His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿Say, is that better, or the Garden of Eternity which the righteous have been promised? It will be for them a reward and a destination﴾ ﴿For them therein is whatever they wish, abiding eternally. This is a promise from your Lord which is to be questioned﴾

The meaning: Say, O Muhammad, to these disbelievers who are on their way to this state of the Fire: ﴿Is that better, or the Garden of Eternity?﴾? This is in the context of stopping and reproaching. Since the speech is an inquiry, it is permissible for the term of preference to come between the Garden and the Fire in goodness. This is because the one who stops has the right to stop his interlocutor on whatever he wishes to see whether he will respond with correctness or error. However, Sibawayh and others prevent preference between two things that do not share in the meaning in which there is preference if the speech is a statement; because it involves contradiction. As for if it is an inquiry, then that is permissible.

It is said: The reference in His saying, "that" is to the Gardens under which rivers flow, and to the palaces mentioned in His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿Blessed is He who, if He wills, can make for you﴾ [Al-Furqan: 10]. This is on the condition that the making is in this world. It is also said: The reference in His saying, "that" is to the treasure and the Garden mentioned by the disbelievers.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: The correct view is that the reference in His saying, "that" is to the Fire, as we have explained earlier.

And the "righteous" in this verse are those who avoid polytheism, for they are included in the promise. Then the ranks in the promise remain according to the degree of piety from sins.

And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿a promise to be questioned﴾ has two possible meanings: One of them - and this is the saying of Ibn Abbas and Ibn Zayd - is that it is questioned because the believers asked Him or will ask Him. It has been narrated that the angels asked Allah, exalted and glorified is He, to grant pleasure to the righteous, and He promised them that. Muhammad ibn Ka'b said: It is the saying of the angels, and he recited ﴿And admit them to the Gardens of Eternity which You have promised them﴾ [Ghafir: 8]. The second meaning mentioned by al-Tabari from some of the people of Arabic is that it means a necessary promise that He has decreed, so it is thus prepared to be asked and necessitated. This interpretation does not imply that anyone has asked for the mentioned promise.