Tafsir of Hud 11:108

"As for those who were made happy, they will be in Paradise, abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except what your Lord wills." The discussion regarding this has been mentioned; except that it is not mentioned here that they have joy and happiness, as was mentioned regarding the people of the Fire: "For them therein is sighing and wailing." This is because the context is one of warning and intimidation.

Su‘idu (were made happy), in the passive voice, is the recitation of Hamzah, al-Kisa’i, and Hafs, and it is attributed to Ibn Mas‘ud, Talhah ibn Musarrif, Ibn Waththab, and al-A‘mash. The majority of the seven reciters read sa‘idu in the active voice. ‘Ali ibn Sulayman chose this, and he used to say, "I am amazed at al-Kisa’i, how he recites su‘idu despite his knowledge of Arabic." But this is surprising coming from him, for he only read what was authentically established to him, and he did not read based on personal opinion, nor was he unique in this. It is reported that he argued for it by citing their expression mas‘ud (happy/made happy). This was countered by the fact that it is not an argument, as it is possible that it was mas‘ud in it.

It is mentioned that al-Farra’ narrated that the Hudhayl tribe say sa‘adahu Allahu Ta‘ala (Allah made him happy) in the sense of as‘adahu (rendered him happy). Al-Jawhari said: sa‘ida (with a kasrah) is sa‘id (happy), just like their saying salima so he is salim (safe), and su‘ida so he is mas‘ud. Abu Nasr ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Qushayri said: sa‘adahu Allahu Ta‘ala is used, so he is mas‘ud, and as‘adahu Allahu Ta‘ala is used, so he is mus‘ad. How subtle the indication is in the words "they were miserable" (shaqu) and "they were made happy" (su‘idu), according to the recitation of the active voice in the first and the passive voice in the second! Whoever finds that, let him praise Allah, and whoever does not find it, let him blame none but himself.

"A gift uninterrupted"—meaning it is not cut off from them nor curtailed. Its masdar (verbal noun) is al-jadhdh. It has come as jadhidhtu and jaddadtu, with the dotted dhal and the dal, as Ibn Qutaybah said, with the dotted letter being more common. ‘Ata’an (a gift) is in the accusative case as a masdar derived from the meaning of the sentence, because His statement, "they will be in Paradise, abiding therein," implies giving and bestowing. It is as if it is said: "He gives them a giving." It is either a masdar-noun—meaning the giving—or a masdar with the removal of redundancies, like His statement: "And has grown you from the earth as a plant (nabatan)."

It is also said that it is in the accusative as a state (hal) from the implied object of the divine will, or as a specification (tamyiz), because the attribution of the will for exit to Allah the Exalted carries the possibility that it is by way of an interrupted gift and by way of an uninterrupted gift; so it removes the ambiguity from that attribution. Perhaps the accusative as a masdar is better; it is as if it was brought for the sake of care and emphasis on the eternity and to push away what is imagined from the literal meaning of the exception, which might imply a cessation. It is said that this is to clarify that the reward of the people of Paradise—which is either the entry itself or what is like an evident necessity to it—does not end. From this, it is known that the exception is not to indicate cessation as it is regarding the punishment, but to indicate the succession of blessings and pleasure from Allah the Exalted, or to state the deficiency from the side of the beginning. Therefore, there is a distinction in the structure: the eternity of the first (the Fire) was completed by His statement, "Indeed, your Lord is a doer of what He wills," to indicate that He bestows favor on some whom He punishes and keeps others as He wills and chooses; and the second (Paradise) by His statement, "A gift [uninterrupted]," as an explanation that His grace does not end.

Some people have clung to the beginning of the verse to mean that no one will remain in the Fire, and they did not say that regarding Paradise. Their position is strengthened by what Ibn al-Mundhir recorded from al-Hasan, who said: "Umar said, 'If the people of the Fire remained in the Fire for the length of the sands of ‘Aalij, there would be a day for them when they would emerge from it.'" Also, by what Ishaq ibn Rahwayh recorded from Abu Hurayrah, who said: "A day will come upon Hell when no one will remain in it." He then recited, "As for those who were miserable..." the verse. Ibn al-Mundhir and Abu al-Shaykh recorded from Ibrahim, who said: "There is no verse in the Qur'an more hopeful for the people of the Fire than this verse: 'abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except what your Lord wills.'" He said: "And Ibn Mas‘ud said: 'A time will come upon it when its doors will be clapped shut.'" Ibn Jarir recorded from al-Sha‘bi, who said: "Hell is the fastest of the two abodes to be populated and the fastest of them to be ruined," along with other reports.

