وَقِيلَ لِلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوْا۟ مَاذَآ أَنزَلَ رَبُّكُمْ قَالُوا۟ خَيْرًا لِّلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا۟ فِى هَٰذِهِ ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةٌ وَلَدَارُ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ خَيْرٌ وَلَنِعْمَ دَارُ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ · جَنَّٰتُ عَدْنٍ يَدْخُلُونَهَا تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ لَهُمْ فِيهَا مَا يَشَآءُونَ · ٱلَّذِينَ تَتَوَفَّىٰهُمُ ٱلْمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ طَيِّبِينَ يَقُولُونَ سَلَٰمٌ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْجَنَّةَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
Wa qīla lilladhīna'ttaqaw mādhā anzala rabbukum qālū khayrā, lilladhīna aḥsanū fī hādhihi'l-dunyā ḥasana, wa la-dāru'l-ākhirati khayr, wa la-niʿma dāru'l-muttaqīn · Jannātu ʿadnin yadkhulūnahā tajrī min taḥtiha'l-anhāru lahum fīhā mā yashāʾūn · Alladhīna tatawaffāhumu'l-malāʾikatu ṭayyibīna yaqūlūna salāmun ʿalaykumu'dkhulu'l-jannata bimā kuntum taʿmalūn
"And when it is said to those who guard themselves, "What has your Lord sent down?", they say: "Good." For those who do good in this world there is good; and the abode of the hereafter is better. How excellent is the abode of those who guard themselves! · Gardens of ʿAdn which they enter, with rivers running beneath them; there they have whatever they wish. · Those whom the angels take while they are pure, saying: "Peace be upon you! Enter the Garden for what you were doing.""
| Verse 24 | Verse 30 | |
|---|---|---|
| The question | Mādhā anzala rabbukum | The same question, word for word |
| To whom it is put | Lahum — unnamed | Lilladhīna'ttaqaw — to those who guard themselves |
| The answer | Asāṭīru'l-awwalīn — tales of the ancients | Khayrā — good |
| The kind of answer | A verdict on the source | A verdict on the content |
| The length of the answer | Two words | One word |
This is a repetition that can be verified from the text. And I record this as my own reading: both answers are short, but they answer different things. The first answers the question "who sent it down" — though that was not the question asked. The second answers the question that was asked, "what has He sent down": khayrā — good.
The difference is thus given, before any difference of belief, as a difference in hearing the question.
And the sūra builds one further symmetry. The twenty-eighth and thirty-second verses begin with the same sentence:
| Verse 28 | Verse 32 | |
|---|---|---|
| The opening | Alladhīna tatawaffāhumu'l-malāʾika | The same |
| The note of state | Ẓālimī anfusihim — wronging themselves | Ṭayyibīn — pure |
| Who speaks first | The dying — mā kunnā naʿmalu min sūʾ | The angels — salāmun ʿalaykum |
| The command | Fa'dkhulū abwāba jahannam | Udkhulu'l-janna |
| The ground given | (none is given) | Bimā kuntum taʿmalūn |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the third line: in the first scene it is the dying who speak first — and what they say is a defence. In the second it is the angel who speaks first — and what he says is a greeting of peace. Who speaks first determines the whole of the scene.
طَيِّبِين — root ط-ي-ب: pleasant, clean, agreeable to the heart. The root was treated at al-Ṣaff, 61/12, where it was recorded that the word is used of food, of speech and of life; I rely on that treatment. And the word will occur once more in the sūra, in the seventy-second verse, of provisions (wa razaqakum mina'l-ṭayyibāt).
عَدْن — root ع-د-ن: to stay on in a place, to settle. Maʿdan — the place where a substance lies settled; from the same root. So jannātu ʿadn means "the gardens where one stays".