meaning, in a state of residence. The others read it with the mim carrying fatḥah, meaning: in a secure gathering-place, where they are safe from change—namely, from death and from departing it. ⦗121/b⦘

“Amid gardens and springs (52), dressed in fine silk and brocade, facing one another (53). So it will be; and We will pair them with fair women with wide, lovely eyes (54). There they will call for every kind of fruit, secure (55). They will not taste death therein apart from the first death, and He will protect them from the punishment of Hellfire (56)—as a bounty from your Lord. That is the supreme triumph (57). We have made it easy in your language, so that they may take heed (58). So wait; indeed, they too are waiting (59).”

“Amid gardens and springs, dressed in fine silk and brocade, facing one another. So it will be; and We will pair them”: that is, just as We honored them with the gardens, springs, and garments We have described, so too We honored them by pairing them “with fair women with wide, lovely eyes”; that is, We joined them with these women. This does not refer to the contracting of marriage, for one does not say, “I married him to a woman.” Abu Ubaydah said: “We made them counterparts for these women, just as one counterpart is joined to another; that is, We made them into pairs.” The hūr are women of pure white complexion. Mujahid said: “The gaze is dazzled by their whiteness and the clarity of their complexion.” Abu Ubaydah said: “The hūr are those whose eyes are intensely white and intensely black. The masculine singular is aḥwar, and the feminine is ḥawrāʾ. The word ʿīn is the plural of ʿaynāʾ, meaning women with large eyes.”

“There they will call for every kind of fruit”: whatever fruit they desire, “secure” from its being exhausted or causing them harm. Qatadah said: “Secure from death, ailments, and devils.”

“They will not taste death therein apart from the first death”: that is, other than the death they experienced in this world. Here, “except” is used in the sense of “apart from” and “after,” as in the saying of the Exalted: “Do not marry women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed” (al-Nisa 4:22)—that is, apart from what has passed and after it has passed.

It was also said that the first death—the one in this world—was excluded from death in Paradise because, when the blessed die, they gently pass into the means leading to Paradise: they encounter comfort and fragrant provision, and they see their dwellings in Paradise. Thus, their death in this world is as though they were already in Paradise, because of their connection to its means and their beholding of it. “And He protected them from the punishment of Hellfire.”

“As a bounty from your Lord”: that is, He did this for them as a bounty from Him. “That is the supreme triumph.”

“We have made it easy”: We have made the Quran easy, with an implied reference to something not explicitly mentioned; “in your language,” that is, upon your tongue, “so that they may take heed,” meaning, that they may be admonished.

“So wait”: await help from your Lord. It was also said: await the punishment that will come upon them. “Indeed, they are waiting.”