Al-'Ankabut · Makki · ayah 58 of 69

Al-'Ankabut 29:58

وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ لَنُبَوِّئَنَّهُم مِّنَ ٱلْجَنَّةِ غُرَفًا تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا ۚ نِعْمَ أَجْرُ ٱلْعَـٰمِلِينَ

“And those who have believed and done righteous deeds - We will surely assign to them of Paradise [elevated] chambers beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally. Excellent is the reward of the [righteous] workers”

Saheeh International

Essence

Believers who worked righteousness, many of them uprooted, will be settled for ever in high chambers over rivers: an excellent wage for the workers.

A reflection

Read it against the ayah three lines up

This ayah is built as a mirror of 29:55, and one classical commentator traces the reflection line by line.

There, the punishment covers the deniers from above them. Here, nothing is said to be above the believers at all. Only the chambers are high. He reads that silence as a sign of their rank: in the highest places, there is nothing over your head.

There, the fire is beneath their feet. Here, rivers run beneath the chambers. He notices a fine difference. Fire only hurts when it touches the foot. Water gives pleasure from any distance, heard and seen from a window. So the fire is placed against the skin, and the rivers below the rooms.

There, the closing word is a command: taste what you used to do. Here, it is praise: how excellent is the wage of the workers. The commentator reflects on the difference. Say to a hired man, take your pay, and the relationship ends with the payment. Say, what a fine wage you have with me, and the pay stays with the one who holds it. He links this to another promise: for those who did good, the best, and more (10:26). What the believer receives keeps growing.

Read the two ayat side by side and a surah's whole argument appears in miniature. The same Lord, the same Day, two endings. One group is enclosed. The other is raised. One hears a sentence that closes. The other hears a sentence that stays open.

Which ending a person reaches was being decided in the ordinary days between. That is the reason these two pictures stand three ayat apart.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.