وَعَدَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَٰتِ جَنَّٰتٍ … وَرِضْوَٰنٌ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ
Waʿada'llāhu'l-muʾminīna wa'l-muʾmināti jannātin tajrī min taḥtiha'l-anhāru khālidīna fīhā wa masākina ṭayyibatan fī jannāti ʿadn; wa riḍwānun mina'llāhi akbar; dhālika huwa'l-fawzu'l-ʿaẓīm · Yā ayyuha'l-nabiyyu jāhidi'l-kuffāra wa'l-munāfiqīna wa'ghluẓ ʿalayhim; wa maʾwāhum jahannam; wa biʾsa'l-maṣīr · Yaḥlifūna bi'llāhi mā qālū wa laqad qālū kalimata'l-kufri wa kafarū baʿda islāmihim wa hammū bimā lam yanālū; wa mā naqamū illā an aghnāhumu'llāhu wa rasūluhū min faḍlih
"God has promised the believing men and the believing women gardens with rivers running beneath them, abiding in them, and goodly dwellings in the gardens of ʿAdn. And a contentment from God is greater. That is the great attainment. · O Prophet! Strive against those who reject and against the hypocrites, and be firm with them. Their refuge is Gehenna; and evil is that journey's end. · They swear by God that they did not say it, and they did say the word of unbelief, and rejected after their submission; and they set out for what they did not attain. And they resented nothing but that God and His Messenger had enriched them out of His bounty."
This word occurred in verse 24 of the sūra as well — there it was the last of the eight ties that were weighed: wa masākinu tarḍawnahā (the dwellings you are pleased with).
| Verse | Masākin | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | Tarḍawnahā — which you are pleased with | Placed on the scale |
| 72 | Ṭayyibatan fī jannāti ʿadn — goodly | Promised |
The same word occurs in one place in the sūra as something whose relinquishing is weighed, and in another as something promised. And the word is from the root س-ك-ن — the same root as sakīna. The semantic field recorded in al-Fatḥ at 48/4 (maskan: shelter; sakīna: stillness) is at work here too.
I record this as an observation about the structure: akbar is an elative, and the term of comparison has been elided. What is understood from the context is the gardens and dwellings just enumerated. After all the enumerated things have been named, that is, one further thing is named and called "greater".
The same root will occur again in verse 123 of the sūra: wa'l-yajidū fīkum ghilẓa. The two occurrences will be compared at 123.
A note per the method (Method): no present-day attitude and no political conclusion is drawn from this verse. And the one addressed by the word is plain in the verse: singular, the envoy.
The structure of the sentence: wa mā naqamū illā — a negation plus an exception, that is, restriction (qaṣr). "The only cause of their anger is…"
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this structure of restriction: the verse sets down as the cause of the anger something unexpected — not an injury but a benefit. This is the function of the pattern: the sentence puts, in the place of what would count as a ground, something that cannot count as one.