Al-Bayyinah · Madani · ayah 8 of 8

Al-Bayyinah 98:8

جَزَآؤُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّـٰتُ عَدْنٍ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَآ أَبَدًا ۖ رَّضِىَ ٱللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا۟ عَنْهُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَنْ خَشِىَ رَبَّهُۥ

“Their reward with their Lord will be gardens of perpetual residence beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever, Allāh being pleased with them and they with Him. That is for whoever has feared his Lord.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The last gift is not only a garden but a contentment that runs both ways: Allah pleased with them, and they, at last, pleased with Him.

A reflection

"I am pleased with you"

A father lies in a hospital bed in his last week. His son, who has spent years feeling he never quite measured up, sits beside him. One evening the old man takes his hand and says, slowly, 'I am pleased with you.' The son will later say he would have traded any inheritance for that sentence. It answered a question he had been carrying since childhood.

The ayah lists gardens, flowing rivers and a home without end. Then it adds something greater: raḍiya allāhu ʿanhum, 'Allah is pleased with them'. The sources say this station of His pleasure is higher than all the bliss they have been given. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim report how it will be spoken. Allah will ask the people of Paradise whether they are content. They will say: how could we not be, when You have given us what You gave no one else? He will say: shall I not give you something better still? I bestow My pleasure upon you, and I will never be displeased with you after it.

The root of riḍā is defined by its opposite. It is the reverse of sukhṭ, the displeasure that turns its face away. One lexicon explains that when a tribe is pleased with a man, they love him and come towards him. Riḍā is a face turned towards you.

And the ayah makes it mutual: wa raḍū ʿanhu, 'and they are pleased with Him'. The Arabs even had a word for competing in contentment: two people vying to be the more satisfied with each other. That is the picture of the end: not a transaction completed, but two sides turned towards each other, each content.

An early scholar put a sharp question to anyone hoping for this. If you are not pleased with Allah now, how can you ask Him to be pleased with you? Sahih Muslim reports that the one who tastes the sweetness of faith is the one pleased with Allah as Lord, with Islam as way of life, and with Muhammad ﷺ as messenger. The contentment of the Garden begins as contentment with Him here.

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.