His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿And He is the One who spread the earth and placed in it firm mountains and rivers, and of all fruits He made therein two pairs. He covers the night with the day. Indeed, in that are signs for a people who reflect.﴾

﴿And in the earth are neighboring pieces and gardens of vines and crops and palm trees, [some] with single trunks and [some] without. They are irrigated with one water, and We prefer some of them over others in taste. Indeed, in that are signs for a people who understand.﴾

When the verses of the heavens were completed, He mentioned the signs of the earth. His saying: ﴿He spread the earth﴾ implies that it is flat and not spherical. This is the apparent meaning of the Shari'ah. The firm mountains are the stable mountains. It is said: "Rasa yarsoo" when it is stable, and from it is the saying of the poet:

؎ With it are everlasting ones that do not move, ∗∗∗ And a disheveled one that the mother has anchored with the spear.

The pair in this verse refers to the type and kind, and is not the pair known as the two individuals of animals and others. From it is His saying: ﴿Glorified is He who created all pairs﴾ [Ya-Sin: 36]. This verse implies that every fruit has two types. If it happens that a fruit contains more than two types, it does not harm the meaning of the verse.

Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Abu 'Amr, Ibn 'Amir, and Hafs from 'Asim read: "He covers" with the ghain being silent and the sheen being lightened. Hamzah, al-Kisai, and 'Asim - in the narration of Abu Bakr - read with the ghain being opened and the sheen being emphasized. The mention of one suffices for the mention of the other, and the rest of the verse is clear. It seems that the pairs intended are the types and kinds, and they are called that because there are two in every fruit, male or female. Al-Farra' indicated this in al-Mahdawi, and others narrated from him what implies that the meaning is completed in His saying: "the fruits," then he began that He made in the earth from every male and female two pairs.

His saying: ﴿And in the earth are neighboring pieces﴾ is the plural of piece, which are the parts. He specified in this example what is neighboring and close to one another, as the difference in that proximity is more remarkable. The majority read: "And gardens" in the nominative, as an addition to "pieces." Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan read: "And gardens" in the accusative with an implied verb. It is said that it is an addition to "firm mountains." Ibn Kathir, Abu 'Amr, and Hafs from 'Asim read: "And crops and palm trees, some with single trunks and some without" in the nominative, as an addition to "pieces." The others read in the genitive as an addition to "vines," and made the garden from the vines. Whoever raised "the crops," then the gardens are from the total of that, not from the crops alone, because a cultivated area is not called a garden unless trees mix with it.

'And "Sinnwan" is the plural of "Sinn", which is the branch that is with another in one origin. It may be more than two branches. Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib said: "Sinnwan" means the united, and non-Sinnwan means the scattered, one by one. From this is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ: "The uncle is the branch of the father." It has been narrated that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, hastened to Al-'Abbas in a dispute. He came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: "I wanted, O Messenger of Allah, to say to Al-'Abbas, but I remembered your position with him, so I remained silent." The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "May Allah have mercy on you, O 'Umar, the uncle is the branch of the father." The plural of "Sinn" is "Sinnwan", and it is a broken plural. Abu 'Ali said: The kasrah of the sad in the singular is not the same as that in the plural. It is like "fulk". You say: "Sinn" and "Sinnwan" in the plural with the tanween of the noon and its inflection. 'Asim read in the narration of Al-Qawas - from Hafs: "Sunnwan" with the sad being pronounced with a dammah. Abu 'Ali said: It is like "dh'ib" and "dh'uban", and this is the reading of Ibn Musarif and Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami. It is the dialect of Tamim and Qais. The kasrah of the sad is the dialect of the people of Hijaz. Al-Hasan and Qatadah read: "Sunnwan" with the sad being opened. It is a name of a plural, not a plural. The equivalent of this word is "qabw" and "qabwan". It has been specified that "Sinnwan" in this verse is because it is like the proximity in the pieces where the strangeness of the difference in the food appears. Ibn Kathir, Nafi', Abu 'Amr, Hamzah, Al-Kisai, Al-Hasan, Abu Ja'far, and the people of Mecca read: "Tusqa" with the ta. Hamzah and Al-Kisai inclined the qaf. 'Asim and Ibn 'Amir read: "Yusqa" with the ya, meaning: what is mentioned is given to drink. The majority read: "Nufaddil" with the noon. Hamzah and Al-Kisai read: "Wa Yufaddil" with the ya. Ibn Muhaysin read: "Yusqa" and "Yufaddil" with the ya in both. Yahya ibn Ya'mur and Abu Haywah read: "Wa Yufaddal" with the ya and the opening of the dad, "Ba'duha" in the nominative. Abu Hatim said: I found it thus in the wording of Yahya ibn Ya'mur in his mushaf, and he was the first to dot the mushafs. And "Al-Akul" is the name of what is eaten, with the hamzah being pronounced with a dammah, and "Al-Akl" is the source. A group read: "Fi Al-Akul" with the hamzah and the kaf being pronounced with a dammah, and this has been mentioned before in Al-Baqarah.

Al-Tabari narrated from more than one - Ibn Abbas and others - that ﴿قطعٌ متجاوراتٌ﴾ means: one is salty and the other is sweet, and similar to this is the saying. Qatadah said: the meaning is: neighboring towns. This is a point of reflection, as if he said: In the earth, there are differing pieces specified by Allah with meanings. They are irrigated with one water, but they differ in what they produce. What appears from his description of them as neighboring is indeed from one type of soil and one kind, and the lesson in this is clearer. For despite their agreement in soil and water, the ability and will prefer some of their produce over others. As the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said when asked about this verse: "(The dates, the farsi, the sweet, and the sour)." And on the first meaning, Al-Hasan said: This is a parable that Allah set for the hearts of the children of Adam. The earth was in the hand of the Most Merciful as one clay, then He leveled it, and it became neighboring pieces upon which one water descends from the sky. This one produces flowers and fruits, and that one produces salt and bitterness. Likewise, people were created from Adam, and a reminder descended upon them from the sky, which softened some hearts and humbled them, while others became hard, and some were distracted, and some trembled. Al-Hasan said: By Allah, no one sits with the Qur'an except that he rises from it with an increase or a decrease. Allah, the Exalted, said: ﴿And We send down from the Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy for the believers, and it increases the wrongdoers only in loss﴾ [Al-Isra: 82]. And the preference in produce includes tastes, colors, textures, and other than that.