Al-Ma'idah · Madani · ayah 119 of 120

Al-Ma'idah 5:119

قَالَ ٱللَّهُ هَـٰذَا يَوْمُ يَنفَعُ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ صِدْقُهُمْ ۚ لَهُمْ جَنَّـٰتٌ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَآ أَبَدًا ۚ رَّضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْعَظِيمُ

“Allāh will say, "This is the Day when the truthful will benefit from their truthfulness." For them are gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever, Allāh being pleased with them, and they with Him. That is the great attainment.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah's verdict on the passage: on this Day truthfulness is the only thing that still benefits, and the reward beyond the gardens is mutual pleasure.

A reflection

Beyond the gardens

A young joiner finishes a four-year apprenticeship. The certificate arrives in the post and he barely reads it. What he keeps, folded in his wallet for years, is a line on the back of the envelope. His old master wrote it: proud of you, son.

Most of us read this ayah as a list with the best thing first. Gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding there for ever. That is the prize; what follows is decoration.

Read it in order, though, and the sentence climbs. Gardens. Abiding in them for ever. Then: Allah is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him. Only then: that is the great triumph.

The Quran says it outright in another place. After promising gardens and fine dwellings, it adds: and pleasure from Allah is greater; that is the great triumph (9:72). The gardens are real, and the Quran never pretends otherwise. But they are not the summit.

One commentator goes further. Most read 'that is the great triumph' as pointing to everything before it. He suggests it may point to the mutual pleasure alone. Beside Allah's good pleasure, he writes, the whole of Paradise with all it holds is like nothing beside something.

This changes what we are walking towards. A believer who wants only the gardens wants a place. A believer who wants His pleasure wants Him. The first can be satisfied by a reward. The second is satisfied only by a relationship.

The joiner's certificate opened doors. The words on the envelope told him he was seen. The ayah offers both, and tells us which one to keep in the wallet.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.