Tafsir of Al-Qalam 68:17

"Indeed, We have tested the people of Mecca" with drought and hunger through the supplication of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) against them, "as We tested the companions of the garden." They were a people from the People of the Book whose father owned this garden two parasangs from Sana'a. He would take from it his annual sustenance and give the rest in charity. He would leave for the poor what the sickle missed, what remained at the bottom of the heaps, what the grape-gatherers missed, and what remained on the mat spread beneath the palm tree after it was harvested. A great amount would thus be gathered for them.

When he died, his sons said: "If we do as our father did, our affairs will be straitened, for we have large families." So they swore to harvest it in the morning, in the darkness (al-sudf), secretly from the poor, and they did not make an exception (istithna') in their oath. Consequently, Allah burned their garden. It is said they were from the Children of Israel.

"In the morning" (musbihin): entering the morning early. "And they did not make an exception" (la yastathnun): they did not say "If Allah wills."

If you ask: Why is it called an exception when it is a condition? I say: Because it performs the function of an exception, in that the meaning of your saying "I will go out, if Allah wills" is "I will not go out unless Allah wills." They are one and the same.

"So there circled upon it" (fatafa 'alayha): a trial or destruction, a "circling" (ta'if), like His saying: "And it was encompassed with ruin" (Al-Kahf: 42). It is also read as tayf. "And it became like the harvested" (ka-l-sarim): like that which has been cut, due to the destruction of its fruit. It is said al-sarim is the night, meaning it burned and turned black. It is also said it is the day, meaning it withered and its greenness departed. Or that nothing remained in it, from their saying "the vessel was whitened" (bayyada al-ina') when it is emptied. It is also said al-sarim means the sands.

"Harvesting" (sarimin): reaping.

If you ask: Why was it not said "Go early to your tillage" (ighdu ila harthikum), and what is the meaning of "upon" ('ala)? I say: Since the going early was for the purpose of harvesting and cutting it, it was a "going upon it," just as you say "the enemy went upon them" (ghada 'alayhim). It is also permissible that the "going" implies the meaning of approaching, as in their saying "he is approached with the bowl," meaning they approached their tillage early.

"Whispering" (yatakhafatun): speaking secretly among themselves. Khafa, khafata, and khafada all share the meaning of concealment.

"That there shall not enter it" (an la yadkhulannaha): an is explanatory. Ibn Mas'ud read it by omitting it, implying a verb of speech: they whispered, saying "no one shall enter it." The prohibition of entry for the poor is a prohibition against enabling them to enter, meaning: "Do not enable them to enter until he enters," like your saying "I will not see you here."

"Hard" (al-hard): from the saying "the year was haradat" when it withheld its bounty; and "the camel was haradat" when it withheld its milk. The meaning is: they went forth early, capable of withholding, not incapable of benefiting. They intended to withhold from the poor and deprive them while they were capable of benefiting them. They went forth in a state of poverty and loss of wealth, where they were capable of nothing but withholding and deprivation. They sought to deprive the poor, so they were hastened with deprivation and misery. Or, they went forth capable of the "withholding" of their garden and the departure of its goodness, instead of being capable of attaining its goodness.

"Capable" (qadirin): used ironically, meaning capable of what they intended—harvesting and depriving the poor. It is said al-hard means anger; they were capable of nothing but rage and anger toward one another, as in His saying: "blaming one another" (Al-Qalam: 30). It is also said al-hard means speed and intent.

"They said" upon arriving: "Indeed, we are lost"—we have missed our garden, for it is not this, due to the destruction they saw. When they contemplated and realized it was indeed it, they said: "Rather, we are deprived"—deprived of its goodness due to our own transgression.

"The most moderate of them" (awsatuhum): the most just and best of them. "Why do you not glorify?" (lawla tusabbihun): Why do you not remember Allah and repent to Him for your wicked intention? It is as if the most moderate of them said to them when they resolved upon this: "Remember Allah and His vengeance against the criminals, and repent from this wicked resolve immediately." But they disobeyed him, so he reproached them. The proof is their saying: "Exalted is our Lord! Indeed, we were wrongdoers."

"Blaming one another": because some of them encouraged it, some accepted, some ordered restraint, some disobeyed, and some remained silent while being pleased.

"That He may replace for us": read with both tashdid (doubling) and takhfif (lightening). "To our Lord we are desirous": seeking goodness from Him, hoping for His pardon.

"Such is the punishment": like the punishment with which We tested the people of Mecca and the companions of the garden is the punishment of this world. "But the punishment of the Hereafter is greater and more severe."

Qatada was asked about the companions of the garden: "Are they of the people of Paradise or the people of the Fire?" He replied: "You have burdened me with trouble." Mujahid said: "They repented, so they were given something better in its place." It is narrated from Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): "It reached me that they were sincere, and Allah knew their truthfulness, so He replaced it for them with a garden called al-Hayawan, in which there are grapes where a mule would carry a single cluster."

"Indeed, for the righteous with their Lord are the Gardens of Pleasure."