Tafsir for verse: 3:15
۞ قُلۡ أَؤُنَبِّئُكُم بِخَيۡرٖ مِّن ذَٰلِكُمۡۖ لِلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوۡاْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمۡ جَنَّٰتٞ تَجۡرِي مِن تَحۡتِهَا ٱلۡأَنۡهَٰرُ خَٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا وَأَزۡوَٰجٞ مُّطَهَّرَةٞ وَرِضۡوَٰنٞ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِۗ وَٱللَّهُ بَصِيرُۢ بِٱلۡعِبَادِ ١٥ ﴿15
15Say: “Shall I tell you what is far better than that? For those who fear (Allah), there are gardens with their Lord, beneath which rivers flow, where they shall live forever, with purified wives, and approval from Allah. Allah is watchful over His servants”.
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Commentary

And when He, glorified and exalted is He, mentioned what necessitated turning away from this worldly temptation, the listener was deserving to say, "Then what should I turn to?" He, glorified and exalted is He, commanded the closest of creation to Him and the most honored among them with His response, so that the glad tidings would be a call to His love. He said: "Say," meaning to those who have the capacity to turn to Us. And when He, glorified and exalted is He, conveyed this glad tidings through the tongue of His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, to establish the proof against the servants by his state as it is established by his words. This is because he does not call to anything except that he is the first to act upon it, and he does not prohibit anything except that he is the first to abandon it. He preferred the unseen, which is heard of the Hereafter, over the immediate, which is witnessed of the effects of this world, as he, blessings and peace be upon him, said to Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, when he was concerned about the effect of the sands of the bed on his side and mentioned what the Persians and Romans had of luxury: "Are you in doubt, O son of Al-Khattab? Are you not pleased that they have this world and we have the Hereafter?" He drew them towards it with the question in His saying: "Shall I inform you of better than that?" meaning that which he mentioned of the desires. He magnified it with the tool of distance and the letter of plural for its greatness in their sight, and the increase in magnification is what it indicates. Then he began to explain this good with His saying: "For those who have taqwa," meaning those who are characterized by piety. What resulted from their being characterized by it is that they turned away from these desires, as they are desires, and made them acts of worship that protect them from the punishment of their Lord. They enjoyed women not merely for the sake of desire, but for lowering the gaze from both sides and seeking what has been decreed for them from offspring, fulfilling the will of their Lord in increasing their successors on earth for reform.

'Marry and reproduce, for I will boast of you on the Day of Resurrection.' And similar to that, they rejoiced in sons not merely for the sake of boasting, but for teaching them knowledge and guiding them towards remembrance, striving, and gratitude, and the various efforts in pleasing the Master. They acquired wealth not for hoarding, but for spending in the way of good deeds. They prepared for jihad, not for pride and leadership over the servants, but to suppress the allies of Satan and elevate the allies of the Most Merciful, which necessitates the manifestation of faith. As the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, clarified the similarity of acquiring it, he said: 'And it is for a man a reward, and for a man a covering, and upon a man a burden.' Then He, glorified and exalted is He, magnified what they have by saying, encouraging with the wording towards the description of goodness that necessitates the nurturing of charity and other righteous deeds: 'With their Lord,' meaning the Benefactor to them with the garment of piety that necessitates their preference for the Hereafter over this world. And His saying: 'Gardens' is raised by the beginning, and it may be that it is the news of a deleted subject if it is (for those), related to (good), then He described it by saying: 'Rivers flow beneath them,' meaning that its water is not brought from elsewhere, but rather every place in it is prepared for water to spring forth, flowing so that its delight may be established and its blooming and freshness may last. Then He indicated with His saying: 'Abiding therein' that it is the one that encompasses all goodness, sufficient without farming and livestock, and that this is in a manner that has no end. Al-Harali said: And in the meaning of the word eternity is an indication of the souls' tranquility towards it due to what is in it of agreement. It may be that he specifically mentioned among the previous desires the mention of women in His saying: 'And spouses,' because they are the greatest of desires, and the enjoyment of them is not complete except with the attainment of all that it depends upon. Thus, the mention of them is as a form of gratitude from the Able One, a metaphor for all that souls desire and eyes find delight in. And when piety is a motivator for purifying the souls from the filth of bad traits, and the description in the singular is more indicative that they are in the essence of purity, as if they are one soul, he said justly about what is more appropriate than the description in the plural for the gathering of those who understand: 'Pure,' because they are derived from their own selves. 'He created for you from your own selves spouses' [Ar-Rum: 21].

And when he mentioned the share of the body, he affirmed the pleasure of this blessing by what is for the soul. He increased it from the multiplied rewards that have no limit by his saying: ﴿And the pleasure﴾. Al-Harali said: with the breaking of the letter 'ra' and its being pronounced with a 'dhamma', it is a noun of exaggeration in the meaning of pleasure. It is based on the concept of being filled with what the 'alif' and 'noon' express, and the 'dhamma' of its 'ra' indicates the apparent fulfillment of it, while its breaking indicates the inner encompassing of it - this is the end. And when the promise of the gardens was made in the name of the Lordship that looks to the goodness in nurturing, the matter of this reward was magnified and elevated by associating it with the greatest name, as He said: ﴿From Allah﴾, meaning the One who encompasses the attributes of perfection. And when it was all-encompassing for all of them, and it might have been thought that they are equal in it, He indicated the disparity by His saying, making it evident in the place of the implicit, as a reference to the release from being restricted by a certain condition: ﴿And Allah﴾, meaning the One who has the ultimate wisdom ﴿is All-Seer of the servants﴾, meaning of their intentions and the measures of what they deserve based on their sincerity, and other than that from their deeds, words, and all their conditions.

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