Tafseer of The Beneficent · Ar-Rahmaan · 55:68
In both of them are fruit and palm trees and pomegranates.
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 word, the Exalted: فِيهِمَا فَاكِهَةٌ وَنَخْلٌ وَرُمَّانٌ (68) ("In both of them is fruit, date-palms, and pomegranates").
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: And in these two deep dark-green gardens there is fruit, date-palms, and pomegranates.
They have differed concerning the reason why the date-palms and the pomegranates are mentioned again, although it has already been stated that therein is fruit. Some said: That is repeated because the date-palms and the pomegranates do not belong to the fruit.
Others said: They do indeed belong to the fruit. They said: We say that they belong to the fruit, because the Arabs reckon them among the fruit. They said: If we are asked: how is it then that they are repeated, while their mention has already preceded together with the mention of the rest of the fruit? — then we say: That is like His word: "Guard over the prayers and over the middle prayer," wherein He commanded them to guard over every prayer, and then repeated the ʿaṣr prayer to emphasize it. In the same way the date-palms and the pomegranates are repeated to entice the people of Paradise. And it was said: That is like His word: "Do you not see that to Allah prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth," and then He said: "and many of mankind, but for many the punishment has become justly due," although He had already mentioned them at the beginning of the word, in His statement: "whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth."
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: "The date-palms of Paradise: their trunks are of gold, their roots are of gold, their leaf-stalks are of emerald, their palm-fronds are clothing for the people of Paradise, and their fresh dates are like buckets, whiter than milk, softer than butter, and sweeter than honey; they have no pit."
He said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of Wahb al-Dhimārī, who said: "It has reached us that in Paradise there are date-palms whose trunks are of gold, the leaf-stalks of gold, the twigs of gold, and the palm-fronds are clothing for the people of Paradise, like the finest garments that people have ever seen; their clusters are of gold, their cluster-stalks are of gold, their fruit-stems are of gold, and their fresh dates are like great water-jars, whiter than milk and silver, sweeter than honey and sugar, and softer than butter and clarified butter."
