Tafsir for verse: 2:266
أَيَوَدُّ أَحَدُكُمۡ أَن تَكُونَ لَهُۥ جَنَّةٞ مِّن نَّخِيلٖ وَأَعۡنَابٖ تَجۡرِي مِن تَحۡتِهَا ٱلۡأَنۡهَٰرُ لَهُۥ فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ وَأَصَابَهُ ٱلۡكِبَرُ وَلَهُۥ ذُرِّيَّةٞ ضُعَفَآءُ فَأَصَابَهَآ إِعۡصَارٞ فِيهِ نَارٞ فَٱحۡتَرَقَتۡۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمُ ٱلۡأٓيَٰتِ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ ٢٦٦ ﴿266
266Would any of you wish to have a garden of dates and grapes, with rivers flowing beneath it, in which there are all kinds of fruit for him, and old age befalls him, and he has children who are (too) weak (to earn livelihood), then a whirlwind comes upon it with fire in it, and it is all burnt? This is how Allah makes the signs clear to you, so that you may ponder.
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Commentary

And when it has been established, glorified and exalted is He, that the favor is invalidating for charity, and He likened it to showing off. He provided a parable for both and encouraged what is pure. He concluded that with what is suitable for instilling fear from favor and showing off. He returned to them as a sign of concern for them. He provided a clearer parable than the previous one and more severe in repelling from both of them. He said, and Al-Harali said: And when the news of the two types of spending was revisited, their counterparts were revisited. He provided a parable for the one who spends in contrast to the one who seeks the pleasure of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, with the parable of the garden that is left behind. It ended. He said, denying the one who invalidates his work like the people of the parable of the smooth stone after the reality is revealed by presenting these parables: "Does any of you wish..." meaning he loves with a strong love (p-86) "that he should have a garden..." meaning a garden that conceals within it. He specified here what he had left ambiguous in the first parable, saying: "of date palms..." the plural of date palm, which is the tree that stands on a straight trunk from its top, resembling the tree of the human being. Its leaves are firm, its fruit is nourishing and beneficial. In its entirety, its benefit is such that even its wood is food for humans, unlike other trees. Its parable is like that of the believer who is beneficial in all aspects. "And grapes..." the plural of grape, which is a generous tree that does not specialize in height like the date palm, but rather branches upward, downward, to the right, and to the left. Its parable is like that of the pious believer who honors with his piety in every direction, as Al-Harali said.

And when the gardens cannot be established and sustained except with water, He said: "Rivers flow beneath them..." meaning for the generosity of their land. Al-Harali said: And in its implication, there is a burden of that in it, unlike the first which is a husbandry. For the calamity in irrigation is more severe on the owner than in husbandry due to the lesser burden in husbandry and the severity of the burdens in irrigation. It ended.

And when he described it with the abundance of water, he mentioned the result of that and said: ﴿For him therein are fruits of every kind﴾ meaning with the date palms and grapes. And when he mentioned its generosity, he mentioned the severity of the need for it and said: ﴿And he was struck﴾ meaning while he was struck by ﴿old age﴾ so he could not earn a living. ﴿And he has weak offspring﴾ due to their smallness just as he has weakened by old age. ﴿Then it was struck﴾ meaning the garden was struck at one time by ﴿a violent wind﴾ meaning a very strong wind. Al-Harali said: The form of intensification is with the addition of the hamzah and the alif in it from the time of [the intensity that brings forth the hidden things, and the violent wind is a strong wind in a cloud in which there is sharpness from the cold of extreme cold, and it is] one of the divisions of the fire, its counterpart from the blazing fire is the scorching heat. And Al-Asfahani said: A wind that circles on the earth then rises towards the sky like a column. ﴿In it is fire and it burned﴾ that garden, and its owner remained in loss with his weakness and the burden of his dependents and the scarcity of wealth. Al-Harali said: From burning, which is the departure of the spirit of the thing and its form, a departure and life by the impact of a delicate strike that spreads in its entirety and annihilates it; so he made the first example in the grain, meaning that which is on the rock due to a pest from beneath it. And he made the example in the garden with a calamity from above it as if they were both directions of the onset of afflictions and pests from the direction of a root or branch. It has ended. The state of one who shows off in his deeds or harms in the charity of his wealth on the Day of Resurrection and its horrors is like the state of this in himself and his dependents at the time of the disappointment of his hopes. Al-Bukhari, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated in the tafsir from Ubaid ibn Umayr [who said that Umar] may Allah be pleased with him said to the companions of the Prophet ﷺ: 'In what do you see this verse revealed ﴿Does one of you wish﴾ until he said: Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: It was made as a parable for an action, Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: What action? Ibn Abbas said: For an action, Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said: For a rich man who acts in obedience to Allah, glorified and exalted is He, then Allah sends to him the devil who leads him to commit sins until he drowns his deeds.'

And when He clarified to them this statement which astonished the eloquent among humans and jinn, He alerted them to its greatness for the purpose of honoring and respecting it by saying, beginning: "Thus" meaning, similar to this statement, "Allah clarifies" meaning, He who has all perfection, "to you the signs" meaning, all of them, "that perhaps you may reflect" meaning, so that your state may be like that of one who is hoped to carry himself towards thinking. And whoever is like that will benefit from his thinking. Al-Harali said: So you establish matters on certainty. There is no good in worship except with reflection, just as the builder must think about his building. As the wise one said: The beginning of thought is the end of action, and the beginning of action is the end of thought. Likewise, it is a right of the deeds of religion that they should not occur except with thought regarding the rectification of their previous beginnings and their subsequent ends. Thus, they were in that two types, as indicated by "that perhaps" corresponding to the example: one who reflects multiplied (his harvest) and his garden, and one who acts without thought, being led by the whims of his soul, so that calamity befalls him in his work in his harvest and garden from his previous or subsequent actions. End.

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