servant among them. He said: Then they are served with what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has imagined.
Then the Almighty rises from His Seat to His Throne, and the inhabitants of the lofty chambers ascend to their chambers. Each chamber is made of a white pearl, a red ruby, or a green emerald, with neither a break (1) nor a crack in it. It is radiant, with its rivers within it—or he said, its rivers flowing continuously (2)—and its fruits hanging low within it. It contains spouses, attendants, and dwellings. He said: The inhabitants of Paradise rejoice at Friday, just as the people of this world rejoice at rain.”’
Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said in his book Sifat al-Jannah (Description of Paradise) (3): Azhar ibn Marwān al-Raqāshī narrated to me: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿArāda al-Shaybānī narrated to us: al-Qāsim ibn al-Mutayyab (4) narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Wāʾil, from Hudhayfa, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
‘Gabriel came to me holding in his palm a mirror like the finest of mirrors (5) and the brightest (6), and there was a black spot in its centre.
(1) This is the reading in Sād, Qāf, and Nūn. The other manuscripts read “fasm” (“a crack”), with an initial fā’, possibly a scribal corruption. Some sources read “fasm wa-lā qasm” (“neither a crack nor a complete break”). Fasm and wasm denote cracking without separation; their opposite is qasm, a break involving separation.
(2) The meaning is: “Its rivers flow continuously within it.” As for “munawwara” (“radiant”), it describes the chamber.
(3) No. 332 in the Dār Atlas edition. Ibn al-Jawzī also recorded it in al-‘Ilal al-mutanāhiya (1:463), stating: “This hadith is not authentic. Yahyā said: ‘‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Arāda is of no account as a narrator.’ Ibn ‘Adī said [in al-Kāmil, in his biography (6:542–543)]: ‘Most of his narrations lack corroboration.’” Al-Bukhārī described him in al-Tārīkh al-awsat (4:713) and al-Tārīkh al-kabīr (5:166) as “munkar al-hadīth” (a narrator whose hadith are rejected).
(4) All manuscripts except Sād, Qāf, Mīm-Bā, and Nūn read “al-Khatīb,” a scribal corruption. Someone also pointed this out in a marginal note in ‘Ayn.
(5) All manuscripts except Sād, Qāf, and Nūn read “al-marāyā” (“mirrors”). The printed edition of Sifat al-janna (Description of Paradise) has the reading adopted here.
(6) The printed editions read “wa-adwa’ihā” (“and the brightest of them”). The reading adopted from the manuscripts is entirely correct. It also appears in al-‘Asāsila’s edition of Sifat al-janna. This is an ancient idiom, exemplified by the Prophet’s words (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of Abū Hurayra: “The women of Quraysh are the best women to have ridden camels: the most tender toward a child and the most attentive to a husband’s possessions.” Recorded by al-Bukhārī (3434) and Muslim (2527). See al-Khasā’is (2:421), Natā’ij al-fikr (p. 133), and Tabaqāt fuhūl al-shu‘arā’ (1:23, Professor Mahmūd Shākir’s footnote).