Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:76

Gardens of Eden: This is in apposition to "the highest degrees" or an explanation of it, and the discussion on ‘Adn (Eden) has already preceded.

Beneath which rivers flow: This is a state (hal) of the Gardens. His saying—Exalted be He—"Abiding therein" is a confirmation that the reward of the Exalted is the most everlasting. It is a state derived from the pronoun in "for them" (lahum), and the operative factor therein is the meaning of stability within the prepositional phrase, or the meaning of "indicated" (ushira) contained in "those" (ula'ika), and the state is prospective. It is not permissible for "Gardens" to be a predicate (khabar) for an elided subject (mubtada')—i.e., "They are Gardens"—because the sentence would then be devoid of an operative factor for the state, according to what Abu al-Baqa' mentioned.

And that: This is an indication of the success granted to them by what was mentioned. The meaning of the distance in the demonstrative pronoun—despite the proximity of what is indicated—is to denote magnification.

Is the reward of whoever purifies himself: Whoever cleansed himself of the filth of disbelief and sins through the aforementioned faith and righteous deeds. This is an explicit statement of what the conditional sentence implied. The mention of the state of the criminal was placed first to hasten the clarification of the severity and permanence of His—the Exalted and Majestic's—punishment, in refutation of what Pharaoh claimed by his saying: "Which of us is more severe in punishment and more lasting?" Some have said that both conditional sentences up to this point represent the beginning of speech from Him—the Exalted and Majestic—as a warning regarding the vileness of what Pharaoh did and the virtue of what the sorcerers did; the first view is better, contrary to what al-Naysaburi supposed.

As for this, the Mu'tazila used the first conditional sentence as proof for the certainty of punishment for one who commits a major sin (kabira). They said: "The perpetrator of a major sin is a criminal (mujrim), because the root of jurm is the severing of fruit from a tree, then it was used metaphorically for the acquisition of an abomination. Every criminal will have Hellfire, due to the verse, for the conditional man (whoever) therein is general, evidenced by the validity of the exception. Thus, the result is that the perpetrator of a major sin will have Hellfire, which indicates the certainty of the threat (wa'id)."

The Ahl al-Sunnah responded by stating: We do not concede the minor premise, for it is possible that by "criminal" the disbeliever is intended. This meaning occurs frequently in the Quran, such as His—the Exalted's—saying: "They will ask about the criminals: 'What led you into Saqar?'" up to His—the Exalted's—saying: "And we used to deny the Day of Judgment," and His saying: "Indeed, those who committed crimes used to laugh at those who believed," up to the end of the Surah. Even if we concede this premise, we do not concede the major premise in its absolute sense; rather, it is a general statement conditional upon the absence of pardon. Furthermore, we do not concede that the conditional man is absolute in its generality, as the Imam has stated. Consequently, certainty regarding the threat does not follow absolutely.

Furthermore, upon conceding both premises, it is said that this evidence is opposed by the generality of the promise in His—the Exalted's—saying: "But whoever comes to Him as a believer..." The speech is interpreted as concerning one who believed and performed righteous deeds but committed a major sin; he is included in the generality of "Whoever comes to Him as a believer [having] done righteous deeds," and his committing a major sin does not exclude him from that generality. Whenever Paradise is for him, it is for the one who believed and committed a major sin and did not perform righteous deeds as well, since no one claims a distinction. If they say: "The perpetrator of a major sin is not called a believer, just as he is not called a disbeliever," due to their claim of the "intermediate state" (al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn), then that does not enter into the generality. We have refuted this and demonstrated the restriction of the accountable person to the believer and the disbeliever, and the negation of an intermediate state between faith and disbelief, with what is mentioned in its proper place.

Even if one concedes that "Whoever comes to Him as a believer..." does not encompass the perpetrator of a major sin, it is said: His—the Exalted's—saying: "For them are the highest degrees" indicates that pardon is attained by those who committed major sins. For the Exalted has assigned the "highest degrees" and "Gardens of Eden" to those who brought faith and righteous deeds; thus, the remaining degrees that are not the "highest" and the other Gardens must be for others, and those "others" are none but the disobedient among the people of faith. Abu Dawud and Ibn Marduyah recorded from Abu Sa’id that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, the inhabitants of the highest degrees are seen by those below them as you see the brilliant star in the horizon of the sky, and Abu Bakr and Umar are among them, and how blessed they are!"

Evidence for the inclusion of the perpetrator of a major sin in "Whoever comes to Him as a believer" is His—the Exalted's—saying: "That is the reward of whoever purifies himself," based on what was narrated from Ibn Abbas—may Allah be pleased with them both—that the meaning of "purifies himself" is he who said "There is no god but Allah," as if he meant whoever purified himself from the filth of disbelief. And Allah—the Exalted—knows best.

Furthermore, when the disobedient person enters Hell, his state is not like the state of the criminal disbeliever when he enters it. Rather, it has been said: "He dies," arguing from what Muslim, Ahmad, Ibn Abi Hatim, and Ibn Marduyah recorded from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave a sermon and reached this verse: "Whoever comes to Him..." and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "As for its inhabitants—meaning Hell—who are its rightful people, they neither die therein nor live. But as for those who are not its rightful people, the Fire causes them to die a death. Then the intercessors shall arise and intercede, and they shall be brought in groups to a river called the River of Life—or the Living—and they shall sprout as the cucumber sprouts in the silt of a flood."

The one who said "causes them to die" interpreted it literally, making the verbal noun (masdar) an emphasis to repel the notion of metaphor, as was said regarding His—the Exalted's—saying: "And Allah spoke directly to Musa." He mentioned that the benefit of their remaining in the Fire after their death for as long as Allah—the Exalted—wills is their deprivation from Paradise for that duration, and this is in addition to their torment by the burning of the Fire upon them.

Others have said that "causes them to die" is metaphorical, and the meaning is that it renders their state close to the state of the dead, such that they have no full perception of the torment. It is not accepted that the mention of a verbal noun negates metaphor; it is possible to say, "I killed Zayd with a stick [a killing]," and the meaning is "I struck him a severe striking." It is not correct to say the verbal noun is to clarify the "type"—i.e., "We cause them a type of death"—because death has no types; rather, it is a single type, which is the taking of the soul. Hence it is said: "Whoever does not die by the sword dies by other means; the causes are many, and death is one."

The Mujassima (Anthropomorphists) argued using His—the Exalted's—saying: "Whoever comes to his Lord," to support that there is a location for the Exalted. It was answered that the meaning of "coming to Him—the Exalted—" is coming to the place of His—the Majestic's—promise, or something similar.