“And We will provide them with fruit and meat of whatever they desire. They will pass around among themselves a cup wherein there will be neither idle talk nor sinfulness. Young servants devoted to them will attend them, as though they were well-guarded pearls. They will turn to one another, asking each other. They will say, ‘Formerly, while among our families, we lived in fear.’”

“And We will provide them with fruit”: as an addition to what they already possess; “and meat of whatever they desire”: of every kind of meat.

“They will pass around”: that is, they will give and receive, “among themselves, a cup wherein there will be no idle talk”—that is, falsehood. This was related from Qatadah. Muqatil ibn Hayyan said: There will be no frivolous speech in it. Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyib said: There will be no obscene speech in it. Ibn Zayd said: There will be neither insults nor quarrelling in it. Al-Qutaybi said: Their minds will not be impaired, causing them to speak idly or obscenely. “Nor sinfulness”: that is, nothing will proceed from them that would cause them to incur sin. Al-Zajjaj said: Nothing involving idle speech or sin will occur among them, as happens in this world through drinking wine. ⦗141/b⦘ It was also said: They will not incur sin by drinking it.

“Young servants devoted to them will attend them”: serving them; “as though they were,” in beauty, whiteness, and purity, “well-guarded pearls”: stored away and protected, untouched by hands. Sa‘id ibn Jubayr said: That is, pearls still within their shells.

Abdullah ibn Umar said: There is no one among the people of Paradise but that a thousand young servants attend him, each servant having a task not assigned to his fellow. (1)

It is related from al-Hasan that, when he recited this verse, he said: They said, “O Messenger of Allah, if the servant is like a well-guarded pearl, then what of the one being served?” (2)

Qatadah also said: We were told that a man said, “O Prophet of Allah, this is the servant; then what of the one being served?” He replied: “The superiority of the one being served over the servant is like the superiority of the moon on the night of its fullness over all the other stars.” (3)

“They will turn to one another, asking each other”: they will ask one another in Paradise. Ibn Abbas said: They will recall the hardship and fear they experienced in this world.

“They will say, ‘Formerly, while among our families,’” in this world, “‘we lived in fear’”: fearful of punishment.