Al-Mutaffifin · Makki · ayah 25 of 36

Al-Mutaffifin 83:25

يُسْقَوْنَ مِن رَّحِيقٍ مَّخْتُومٍ

“They will be given to drink [pure] wine[1883] [which was] sealed.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The people who never tampered with a measure are served a drink that no hand has ever tampered with.

A reflection

"Isn't this just a sensual fantasy?"

The objection is familiar. Paradise described as couches and fine wine sounds like the daydream of a desert people. And isn't wine the very thing Muslims are told to avoid?

Start with the word. Raḥīq is known to the lexicons only as a name for wine: the finest, the oldest, or wine with nothing mixed in. The same word was used for pure musk and for genuine lineage. Classical grammarians defined it as a drink with no adulteration and nothing that spoils it. One commentator links it to another ayah about the drink of Paradise. 'There is no harm in it, and they will not be intoxicated by it' (37:47). Whatever this drink is, it has none of what made the earthly one forbidden.

Then remember how the Quran speaks of the unseen. One classical reader explains that Allah addresses people through what they already know of honour and delight. The words point towards something they cannot yet picture.

Picture a young Muslim at an office leaving party. Everyone raises a glass of champagne for the toast, and she raises her orange juice. A colleague jokes that she is missing out. She smiles, and says nothing. She is not missing out on this ayah.

What remains open is the exact nature of what is promised. The Quran is honest that it cannot be fully described. What is clear is that nothing there will harm, intoxicate or shame. And the delight, one commentator insists, begins with something higher than any cup: the sight of Allah.

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.