وَيَطُوفُ عَلَيْهِمْ وِلْدَٰنٌ مُّخَلَّدُونَ إِذَا رَأَيْتَهُمْ حَسِبْتَهُمْ لُؤْلُؤًا مَّنثُورًا · وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَ ثَمَّ رَأَيْتَ نَعِيمًا وَمُلْكًا كَبِيرًا
Wa yaṭūfu ʿalayhim wildānun mukhalladūn, idhā raʾaytahum ḥasibtahum luʾluʾan manthūrā · Wa idhā raʾayta thamma raʾayta naʿīman wa mulkan kabīrā "Round them go youths made everlasting; when you see them you take them for scattered pearls. And when you look there, you see a bliss and a great dominion."
In the fifteenth verse yuṭāfu (is passed round) was passive. Here the same root comes active: yaṭūfu — goes round. And the subject is given.
The scene is completed: first the vessels going round were seen, now those who take them round become visible.
وِلْدَان — its singular is وَلِيد: newborn, child, youth. Root: و-ل-د — to beget, to be born. This root was taken up in the discussion of al-Balad 90/3.
مُّخَلَّدُون — root: خ-ل-د. To remain a long time, to be perpetual. From the same root khulūd (perpetuity), khālid (abiding), khuld (the state of perpetuity).
| View | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Made deathless | They are abiding, they do not die |
| Unchanging in age | They have been held fixed in one state; they do not grow old |
| Wearing earrings | It is transmitted that in Arabic the word khulda / khalada is used in the sense of "earring, bracelet"; on this it would mean "adorned" |
All three are mentioned in the sources. I adopt no preference, and I write this plainly: about whom this word indicates and about the nature of these beings the text says nothing further.
The Qurʾān gives no detail on this matter, and neither do I. In the classical sources various explanations are advanced about these beings, and some of them are elaborations with no basis in the text. Because I am not sure of them I do not transmit them.
What the text says is this much: there are youths going round them, held fixed in their state, and their appearance is given by way of a simile.
لُؤْلُؤ — pearl. In that world it was the most valuable export of the Persian Gulf; it is a substance Arab trade knew.
مَّنثُور — root: ن-ث-ر. To scatter, to disperse, to sprinkle. Nathr — scattering; and this is why prose in Arabic is called nathr: speech not strung to a measure, left free.
1. Brightness — the colour and light of the pearl. 2. Dispersal — manthūr means not strung. A strung pearl (manẓūm) stays in a row; a scattered pearl is everywhere.
The second is the principal one here, because the verb is "they go round". What is described is a multitude that does not stay in place but moves about.
In Sūrat al-Qāriʿa the following simile is made of people: كَٱلْفَرَاشِ ٱلْمَبْثُوثِ — "like scattered moths" (al-Qāriʿa 101/4). In al-Ghāshiya, of the cushions of the garden: وَزَرَابِىُّ مَبْثُوثَةٌ — "carpets spread out" (al-Ghāshiya 88/16).
A note: manthūr (ن-ث-ر) and mabthūth (ب-ث-ث) are separate roots; both mean "scattered" but they are not the same word. I draw no derivational link between them.
The link I draw is at the level of meaning: the same image — a scattered multitude — is terror in al-Qāriʿa and beauty in al-Ghāshiya and al-Insān. And this is another example of the principle recorded for the root ش-ق-ق in the section on al-Inshiqāq: a movement by itself carries no verdict; what determines the verdict is what the movement takes as its subject. If what is scattered is moths it is terror, if pearls it is beauty.
The address suddenly shifts to the second person singular: raʾaytahum (when you see them), ḥasibtahum (you take them for), raʾayta (you see).
This is the shift of address (iltifāt) taken up in the sections on al-Humaza and al-Muṭaffifīn. Into a scene recounted for nineteen verses in the third person, the reader is called directly.
Wa idhā raʾayta — "and when you see…" See what? It is not said. When the answering clause comes, the object is still indefinite: raʾayta naʿīman wa mulkan kabīrā — "you see a bliss and a great dominion."
In the section on al-Inshiqāq this was recorded about idhā clauses whose answer is not given: the answer's not being uttered does not mean that there is no answer; it means that it was not worth uttering, or that it could not be uttered. Here what is missing is not the answer but the object, yet the function is the same: what is to be looked at is not specified, because wherever one looks the same thing is seen.
ثَمَّ — and this word requires attention: it is not ثُمَّ (thumma, "then") but ثَمَّ (thamma) — an adverb of place meaning "there". The two words are very close in writing and are confused.
Root: م-ل-ك. To own, to hold in hand, to rule. From the same root malik (a king), mulk (ownership, sovereignty), mamlūk, malakūt.
In the eighth verse these people were giving their own food to a needy man, an orphan and a captive. The captive is the person who is the subject of ownership — a human being who has an owner.
The sūra gives dominion to those who gave away what they had. And the person to whom they gave was a human being who could be owned.
I record this as my own reading; the words of the two verses are in the text. The verse does not explain what the mulk is, and I add no elaboration either.