including the lakes produced by the confluence of rivers and other floodwaters, that is, the great marshes.

They have also catalogued the earth’s most famous and expansive rivers, recording where each one rises and where it ends. A full discussion of that would be too lengthy for our purposes; we shall confine ourselves to the rivers mentioned in the ḥadīth.

Allah, exalted is He, says:
“It is Allah who created the heavens and the earth, who sent down water from the sky and by it brought forth fruits as provision for you. He has subjected the ships to you so that they sail upon the sea by His command, and He has made the rivers subservient to you. He has subjected the sun and the moon, constant in their courses, and He has subjected the night and the day. He has given you of everything you asked of Him; yet if you tried to count Allah’s favors, you could never enumerate them. Surely man is ever wrongful, ever ungrateful.” (Q 14:32–34)

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs, through the chain of Qatādah from Anas ibn Mālik from Mālik ibn Ṣaʿṣaʿah, it is related that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke of the Lote-tree at the furthest boundary, he said:
“Four rivers emerge from its roots: two concealed and two manifest. The concealed ones are in Paradise, while the manifest are the Nile and the Euphrates.”

Al-Bukhārī has another wording: “Their source,” meaning their substance, form, and description; nothing in this world corresponds to what is in Paradise except in name alone.

In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, on the authority of ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar, from Khubayb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim, from Abū Hurayrah, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“Sayḥān, Jayḥān, the Euphrates, and the Nile are all among the rivers of Paradise.”

Imām Aḥmad likewise narrates—through a chain judged sound by the criteria of Muslim—from Ibn Numayr and Yazīd, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“Four rivers burst forth from Paradise: the Euphrates, the Nile, Sayḥān, and Jayḥān.”

It seems—Allah knows best—that the meaning is that these earthly rivers resemble the rivers of Paradise in clarity, sweetness, and constant flow; they share the same qualities. A similar usage appears in another ḥadīth, authenticated by al-Tirmidhī and narrated through Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, in which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“The ʿajwah date is from Paradise, and it contains a remedy for poison”—that is, it resembles the fruit of Paradise, for empirical observation shows otherwise, so the intended meaning must be this likeness.