Ibn al-Jawzi explicitly stated that some of these are fabrications, such as the report from ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘As: "A day will come upon Hell when there is not one of the sons of Adam in it; its doors will be clapped shut as if they were the doors of the believers." Some have interpreted some of these reports, and you have learned that the eternity of the disbelievers is something upon which the Muslims have reached consensus. No weight is given to the dissenter, and the definitive proofs are too many to be counted, and none of them can be resisted by many of these reports. There is no proof in the verse for what the dissenter says, due to the aspects you have learned regarding it; there is no need to claim abrogation in it as is reported from al-Suddi, rather the claim of abrogation regarding such a thing is hardly valid.

Moreover, it is mentioned that the verse contains a form of combination, differentiation, and classification. As for combination, it is in His statement, "The day it comes, no soul shall speak except by His permission," for "soul" (nafsin) is general because it is an indefinite noun in the context of a negation. As for differentiation, it is in His statement, "Among them is the miserable and the happy." As for classification, it is in His statement, "As for those who were miserable..." etc. A parallel to this is the saying of al-Sharif al-Qayrawani:

To the various needs, there is a gathering at His door, For this one has a craft, and for that one has a craft. For the lowly, there is the highest, and for the destitute, there is wealth, And for the sinner, there is forgiveness, and for the fearful, there is security.

From this, the state of the two fa’s (the letter fa in "so among them" and "as for those who were miserable") is known. It is said that in shifting from "As for the miserable, he is in the Fire, abiding therein..." and "As for the happy—or the made-happy—he is in the Paradise, abiding therein..." to the sublime structure is an indication of the precedence of this misery and happiness, and that this is a matter that has already been finished. This is indicated by what Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasa'i recorded from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), who said: "The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) came out to us, and in his hand were two books. He said, 'Do you know what these two books are?' We said, 'No, O Messenger of Allah, will you not tell us?' He said to the one in his right hand: 'This is a book from the Lord of the worlds, in it are the names of the people of Paradise and their fathers and their tribes, then he summarized them to the very end; no one will be added to them and no one will be subtracted from them ever.' Then he said to the one in his left: 'This is a book from the Lord of the worlds, in it are the names of the people of the Fire and their fathers and their tribes, then he summarized them to the very end; no one will be added to them and no one will be subtracted from them ever.' His companions asked, 'Then what is the point of action, O Messenger of Allah, if the matter has already been finished?' He said, 'Strive and come close, for the dweller of Paradise will have his end sealed with the actions of the people of Paradise, no matter what he did; and the dweller of the Fire will have his end sealed with the actions of the people of the Fire, no matter what he did.' Then the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) gestured with his hand and cast them aside, saying, 'Your Lord has finished with the servants: a party in Paradise and a party in the Blaze.'"

It has come in the hadith: "The miserable one is he who was miserable in his mother's womb, and the happy one is he who was happy in his mother's womb." Some carried this to mean the emergence of the matter to the angel assigned to the drop of semen, otherwise the matter is prior to that. Others interpreted the "womb" as the scientific decree (thubut ‘ilmi) from which the known object appears into this external existence, and this is a type of interpretation, as is not hidden. This indication, upon reflection, does not reject what al-Tirmidhi (who classified it as hasan), Abu Ya‘la, Ibn Mardawayh, and others recorded from ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: "When the verse 'Among them is the miserable and the happy' was revealed, I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, on what do we act? On a matter that has already been finished or on a matter that has not been finished?' He said, 'Rather, on a matter that has been finished and the pens have dried, O ‘Umar. But everyone is facilitated for that for which he was created.'"

It is said that the apparent meaning here would be to express it in the present tense, but it was expressed in the past tense as an indication of the certainty of its occurrence. He brought the relative noun in the plural to announce that what is meant by "miserable and happy" is a party of miserable and a party of happy. He did not say "the miserable ones" (ashqiya') and "the happy ones" (su‘ada') because the singular is more in accordance with what preceded. It is also said that the singular was used first to indicate that each group, from the perspective of its being described as misery or happiness, is like a single thing, and it was made plural later because the entry of each group into Paradise and the Fire is not all at once, but rather group by group and company by company. There are testimonies for this from the Book and the Sunnah.