Al-Baqarah: (266) Does one of you like...

Know that this is another parable mentioned by Allah Almighty concerning one who follows his spending with reminders (of favor) and causing harm.

The meaning is: Suppose a person has a garden of the utmost beauty and ultimate benefit, and the person himself is utterly incapable of earning and in dire need. Just as the person is in this state, he also has offspring who are extremely needy and incapable. The state of being needy and incapable is certainly a source of distress and trial. When a group of needy, incapable people become dependent on him, this adds another layer of trial upon the existing trial.

If this person wakes up and sees that garden completely burned down, consider the grief, regret, distress, and affliction that would fill his heart. This affliction stems from three things:

1. The loss of such a noble and precious possession.
2. His remaining in need and hardship, unable to earn and despairing that anyone will give him anything.
3. The dependence of others on him and their demands for sustenance.

Similarly, the one who spends for the sake of Allah—that spending is analogous to the aforementioned garden, which is the Day of Resurrection. Likewise, the incapable person whose entire means of benefit relies on that garden.

However, if he follows his spending with reminders or harm, this is like a whirlwind that burns that garden, resulting in regret, confusion, and remorse. So too, when this harmful wealth is presented on the Day of Resurrection, and he is in utmost need to benefit from the reward of his deeds, he will find nothing there, and thus he will inevitably remain in the greatest sorrow, complete regret, and confusion.

This parable is of the utmost beauty and the height of perfection. Let us now discuss what relates to the words of the verse.

Regarding His Statement: {Does one of you like}

There are two issues concerning this:

The First Issue: Al-Wudd (liking/affection) is complete love.

The Second Issue: The hamza (interrogative particle) in {أيود} (A-yawaddu) is for denunciation. He said {أيود} and not {أيريد} (A-yurīdu - Does one of you want?) because we mentioned that Mawaddah (affection) is perfect love. It is known that everyone loves the absence of this state (i.e., the state of having the garden burned) with a complete and perfect love. Since the resulting state is the love of the absence of this situation, He used this term in the affirmative context: {أيود أحدكم} (Does one of you like) the occurrence of such a state, to indicate complete denunciation and the utmost repulsion, beyond which there is no higher degree.

Regarding His Statement: {a garden of date-palms and grapes}

Know that Allah Almighty described this garden with three characteristics:

The First Characteristic: Its being of date-palms and grapes. Know that a garden contains date-palms and grapes, but it is not made of them, except that due to the abundance of date-palms and grapes, it is as if the garden consists only of them. Date-palms and grapes were singled out because they are the noblest and most beautiful fruits in appearance when they remain on their trees.

The Second Characteristic: His statement: {rivers flow beneath it}. This is undoubtedly a cause for increased beauty in this garden.

The Third Characteristic: His statement: {For him therein is every kind of fruit}. This undoubtedly causes the perfection of the state of this orchard.

These are the three characteristics by which Allah Almighty described this garden. Undoubtedly, this garden is of the utmost beauty because, with these characteristics, it is pleasing to the eye, abundant in benefit and yield, and no greater beauty can be added to a garden than this.

Then, after this, He proceeded to explain the intensity of the owner's need for this garden, saying: {and old age has afflicted him}. This is because when a person becomes old and incapable of earning, the sources of his needs increase in terms of food, clothing, shelter, someone to serve him, and securing his interests. When the sources of need increase while the sources of income and earning decrease—except for that garden—then he is at the peak of need for that garden.

If it is asked: How is {and old age has afflicted him} connected (conjoined) to {Does one of you like}, and how is it permissible to conjoin the past tense with the future tense?

We reply that there are several answers:

1. The author of Al-Kashshāf said: The wāw (conjunction) here is for Hāl (circumstance), not for conjunction. Its meaning is: Is one of you like this while old age has afflicted him, and then it burns.
2. Al-Farrā’ said: "I wished that such a thing would happen, and I wished that such a thing would be." Thus, the conjunction is based on the meaning, as if it were said: "Does one of you like it if he has a garden and old age afflicts him?"

Then, the Almighty further clarified the need of that person for that garden, saying: {and he has weak offspring}. The meaning of the offspring's weakness is weakness due to smallness and infancy. So the meaning becomes: That person was in the utmost weakness and need for that garden due to old age, and he has offspring in the utmost weakness and need due to infancy and smallness.

Then the Almighty said: {Then a whirlwind struck it containing fire, and it was burned up}. Al-I'ṣār is a wind that rises and swirls toward the sky as if it were a column; this is what people call a tornado (zawba'ah). It is a wind of extreme intensity, as the poet said:

If you are a wind, then you have met a whirlwind.

The purpose of this parable is to explain the immense grief, affliction, regret, and confusion that will occur in the heart of this person, known only to Allah. Similarly, one who performs good deeds but does not intend them for the sake of Allah, but rather accompanies them with things that remove them from being deserving of reward—when he presents himself on the Day of Resurrection, while he is in utmost need and complete inability to earn, his regret will be immense, and his confusion will be absolute.

Similar to this verse is His statement: {And there will appear to them from Allah that which they had not reckoned} (Az-Zumar: 47), and His statement: {And We will proceed to what they have done of deeds and render them as scattered dust} (Al-Furqan: 23).

Then He said: {Thus does Allah make clear to you the verses}. Meaning, just as Allah makes clear His verses and proofs in this matter as encouragement and warning, so too does Allah make clear His verses and proofs in all matters of religion, {so that you may reflect}.

And concerning this, there are two issues:

The First Issue: The word la'alla (perhaps/so that) implies hope, which is not appropriate for Allah Almighty.

The Second Issue: The Mu'tazilah used this as evidence that Allah intended faith from everyone. The explanation of these two verses has been detailed previously.

< { O you who have believed, spend from the good things you have earned and from what We have produced for you from the earth. And do not intend the defective [of that] which you would not take yourselves except by [ignoring] it with your eyes. And know that Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy. } >