Tafsir of Ash-Shu`ara' 26:147-148

This is a substitute (badal) for the "what" (ma) mentioned here, by repeating the preposition, as stated by Abu al-Baqa' and others. There is both summarization and elaboration in the speech, similar to what preceded in the story of 'Ad. It has also been permitted that it be a prepositional phrase (zarf) for "safe/secure" (amineen), serving as a state (hal), but that is not strong.

Al-hadheem is that whose parts are compressed into one another, as if it had been "haddama," meaning crushed. Nafi' ibn al-Azraq asked Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) about it, and he said: "It is that whose parts are compressed into one another." He [Nafi'] asked: "Do the Arabs know that?" He [Ibn 'Abbas] replied: "Yes, have you not heard the saying of Imru' al-Qais:

'A bright-toothed, young lady, with compressed flanks, and full wrists.'

Al-Zuhri said: "It is the delicate [part] as it first emerges." Al-Zajjaj said: "It is that which is moist/soft without a pit." It is narrated from al-Hasan, and it is said: "It is that which hangs low due to the abundance of its fruit." It is also said: "It is the ripe date," narrated from 'Ikrimah. And it is said: "The moist, slender date," narrated from Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad.

Describing the spathe (tal') as hadheem is either literal or metaphorical; it is literally a description of its fruit, and some have made "spathe" a metaphor for the fruit because it leads to it.

An-nakhl (palm trees) is a collective noun that can be masculine, as in His saying, the Exalted: "As if they were trunks of uprooted palm trees (nakhlin munqa'irin)," and it can be feminine, as it is here. This is not because the female [trees] are intended, for that is known by the context of the passage, even if the pronoun were masculine.

It is singled out for mention, despite being included in the [general mention of] gardens, due to its superiority over all other trees, or because what is intended by it is other than the [aforementioned] trees.