a man desires a form, he assumes it. There is in it a gathering of the wide-eyed maidens of Paradise, calling out in a voice the like of which no created being has ever heard: “We are everlasting and shall never perish; we live in bliss and shall never suffer hardship; we are content and shall never be angered. Blessed is the one who belongs to us and to whom we belong—or, the one to whom we belong.” (1)
Abu Isa also narrated it from Hammad and Ahmad ibn Maniʿ, from Abu Muʿawiyah, attributed to the Prophet, and said: “This is a singular hadith.”
Ismaʿil ibn ʿAbd al-Qahir al-Jurjani informed us; ʿAbd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad al-Farisi informed us; Muhammad ibn ʿIsa al-Juludi informed us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan informed us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj informed us; Abu ʿUthman Saʿid ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-Basri informed us; Hammad ibn Salamah informed us, from Thabit al-Bunani, from Anas ibn Malik, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “In Paradise there is a marketplace which they visit every Friday. Then a north wind blows and sweeps over their faces and garments, increasing them in beauty and comeliness. They then return to their families, having increased in beauty and comeliness. Their families say to them, ‘By Allah, you have increased in beauty and comeliness since you left us!’ They reply, ‘And by Allah, you too have increased in beauty and comeliness since we left you!’” (2)
“Indeed, Allah does not hesitate to set forth an example: a mosquito or what is beyond it. As for those who believe, they know that it is the truth from their Lord; but as for those who disbelieve, they say, ‘What does Allah intend by this example?’ By it He leads many astray and guides many; yet He leads astray by it only the defiantly disobedient.” (26)
Regarding His saying, exalted is He, “Indeed, Allah does not hesitate to set forth an example: a mosquito or what is beyond it”: the occasion of revelation of this verse was that, when Allah, exalted is He, set forth examples involving the fly and the spider, saying, “Indeed, those whom you invoke besides Allah will never create even a fly, even if they gathered together to do so” (al-Hajj 22:73), and saying, “The likeness of those who take protectors besides Allah is that of the spider, which makes a house” (al-ʿAnkabut 29:41), the Jews said, “What did Allah intend by mentioning these lowly things?” (3) It is also said that the idolaters declared, “We would not worship a god who mentions things such as these.” So Allah, exalted is He, revealed, “Indeed, Allah does not hesitate” (4)—that is, He does not refrain, nor does modesty prevent Him—“to set forth an example,” meaning, to mention a likeness. The word mā is superfluous; thus the meaning is, “an example involving a mosquito.” The word baʿūḍatan is in the accusative as an appositive to “example.”