Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 11 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:11

فِيهَا فَـٰكِهَةٌ وَٱلنَّخْلُ ذَاتُ ٱلْأَكْمَامِ

“Therein is fruit and palm trees having sheaths [of dates]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Fruit for delight comes before bread, and the palm's fruit arrives wrapped in a sheath, like a young thing covered until it is strong.

A reflection

Delight on the list of gifts

A fruit importer likes to say he can tell a mango's village by its smell. He probably can; he has spent thirty years learning. At dinner parties he is the one who explains why this peach is better than that one, and he enjoys being that man.

There is a quiet pride in taste. Knowing what is good, choosing the best, being the one others consult. It feels like refinement, a thing achieved.

This ayah takes the whole category back to its source. In it is fākiha. The word comes from relish and sweetness, from what the soul delights in. One commentary notes that it is left indefinite on purpose: not a fruit, but fruit beyond knowing, more kinds than anyone could count or comprehend. The same commentary reads the order as rising from lesser to greater. Fruit first, for pleasure. Then the palm, which gives pleasure and food. Then grain, which feeds every land.

So delight is listed before bread. He did not only feed the creatures. He gave them things to enjoy, and named the enjoyment as a favour in its own right.

That deflates the connoisseur gently. The mango's perfume was not his idea. The tongue that can tell one village from another was not his invention either. He has only learned to read what was written into the fruit before he was born.

Nor does any of this need our applause. He is free of all need (35:15). Delight is named as a gift because otherwise we would take it for granted, or take credit for it. Enjoyment received as a gift makes a person humble and glad at once.

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.