And when it was that the condition of the polytheists is merely temporary, and their saying has already preceded: "Or do you have a garden of date palms and grapes" [Al-Isra: 91], and His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "Indeed, We have made what is on the earth a adornment for it" [Al-Kahf: 7], and His saying, glorified and exalted is He, regarding the poor believers whom they disdain: "And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring the adornment of the worldly life" [Al-Kahf: 28] - and it continued until He concluded that the gardens of the believers are of great beauty in terms of benefit. He referred to His saying, glorified and exalted is He: "And say, 'The truth is from your Lord'" [Al-Kahf: 29], His saying, glorified and exalted is He, revealing by way of a parable that what the disbelievers have of immediate benefit is not worthy of being proud of, for it is destined to perish: "And strike for them" meaning for these weak and arrogant ones who are proud over the believers, and seek to expel them due to their weakness and poverty: "A parable" for what Allah has given them of the adornment of the worldly life. They relied upon it and leaned towards it and did not thank the One who granted it to them, rather it led them to arrogance and pride over those whom He has deprived of it - out of honor for Him and protection from it. "Two men" it is as if it was said: So what is their parable? It was said: "We made" meaning by what We have of greatness "for one of them" who is made a parable for them "two gardens" meaning orchards that conceal what is in them of trees from whoever enters them in any condition they may be, and among the conditions is that one of them is in the plain and the other in the mountain, to distance the generality of affliction for them, for it is either from cold or heat. "Of grapes" because they are from the trees of the cold lands and endure the heat, and they are fruit and sustenance with grapes, raisins, vinegar, and others. "And We surrounded them" meaning We encompassed them with Our greatness "with date palms" because they are from the trees of the hot lands and endure the cold, and perhaps they prevented some causes of afflictions from the grapes. Their fruit is a delight with unripe dates and fresh dates, and sustenance with dried dates and vinegar, so it is as if the date palms are like a crown behind the grapes, and it is what the farmers prefer because it is in the utmost of joy and benefit. "And We made between them" meaning the lands of the two gardens "crops" to avoid the spread of affliction to all, for the time of planting and its place is not the same as the time of the fruits of the trees mentioned, and that is the mainstay of sustenance. Thus, the two gardens were a land that gathers the best of fruits and the finest of sustenance, and their cultivation was continuous and intertwined, with nothing separating them and dividing between them, along with the spaciousness of the edges, the distance of the sides, and the beauty of the shapes and descriptions.