Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 56 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:56

فِيهِنَّ قَـٰصِرَٰتُ ٱلطَّرْفِ لَمْ يَطْمِثْهُنَّ إِنسٌ قَبْلَهُمْ وَلَا جَآنٌّ

“In them are women limiting [their] glances,[1604] untouched[1605] before them by man or jinnī -”

Saheeh International

Essence

The first thing said of the Garden's companions is not their bodies but their eyes: a gaze held in, and a pasture nobody grazed before.

A reflection

The first thing described is their eyes

Many readers, Muslim and not, approach this ayah braced for embarrassment. They have heard Paradise mocked as a sensual reward pitched at men, and they assume this is the line the mockers mean.

Read what it actually says first. Not a word about bodies. Qāṣirātu l-ṭarf: those who hold their gaze in.

The grammar matters. Qāṣirāt is an active participle. They are the ones doing the restraining. One commentary insists on this. The word comes from qaṣr, holding back, which is praise, and not from quṣūr, falling short, which would not be. Their eyes are not weak or lowered by force. They are kept in by choice.

The early authorities explain where the gaze is kept. On their husbands: they look at no one else and want no one else. One adds a tender detail. She says to her husband: by the might of my Lord, I see nothing in the Garden more beautiful than you.

A second reading turns the phrase round. Their beauty restrains the gaze of the one who looks at them, so that his eyes do not pass on to anyone else. One commentary records both, and they fit together. She looks at no one but him. He, looking at her, looks at no one else.

At a crowded wedding, an elderly man comes in from the car park, where he has been parking for the family. The hall is full of colour and noise. Before he greets anyone, his eyes go round the room until they find his wife of fifty years. Then he relaxes and turns to the host.

That is the picture the ayah opens with. Not appetite, but fidelity. A love strong enough to occupy the eyes, so that they no longer go looking.

The mockers have the order exactly wrong. The first thing the Quran says about the Garden's companions is what they do not look at.

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.