وَأَمْدَدْنَٰهُم بِفَٰكِهَةٍ وَلَحْمٍ مِّمَّا يَشْتَهُونَ يَتَنَٰزَعُونَ فِيهَا كَأْسًا لَّا لَغْوٌ فِيهَا وَلَا تَأْثِيمٌ وَيَطُوفُ عَلَيْهِمْ غِلْمَانٌ لَّهُمْ كَأَنَّهُمْ لُؤْلُؤٌ مَّكْنُونٌ
Wa amdadnāhum bi-fākihatin wa laḥmin mimmā yashtahūn · Yatanāzaʿūna fīhā kaʾsan lā laghwun fīhā wa lā taʾthīm · Wa yaṭūfu ʿalayhim ghilmānun lahum ka-annahum luʾluʾun maknūn "And We supplied them abundantly with fruit and meat, of whatever they desire. There they pass a cup from hand to hand — in it there is no idle talk and no leading into sin. And boys of their own go round about them, like pearls kept hidden."
Root: م-د-د. To stretch, to draw out, to keep up. Madd — extension. Imdād (Form IV) — to supply continually, to give without the flow being cut.
This root was treated in the section on al-Inshiqāq and this verse was cited there. I do not repeat it here. Its summary: imdād is not a giving once; it is supplying without interruption.
And this side of the word joins with the record hanīʾan in the nineteenth verse: the food is both harmless and unending.
تَنَازُع (Form VI) — to contend with one another, to pull a thing from one another. The Qurʾān uses this in a negative context: "Do not contend with one another, or your strength will go" (al-Anfāl 8/46) — wa lā tanāzaʿū.
The explanation of this in the classical sources is: the word here states not a quarrel but an exchange back and forth, almost a jesting; the cup passes from hand to hand.
And the rest of the verse supports this reading: lā laghwun fīhā wa lā taʾthīm — "in it there is no idle talk and no leading into sin."
That is, the word has been chosen with a deliberate tension and the tension is at once resolved. The two things that appear in this world when the cup goes round — empty talk and sin — are ruled out here.
لَغْو — root ل-غ-و: idle talk, meaningless speech. The Qurʾān regularly negates this in its descriptions of the Garden: "They hear no idle talk there" (Maryam 19/62; al-Wāqiʿa 56/25; al-Nabaʾ 78/35).
تَأْثِيم — root أ-ث-م: sin. Taʾthīm (Form II) — to lead another into sin. That is, the word states not a person's own sin but the dragging of another into sin.
| لَغْو | تَأْثِيم | |
|---|---|---|
| What | Idle talk | Leading into sin |
| Its harm | None — merely meaningless | There is one — it has a consequence |
| To whom | To the speaker | To another |
That is, the two are the two degrees by which a gathering can be spoiled: harmless emptiness and harmful dragging. Both are removed.
غِلْمَان — the plural of ghulām. The word was treated in the discussion of al-Dhāriyāt 51/28: a child, a youth.
لَّهُمْ — "belonging to them". A small construct, but the classical sources dwell on it: those who serve have been assigned to them.
لُؤْلُؤ — a pearl. مَكْنُون — root ك-ن-ن: to cover, to hide, to take under protection. Kināna — a quiver; maknūn — hidden, kept safe.
And how the likeness works: a hidden pearl is one no hand has touched, that has not been dusted, whose lustre has not been spoiled. A pearl is at its cleanest while it is inside the shell.
And the same likeness is used in another place in the Qurʾān: "like eggs kept guarded" (al-Ṣāffāt 37/49) — ka-annahunna bayḍun maknūn.