Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 50 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:50

فِيهِمَا عَيْنَانِ تَجْرِيَانِ

“In both of them are two springs, flowing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

In both gardens two springs run, and in Arabic a spring and an eye are one word: eyes that wept here, springs that flow there.

A reflection

A spring and an eye are the same word

The word for spring in this ayah is ʿayn. It is also the word for eye.

The lexicons say everything in this root grows from the eye. A spring is called an ʿayn for the eye's clearness and its water. To dig a well until water breaks through was to reach the eyes. A scout is an ʿayn, the one who sees. The leading people are the aʿyān, as the eye is the finest part of the face.

So the first listeners heard fīhimā ʿaynāni tajriyān: in both of them two springs flowing. Word for word, the same sentence could mean: in both of them two eyes, flowing.

One later commentator quoted in the commentaries noticed exactly this, and drew a line from one to the other. In both gardens, he said, are two springs flowing, for the one whose two eyes flowed in this world from fear of Allah.

It is a reflective reading, offered by one man, and it should be held as that. But it has a sound narration standing near it. Al-Tirmidhi records the Prophet ﷺ saying: two eyes the Fire will not touch. An eye that wept from fear of Allah, and an eye that spent the night keeping watch in the path of Allah. The narration is graded ṣaḥīḥ.

Put the pictures together. Two eyes that ran with tears, in the dark, where no one saw. Two springs that run in the gardens, in the light, for ever.

That changes what tears are. They are not only grief or weakness. They can be the first water of a spring that has not yet surfaced.

If you have wept before Allah, alone, and felt foolish afterwards, do not. Those were eyes reaching water.

And if you have never wept before Him, ask Him for it. The spring has to be reached from this side first.

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.