Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 28 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:28

فِى سِدْرٍ مَّخْضُودٍ

“[They will be] among lote trees with thorns removed”

Saheeh International

Essence

The first gift named to the second rank is a thorn tree with its thorns taken off, by a word that means bending.

A reflection

A word about bending, not cutting

There are rose breeders who have spent decades producing thornless varieties that still fruit. It takes generations of crossing, and it is harder than it sounds, because the thorn is not an accessory. It is part of how the plant is built.

This ayah does it to a lote tree, and the word it uses is gentler than any translation suggests.

Translations say thorns removed, thornless. The lexicons give the root one sense, and it is not cutting. It is a bending in something soft. A green branch inkhaḍada when it bows without snapping. A khaḍīd is a lush, supple plant that bends because it is soft. The same root gives an ache through the limbs that falls short of a fracture.

From there it stretches to the sense most commentators take here. To khaḍada a tree is to strip its thorns, leaving nothing on it to tear a hand.

So the picture under the ayah is pliancy rather than surgery.

And one commentary gives a second reading on exactly that ground. Makhḍūd, it says, may mean bent downward. In this world the ends of a lote tree's branches point upwards, unlike fruit trees, whose heads hang over with the weight on them. On that reading the ayah is saying that this one is different from the world's lote tree, because it has a great deal of fruit.

Two readings, one picture. Branches with nothing sharp left on them, bowed over with weight.

The commentaries fill in the species. The lexicons describe the sidr closely: broad rounded leaves, small sweet fruit called nabq, and two kinds, one with thorns worth minding and one without. The finest nabq, they say, perfumes the mouth of whoever eats it.

And one lexicon notes something that explains why the tree is here at all. It is poor eating, which is why it appears in a list of what a ruined land kept. It is good for shade, which is why it appears in a picture of the Garden.

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.