Tafseer of The Most High · Al-A'laa · 87:17
While the Hereafter is better and more enduring.
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: وَالآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ ("while the Hereafter is better") in goodness, وَأَبْقَى ("and more lasting") in permanence.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Abū Ḥamza related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, from ʿArfaja al-Thaqafī, who said: I asked Ibn Masʿūd to recite "Sabbiḥ isma rabbika l-aʿlā" (Sūrah al-Aʿlā). When he came to: بَلْ تُؤْثِرُونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا ("nay, you prefer the life of this world"), he ceased reciting and turned to his companions and said: We have preferred this world over the Hereafter. The people fell silent, whereupon he said: We have preferred this world because we saw its adornment, its women, its food and its drink, while the Hereafter was kept hidden from us; and thus we have chosen this perishable thing and left behind that which is to come.
The Qurʾān reciters (qurrāʾ) differed over the reading of His statement: بَلْ تُؤْثِرُونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا ("nay, you prefer the life of this world"). Most of the reciters of the regions read it as بَلْ تُؤْثِرُونَ ("nay, you prefer") with the tāʾ (second person), except for Abū ʿAmr, for he read it with the yāʾ (third person) and said: what is meant are the wretched ones.
And that above which I prefer nothing in the reading thereof is the tāʾ, on account of the agreement of the authoritative proof among the reciters concerning it. And it is mentioned that in the reading of Ubayy it reads: بَلْ أَنْتُمْ تُؤْثِرُونَ ("nay, it is you who prefer"); and that too is a witness to the soundness of the reading with the tāʾ.
