Al-Kahf (The Cave)

30. “Verily those who believe and do righteous deeds, surely We do not waste the recompense of him who does a good work.”

31. “These, for them are gardens of eternity beneath which rivers flow, they shall be adorned therein with bracelets of gold, and they shall wear green robes of fine silk, and thick brocade, reclining therein on raised coaches. O, how excellent a reward! and how fair a resting-place!”

In view of the fact that the style of the holy Qur’an is a constructive and comparative style, in this group of verses, after the statement of the qualities and retributions of the arrogant mammonish people, it refers to the statement of the situation of the true believers and their excellent extraordinary rewards.

At first, it expressively says:

“Verily those who believe and do righteous deeds, surely We do not waste the recompense of him who does a good work.”

Whether this recompense is little or much, general or particular from everyone in every age and year, and in any condition, Allah will not waste it.

Then, the Qur’an explains the rewards of the doers of righteous deeds.

It says:

“These, for them are gardens of eternity…”

These rewards are a lot of gardens in Paradise under whose trees and castles some rivers flow. They live in those gardens while they are ornamented with golden bracelets.

The verse says:

“…beneath which rivers flow, they shall be adorned therein with bracelets of gold…”

The verse continues explaining their rewards and that they will be among a group of good companions in Heaven, where it says:

“…and they shall wear green robes of fine silk, and thick brocade, reclining therein on raised coaches. O, how excellent a reward! and how fair a resting-place!”

Explanations

1. The Qur’anic term /‘adn/ means: ‘a perpetual abode’. The term /’asawir/ is the plural form of /’aswirah/ which means ‘a bracelet’. The Arabic word /sundus/ means ‘silk’, and /’istabraq/ is applied for ‘silk of a thick texture, brocade’; and the term /’ara’ik/ is the plural form of /’arikah/ which is called to a royal throne which is covered with a veil.

2. For the people of Paradise, there are all kinds of clothing and with any material and of any colour there at their disposal, but the green robes, in particular, maybe refers to their formal and common clothing by which they decorate themselves at the time when they recline on raised coaches.

3. Keeping off from the unlawful ornaments of this life is the secret of reaching to the eternal ornaments in Hereafter as a reward.

4. Resurrection is both the spiritual resurrection and the resurrection of the body, since if it were merely a spiritual resurrection it would not need any gold, silk, and throne.

Two Final Points

1. The Ornamental Clothings in Hereafter!

There may arise this question for many persons that, in the Qur’an, Allah has reprimanded the dazzling glare of the world, but He has promised these things to the believers in the next world. They are some adornments such as gold, silken clothes: whether thin and thick, thrones, beautiful coaches, and the like of them.

In answer to this question, preliminarily, it is necessary for us to attract attentions to this matter that we comment the verses of the Qur’an as some other commentators do. They take all these words as some metaphorical ones for the spiritual concepts.

We have learnt from the holy Qur’an itself that Resurrection will be both bodily and spiritual. Thus, the pleasures of the next world must be in both forms. Of course, there is no doubt that its spiritual pleasures are not comparable with its bodily pleasures.

But, in the meantime, this fact cannot be concealed that, as for the bounties of the next world, we may see only a shade of them from a long distance, and we hear some words as an indication to them, because the parable of the coming world, compared with this world, is like the parable of this world with respect to the mother’s womb, and the embryo’s case.

If mother can communicate with her embryo, she is not able to state the beauties of this world, such as: illuminating sun, bright moon, springs, gardens, flowers, and the like of them, for the baby she has in her womb save by signs.

Similarly, it is impossible for us, the encompassed persons in the womb of the world, to understand or even to state the spiritual and material bounties of the Hereafter.

Now that this fact became clear, we return to the answer of the question. Allah has reprimanded the dazzling glare of this world for the sake that the limitation of this world causes the preparation of such life to be accompanied with kinds of injustice and cruelty, and taking benefit from it will be done with negligence and ignorance.

The unjust discriminations, which come into being in this course, will be the cause of grudges, jealousies, enmities, and, at last, bloodsheds, and fights.

But in that world, whose all things are vast and plenty, neither the earning of these ornaments creates any difficulty, nor it causes any unjust discrimination and deprivation. They neither produce any grudge and enmity in any one, nor, in that environment full of spiritualities, they cause man to become neglectful of the Lord.

Those ornaments neither need to be protected and guarded nor create any jealousy in others. They are neither the source of arrogance and pride, nor are they the factor of separation from the servants of Allah and Allah Himself (s.w.t.).

Why should the people of Paradise be deprived of such a bounty which is a bodily pleasure beside the great spiritual merits with no unpleasant reaction.

2. Another point

2. Another point that this verse teaches us is that we must not avoid of guiding that group because of their wealth, or for that they have a welfare life, and do not approach them. But, what is blameworthy is that we approach them in order to take benefit from their worldly material circumstances and, as the Qur’an says, become of the extension of those who:

“desire the adornment of the life of the world”.1

Thus, if the aim is their guidance, and taking benefit from their wealth and possibilities is along the path of positive and valuable social activities, approaching them not only is not blameworthy but also is necessary and incumbent.