Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 68 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:68

فِيهِمَا فَـٰكِهَةٌ وَنَخْلٌ وَرُمَّانٌ

“In both of them are fruit and palm trees and pomegranates.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Fruit, then two named fruits, palm and pomegranate: singled out for honour, and chosen as opposites so that the two ends name everything between.

A reflection

Named twice, to be honoured

Read quickly, this ayah sounds like a shopping list. Fruit, palms, pomegranates. And a careful reader notices something odd. Dates and pomegranates are fruit. Why name them again after already saying 'fruit'?

The early commentaries asked exactly this. A few answered that palms and pomegranates are not counted as fruit at all. Most rejected that. They said these two are fruit, and are named a second time to honour them.

They pointed to the Quran's own habit. 'Whoever is an enemy to Allah, His angels, His messengers, Jibril and Mikal' (2:98). Jibril and Mikal are angels already, but they are named again because of their rank. 'Guard the prayers, and the middle prayer' (2:238). The middle prayer is one of the prayers, but it is singled out. One lexicon describes this as an Arab way of speaking: name the whole, then pick out part of it to mark its worth.

So the second mention is not repetition. It is a spotlight.

One commentary adds why these two in particular. For the first hearers, palms and pomegranates were everywhere, from Madinah to Makkah to the land of Yemen. The palm was their staple food. These were the fruits they knew best and needed most.

That changes how the ayah would have sounded. In a list of the Garden's delights, the listener suddenly hears the name of the tree in his own courtyard. Not an exotic marvel. His own palm, and the pomegranate by his neighbour's door, named and honoured in the Garden.

There is a quiet mercy in that. The Garden does not only offer what is strange. It also returns, perfected, what you already loved.

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.