Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 133 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:133

۞ وَسَارِعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتُ وَٱلْأَرْضُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

“And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden [i.e., Paradise] as wide as the heavens and earth, prepared for the righteous”

Saheeh International

Essence

Race for a covering of your sins from your Lord, and for a Garden whose breadth alone is the heavens and the earth.

A reflection

Only the breadth is given, and it is everything

Two brothers stopped speaking for nine years over a strip of ground eleven inches wide, along a fence, behind a garage. Both were sure of their measurements. Neither attended the other's son's wedding. Everybody in that family can still tell you which brother was right.

Now read what the ayah hands you. A Garden whose breadth is the heavens and the earth. One early authority explained it as the seven heavens and the seven earths joined together. The way cloths are spread out and sewn edge to edge. That joining is the width.

And then notice what is missing. The commentaries point out that only the breadth is described. Length goes unmentioned, and one classical authority says plainly that only Allah knows it. They add why breadth was chosen: it is usually the smaller of the two dimensions, so naming it is deliberate understatement. They compare it with the verse that describes the couches of the Garden by their linings being of rich brocade (55:54). If that is the lining, what do you suppose the outer face is like.

Sahih al-Bukhari records the Prophet saying there are a hundred ranks in the Garden. Between two of them is like the distance between the heaven and the earth. Then: when you ask Allah, ask Him for al-Firdaws. It is the highest part and the middle of it, and the rivers of the Garden burst out from it.

Hold that against the eleven inches. Not to mock the brothers, because most of us are one of them. The ego does not usually want much. It wants to be right about a small thing in front of particular people. It will spend nine years on that and call it principle.

The word for the Garden itself quietly shrinks our pride further. Its root means covering, and a janna is named for trees so thick and interwoven that they cover the ground completely. The same root gives the shield, the child hidden in the womb, and the grave. You have been covered at both ends of your life already, by Someone whose spare dimension is the sky.

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.