Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 18 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:18

بِأَكْوَابٍ وَأَبَارِيقَ وَكَأْسٍ مِّن مَّعِينٍ

“With vessels, pitchers and a cup [of wine] from a flowing spring -”

Saheeh International

Essence

Three vessels are named, each with its own fittings, and the drink comes from a word that means an eye.

A reflection

Three vessels, and why the difference matters

On a pewterer's bench there are tankards, flagons and beakers. They are not three words for a drinking vessel. A tankard has a handle and a lid. A flagon has a handle and a spout for pouring into something else. A beaker has neither, and is for drinking from. Each shape exists because of a different job.

This ayah names three vessels, and the commentaries are precise about them.

Akwāb are the cups with no handles and no spouts. The lexicons describe the kūb as a round-topped cup, and a pre-Islamic poet pictures a man reclining while a servant hurries to him with it.

Abārīq have both: a handle and a spout. One commentary explains the name, saying the vessel is so called because its colour shines out of its clarity.

And kaʾs is the drinking cup proper. The lexicons record a detail that English has no way to carry: the Arabs called a vessel a kaʾs only while it held drink. Empty, it was a qadaḥ. So the word names the cup and its contents together, and sometimes the drink alone.

Three vessels, three fittings, three jobs. A cup to drink from without a handle. A jug to pour with. And a cup that is, by definition, not empty.

So the ayah is not simply saying "drinks were served". It is describing a properly furnished table: the vessel you hold, the vessel that fills it, and the vessel that is never found dry.

And one commentary draws the contrast with what is absent. The drink is not from containers that run out and are emptied, but from flowing sources.

Which is the whole point of the inventory. In this world a well-appointed table still runs on a finite supply, and somebody is counting it. Here the fittings are described in detail precisely because there is nothing behind them to run short.

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.