[The Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary]

Allah Almighty says:

“Indeed, he saw him yet another time, (13)
by the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary, (14)
near which lies the Garden of Refuge, (15)
when the Lote Tree was shrouded by that which shrouded it. (16)
The eye neither wavered nor over-reached. (17)
He certainly saw some of his Lord’s greatest signs.”
(53:13-18)

We noted in the Tafsīr that the tree was enveloped by the Light of the Lord—may His Majesty be exalted—and that multitudes of angels covered it like swarming crows; that butterflies of gold hovered about it; and that it was veiled in manifold hues, just as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Then it was covered by colors whose nature I do not know,” (1)

and:

“No one is able to describe it.” (2)

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is related from him ﷺ in the ḥadith of the Miʿrāj:

“Then the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary was raised before me in the seventh heaven. Its fruits were like the great water-jars of Hajar, and its leaves like the ears of elephants. Two visible rivers issued from its trunk and two hidden ones as well. I asked, ‘O Jibrīl, what are these?’ He replied, ‘The hidden ones are in Paradise, while the visible ones are the Nile and the Euphrates.’” (3)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā reported: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ told us, Yūnus ibn Bukayr told us, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, from his father, from Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr, who said:

I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mention the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary. He said, “A mounted rider could travel beneath the shade of one of its boughs for a hundred years”—or he said, “One hundred riders could take shelter in the shade of a single branch of it. Within it are butterflies of gold, and its fruit resembles large water-jars.” (4)

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā reported: Ḥamzah ibn al-ʿAbbās told me, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān told us, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak told us, Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr told us, from Sulaym ibn ʿĀmir, who said:

The Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say, “Allah benefits us through the Bedouins and their questions.” One day a Bedouin approached and said, “O Messenger of Allah, Allah, Exalted is He, has mentioned a tree in Paradise that causes harm, yet I never thought that any tree in Paradise could injure its owner.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, “And which tree is that?” He replied, “The lote tree (sidr), for it has painful thorns.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Does not Allah Most High say: ‘In lote trees without thorns’ (56:28)? Allah has blunted its thorns and replaced each thorn with a fruit. Indeed, the tree now produces a fruit from which, when it opens, emerge seventy-two varieties, each differing in color from the other.”

This ḥadith has also come down with different wording through another chain. Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd said: Muḥammad ibn Muṣaffā told us, Muḥammad ibn al-Mubārak told us, Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah told us, Thawr ibn Yazīd told us, Ḥabīb ibn ʿUbayd told us, from ʿUtbah ibn ʿAbd al-Sulamī, who said: “I was sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when a Bedouin came and said …”