I come to my Lord, and He will accept my intercession and grant me a light extending from the hair of my head to the nail of my foot. Then the disbelievers will say, “The believers have found someone to intercede for them; so who will intercede for us?” They will say, “It can be none other than Iblis: he is the one who led us astray.” So they will come to him and say, “The believers have found someone to intercede for them. Rise, then, and intercede for us, for it was you who led us astray.” He will rise, and from his place there will emanate the foulest stench anyone has ever smelled. Then Hell will be made immense (1), and at that point he will say: “Indeed, Allah promised you the true promise,” to the end of the verse. (2)
“And those who believed and did righteous deeds will be admitted into Gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein forever by permission of their Lord. Their greeting therein will be: Peace.” (23) “Have you not considered how Allah sets forth a parable: a good word is like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed and whose branches are in the sky.” (24)
His saying, Exalted is He: “And those who believed and did righteous deeds will be admitted into Gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein forever by permission of their Lord. Their greeting therein will be: Peace”: they will greet one another with peace, and the angels will greet them with peace.
It is also said that Allah, Exalted is He, is the One who greets them with peace.
“Have you not considered how Allah sets forth a parable”: that is, have you not known? A parable is a commonly circulated saying used to compare one thing to another. “A good word”—namely, the statement, “There is no god but Allah”—“is like a good tree,” namely, the date palm; that is, a tree bearing wholesome fruit. (3)
(1) In manuscript B, the reading is: “he grimaces at Hell”; the same reading appears in al-Tabari. The Bulaq edition reads: “their wailing intensifies.” Shaykh Shakir said: “This differs from the reading shared by the manuscript, al-Durr al-Manthur, and Ibn Kathir, ...” I am uncertain about the word; my own view is that it is “he grimaces at Hell,” derived from the expression used of a drinker who tastes a beverage, dislikes it, draws his face together, and frowns.
(2) Reported by al-Darimi, al-Riqaq, chapter on intercession, 2:327; and Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Tafsir, 16:562-563. Al-Suyuti attributed it to Ibn al-Mubarak in al-Zuhd, Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Tabarani, Ibn Mardawayh, and Ibn Asakir, and stated: “They transmitted it with a weak chain of transmission.” Al-Haythami said: “Al-Tabarani narrated it, and its chain includes Abd al-Rahman ibn Ziyad, who is weak.” Shaykh Mahmud Shakir said: “This is a weak report and cannot be relied upon.” Rushdayn ibn Sad al-Misri is weak and abandoned; he transmitted reports with serious gaps and rejected narrations. See: al-Durr al-Manthur, 5:18; Majma al-Zawa'id, 10:376; Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 2:530.
(3) This is the view preferred by al-Tabari in his Tafsir, 16:573, based on the authenticity of the report from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Among the trees is a tree whose leaves do not fall, and it is like the Muslim. Tell me what it is.” The people began to think of the trees of the desert. Abdullah said: “It occurred to me that it was the palm tree, but I felt too shy to speak.” They then said: “Tell us what it is, O Messenger of Allah.” He said: “It is the palm tree.” Reported by al-Bukhari, Book of Knowledge, chapter on a hadith narrator’s use of “he narrated to us” and “he informed us,” 1:145; also in the Books of Sales and Exegesis, and elsewhere; by Muslim, Book of the Characteristics and Rulings of the Hypocrites, chapter on the comparison of the believer to the palm tree, no. 2811, 4:2164-2165; and by the compiler of Sharh al-Sunnah, 1:307.