Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 48 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:48

ذَوَاتَآ أَفْنَانٍ

“Having [spreading] branches.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Two words describe the gardens: full of branches, full of kinds, and the early readers heard shade moving on a wall.

A reflection

Two words that are not scenery

Short ayat like this one are easy to treat as filler. Two Arabic words between two refrains: the gardens have branches. It sounds like a detail of landscaping, the kind of line a hurried reader passes over on the way to something weightier.

The commentaries did the opposite. They stopped on the second word, afnān, and found three readings in it, and then refused to choose between them.

The first reading takes it as the plural of fanan, a branch. Several early authorities say exactly that: the gardens have branches, long and straight, spreading outward. One commentary says the branches are mentioned in particular because they are what put out leaves and fruit. From them the shade extends, and from them the fruit is picked.

The second reading takes it as the plural of fann, a kind, a variety. A report from a Companion says: possessing colours. Others say: kinds of fruit. The same root gives the expression for a speaker who branches out in his talk, taking one manner after another. On this reading the gardens are possessed of every variety.

The third reading, from another early authority: possessing breadth and excellence above everything else.

One early commentator joins the first two neatly: on every branch are many kinds of fruit. And a great commentary closes the discussion with a sentence worth remembering. All of these sayings are sound, and there is no contradiction between them.

So two words carry branches, variety, shade and abundance at once. The language of the Quran is dense in exactly the places a hurried reader expects it to be thin.

That is a lesson for how to read the rest of this passage. Every short ayah here is a door into a room. Stop at the threshold, and look.

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.