the rivers flow," that is to say: pleasure-gardens beneath which, beneath their trees, the rivers flow; "abiding therein eternally," that is to say: their abode therein is everlasting, they do not go out of it nor are they removed from it;
"And that is the reward of those who do good," that is to say: and this, which I have recompensed these speakers for that which I have described of their statement, for what they said, namely the gardens in which they abide eternally, is the reward of everyone who does good in his statement and his deed.
The "doing good of him who does good" consists in this: that he professes Allah with a pure, unmixed profession of His oneness, in which there is no associating of partners with Allah (shirk), and that he acknowledges the prophets of Allah and what they brought from Allah of Books, and that he performs His obligatory duties and abstains from acts of disobedience to Him. That is the perfection of the doing good of those who do good, concerning whom Allah, the Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, has said: "gardens beneath which the rivers flow, abiding therein eternally."
