Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 66 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:66

فِيهِمَا عَيْنَانِ نَضَّاخَتَانِ

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

Saheeh International

Essence

The higher springs flow along the ground; these force their way up from below, water that rises to meet the people of the Garden.

A reflection

Water that leaps up to meet you

Most readers pass over 'two springs, gushing' as a pleasant fountain in the background. Gardens have water features. This one has two.

The word chosen is more precise than that, and it changes the picture.

The higher gardens had springs that flow (55:50). These have springs that are naḍḍākhatān. The lexicons describe naḍkh as water driven out under pressure: a spring surging and breaking open at its source. One lexicon adds that what travels upward rather than downward is naḍkh. The form of the word is intensive. These springs do not trickle. They force their way up.

The lexicons also note a near-twin, naḍḥ, with a softer letter, meaning a sprinkling. Most say the word used here, with the harder letter, is the greater of the two. A gush, not a spray.

One commentary draws out the direction. The flowing springs of the higher gardens run towards the believers along the ground. These, it says, rise upward towards them. Both kinds of water, in their different ways, move towards the people of faith.

A toddler is lifted to a drinking fountain in a park. Her father presses the button. The water jumps up at her face, and she shrieks with delight, and makes him do it again, and again. Every time, she is astonished that the water comes up to meet her.

That is the picture in this one word. Water that does not wait at the bottom of a well to be hauled up. Water that comes looking for you.

And the refrain after it asks which of your Lord's favours you would deny. The answer is not only the water. It is the way His gifts move: towards you, from below, unasked.

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.