Tafseer of The Beneficent · Ar-Rahmaan · 55:22
From both of them emerge pearl and coral.
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 statement concerning the explanation of His saying, the Exalted: Out of both of them come forth the pearl and the coral (22).
The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: out of these two seas which Allah has joined together and between which He has placed a partition (barzakh), there come forth the pearl (luʾluʾ) and the coral (marjān). And the exegetes differed concerning the description of the pearl and the coral. Some of them said: the pearl is what is large among the pearls, and the coral is what is small thereof.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: the pearl and the coral. He said: the pearl is the large one.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: Out of both of them come forth the pearl and the coral: as for the pearl, those are the large of them, and as for the coral, those are the small of them. And indeed, Allah has in both of them a treasure-store to which He has directed most of the children of mankind, so that they take from it merchandise, benefit, and adornment, and He causes it to reach them until an appointed term.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: Out of both of them come forth the pearl and the coral. He said: the pearl are the large of the pearls, and the coral are the small of them.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His word: the pearl and the coral: as for the coral, those are the small pearls, and as for the pearl, that is what is large thereof.
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: Out of both of them come forth the pearl and the coral. He said: the pearl is what is large thereof, and the coral are the pearls and the small.
And Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: the coral, those are the small pearls.
And ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn Bashshār al-Qurashī related to us, saying: Abū Qutayba related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maysara al-Ḥarrānī related to us, saying: a sheikh in Mecca, one of the people of Syria, related to me that he heard Kaʿb al-Aḥbār when he was asked about the coral, and he said: it is al-busadh (a kind of coral).
Abū Jaʿfar said: al-busadh has branches, and it is more beautiful than the pearl.
And others said: the coral of the pearls are the large ones, and the pearl thereof are the small ones.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Mūsā ibn Abī ʿĀʾisha, or Qays ibn Wahb, on the authority of Murra, who said: the coral are the large pearls.
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 word: the coral. He said: what is large among the pearls.
Muḥammad ibn Sinān al-Qazzāz related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ashqar related to us, saying: Zuhayr related to us, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaḥyā, on the authority of ʿAlī and on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: the coral are the large pearls.
And others said: the coral are the best pearls.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Mūsā ibn Abī ʿĀʾisha, who said: I asked Murra about the pearl and the coral. He said: the coral are the best pearls.
And others said: the coral is a stone.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn al-Awdī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd: the pearl and the coral. He said: the coral is a stone.
And the correct statement concerning the pearl is that it is that which the people know, which comes forth from the shells of the sea as grains. And as for the coral, I have seen that the people who have knowledge of the language of the Arabs do not dispute that it is a plural of "marjāna," and that they are the small of the pearls. We have already mentioned the disagreement that exists about that among the early scholars, and Allah knows best what is correct of that.
And some of the linguists have claimed that the pearl and the coral come forth from one of the two seas, but that it was said "out of both of them they come forth," just as one says: "I ate bread and milk," and as it was said:
And I saw your husband in the thick of battle girded with a sword and a spear (1)
But it is not as he supposed; rather, it is as I have described before, namely that this comes forth from the shells of the sea by the rain of the sky. For that reason it was said: out of both of them comes forth the pearl, by which He means the two seas.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of those who said that:
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī, on the authority of Sufyān ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: when the sky rains, the shells open their mouths, and out of that comes forth the pearl.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Aḥmasī related to me, saying: Abū Yaḥyā al-Ḥimmānī related to us, saying: al-Aʿmash related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: when the rain descends from the sky, the shells open, and it becomes a pearl.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Ghazzī related to me, saying: al-Firyābī related to us, saying: Sufyān mentioned, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: when the sky rains, the shells open for it, and whatever of rain falls into them becomes a pearl.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Fazārī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Sawwār informed us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Karkhī, the cousin of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Aṣbahānī, related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Aṣbahānī, on the authority of ʿIkrima, who said: no drop from the sky has descended into the sea but that out of it there came into being a pearl or there grew from it a grain of amber. Thus al-Ṭabarī holds.
And the reciters differed concerning the reading of His word: Out of both of them come forth the pearl and the coral. Most of the reciters of Medina and Basra read it: yukhraju in the form of the passive construction (whose agent is not named). And most of the reciters of Kufa and some of the Meccans read it with a vocalized (opened) yāʾ.
And the correct statement concerning this is that they are two well-known readings; whichever of the two the reciter reads, he has hit upon what is correct, on account of the close affinity of the meanings of both.
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Footnotes:
(1) The verse belongs to the testimonia (shawāhid) of al-Farrāʾ in Maʿānī al-Qurʾān (folio 323). The author has already cited it as evidence several times; consult it in the volumes (3:275, 6:281, 7:294, 9:200, 11:142, with the detailed elucidation in volumes 3 and 11). And al-Farrāʾ presented it here concerning His word, the Exalted: and wide-eyed maidens (ḥūr ʿīn) (56:22), and he said: the companions of ʿAbd Allāh (Ibn Masʿūd) put it in the genitive, and that is in accordance with the rules of the Arabic language, even though the majority of the reciters read it in the nominative; for they were reluctant to make the wide-eyed maidens the object of the going-around (circling), and therefore they placed it in the nominative, in the sense of: "and for them are wide-eyed maidens," or "with them are wide-eyed maidens." And the genitive rests upon the latter part of the sentence being joined to the former part, even though what was fitting in the former part does not fit in the latter part. One of the Arabs recited to me:
When the fair ones one day come forth and set the eyebrows and the eyes
For the eye is not "set" with antimony (penciled as an arch); it is only rimmed with kohl. So he joined it to the eyebrows, because the meaning is clear. And another recited to me: "and I met your husband in the thick of battle ... (the verse)," and the spear is not girded on; so he joined it to the sword. End.
