Tafseer of The Beneficent · Ar-Rahmaan · 55:48
Having [spreading] branches.
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.
His statement ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ ("two [gardens] with branches / kinds") — He says: two [gardens] with [all sorts of] colors; the singular of it is "fann," and it is derived from their expression: "iftanna fulān fī ḥadīthihi" — when someone in his speech passes over into various kinds and variations thereof.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes of the Qurʾān (ahl al-taʾwīl) spoke.
* Mention of those who said that:
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Yazīd al-Ṭaḥḥān related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, [concerning] His statement ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ, he said: two [gardens] with [all sorts of] colors.
Al-Faḍl ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Qutayba related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Nuʿmān related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, [concerning] ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ, he said: the shade of the branches over the walls. He said: and the poet has said:
"What stirred up your longing? Was it the cooing of a dove that on the branch of the twigs called to [other] doves? She called [to her mate], the father of two chicks, whom a bird of prey struck with two talons, of the falcons, a seizer (qaṭām)."
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Mujāhid, [concerning] ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ, he said: two [gardens] with [all sorts of] colors.
He said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Abī Sinān, [concerning] ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ, he said: two [gardens] with [all sorts of] colors.
It has been related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abā Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say, [concerning] His statement ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ: he says: [all sorts of] colors of fruits.
Others said: two [gardens] with branches.
* 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 a man from the people of Basra, on the authority of Mujāhid, [concerning] ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ, he said: two [gardens] with branches.
Others said: the meaning of it is: two [gardens] with the tips of the branches of the trees.
* Mention of those who said that:
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 ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ, he says: between the tips of their trees, that is to say: one touches the other like overgrown pergolas; and it is said: two [gardens] with abundance of everything.
Others said: rather, what is meant by it is their excellence and their spaciousness above everything else.
* Mention of those who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, [concerning] His statement ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ: that is to say their excellence and their spaciousness above everything else.
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 statement ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ, he said: two [gardens] with excellence above everything else.
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The footnotes:
(3) I have not found the speaker of the two verses. Ibn Barrī in [the Lexicon] (al-Lisān: h-d-r) cited the first of the two, but did not attribute it. The author of al-Lisān says, on the authority of Ibn Sīda in al-Muḥkam: al-hadīl is the sound of the dove; some restricted it to the wild ones thereof, such as the dabāsī and the qamārī and the like; "hadala yahdilu hadīlan." Ibn Barrī cited: ... [the] verse. He said: and al-hadīl has also been used for the sound of the hoopoe (hudhud). End [of quotation]. And al-fanan is the branch that is straight in length and breadth. And it is said: al-ghuṣn is the twig, that is to say the cut-off [branch], and al-fanan is what branches out from it. Its plural is al-afnān and then al-afānīn. ʿIkrima said concerning His, the Exalted, statement ذواتا أفنان, he said: the shade of the branches over the walls. And Abū al-Haytham said: some explained it as two [gardens] with branches, and some explained it as two [gardens] with colors; the singular of it is then "fann" and "fanan." Abū Manṣūr said: the singular of al-afnān, when you mean by it colors, is "fann"; and when you mean by it the branches, then its singular is "fanan." End [of quotation]. And he said concerning "qaṭām": al-qaṭāmī is the falcon, and it is [also] pronounced with fatḥa. And "ṣaqr qaṭām" (like "saḥāb"), and "qaṭāmī" and "qaṭāmī" (with fatḥa and with ḍamma on the first [letter]): it is meat. The [tribe of] Qays uses fatḥa, and the rest of the Arabs use ḍamma; and it has become predominant as a name, and it is derived from al-qaṭm, and that is the coveted thing: the meat and other than it. End [of quotation].
