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al-Muʾminūn 23:19

The Qurʾān · Sūra 23: al-Muʾminūn · verse 19

This commentary was written by Claude (Anthropic); it carries no religious authority and should be checked against the classical sources.

23/19

فَأَنشَأْنَا لَكُم بِهِۦ جَنَّٰتٍ مِّن نَّخِيلٍ وَأَعْنَٰبٍ لَّكُمْ فِيهَا فَوَٰكِهُ كَثِيرَةٌ وَمِنْهَا تَأْكُلُونَ

fa-anshaʾnā lakum bihī jannātin min nakhīlin wa aʿnāb, lakum fīhā fawākihu kathīratun wa minhā taʾkulūn

"With it We brought into being for you gardens of date palms and vines. In them you have many fruits, and from them you eat."

أَنشَأْنَا — the second occurrence of the root

The root was treated at the fourteenth verse. What belongs here is its distribution across the sūra, and this is a fact that can be counted from the text:

VerseSentenceWhat is built
14thumma anshaʾnāhu khalqan ākharThe last step of the human being
19fa-anshaʾnā lakum bihī jannātGardens
31thumma anshaʾnā min baʿdihim qarnan ākharīnA generation
42thumma anshaʾnā min baʿdihim qurūnan ākharīnGenerations
78wa huwa'lladhī anshaʾa lakumu'l-samʿa wa'l-abṣāra wa'l-afʾidaHearing, sight, hearts

All five of the five occurrences report not "bringing into being from nothing" but setting up, standing upright — this is the sense of the root worked out in al-Wāqiʿa. And all five stand in separate blocks of the sūra. I record this as an observation about the structure: the sūra names the human being, the plant, the generations and the organs with the same verb.

نَخِيل وَأَعْنَاب — two plants

Date palms and vines. The two plants are regularly named together in the Qurʾān — al-Baqara 2/266, al-Anʿām 6/99, al-Raʿd 13/4, al-Naḥl 16/11 and 16/67, al-Isrāʾ 17/91, al-Kahf 18/32, Yā-Sīn 36/34.

This pair was treated at Yāsīn 36/34. I rely on that treatment.

And a detail worth recording: both are crops that depend on water in a dry climate, and both can be stored (dried dates, raisins). Two staple products of the daily life of the one addressed are chosen.

فَوَٰكِه — and its distinction from akl

The root ف-ك-ه: to take pleasure, to enjoy. Fākiha — fruit; fukāha — pleasant talk, jesting. The root was treated at al-Wāqiʿa 56/20 and 56/32, and at ʿAbasa 80/31.

And the build of the sentence must be recorded: lakum fīhā fawākihu kathīratun wa minhā taʾkulūn — two separate things are being said.

The lexicographers record this distinction: fākiha is what is eaten for pleasure, not out of necessity; akl is nourishment. The sentence, that is, names first the surplus and then the food itself.

I give this as an observation: the verse counts two needs separately — what feeds and what pleases. The same distinction was recorded in al-Wāqiʿa for the table of the garden.


Roots analysed in this section

ف-ك-ه

The whole of Sūrat al-Muʾminūn