Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, Al Maghrib Institute Course 'Denial: Tafseer Surat Yasin & Surat Al Rahman'
The description of Jannah is in ayahs 46 until the end of the Surah. The scholars have said that this group of ayahs is describing two types of packages in Jannah: the elite package in the the upper levels of Jannah in ayahs 46-61 and the standard package in the lower levels of Jannah in ayahs 62-end. It is very common for the Qur'an to describe the righteous into two groups. And if you compare the two sections in parallel, you will see the same blessings, but one a higher notch than the other.
Ayah 46: 'But for him who fears the standing before His Lord (maqama Rabihi) there will be two Gardens.' You need taqwa, fear of standing before Allah, to get there.
Compare with Ayah 62 'And below these two, there are two other Gardens (jannataan).' Fear not mentioned here. The people who get this type of Jannah did not have the amount of fear the upper people had. Fear is the main emotion that keeps you from sins. Hope motivates you to do good deeds. Giving charity is far easier that avoiding sin. That's where the real test lies.
Two Jannahs? Is it exactly two? The theme of the surah is duality, everything is mentioned in pairs. And this is a well known technique in Arabic to use the dual form of the word in order to emphasize. Don't take it literally. Keep in mind that English does not have a dual form, only singular and plural forms. But Arabic has 3 - singular, dual, and plural.
Ayah 48: 'With afnan - full of branches'. Why does Allah describe Jannah as full of branches? By concentrating on the insignificant, your imagination is turned on to imagine the rest. It's like your wife visiting a fancy hotel in Dubai and she tells you 'even the elevator buttons are made of diamonds.' So this upper level of Jannah is so magnificent, it cannot be described with words. It leads you to try to imagine it.
Compare with Ayah 64: 'Mud hammataan - being dark green' This is the shortest verse in the Qur'an that is a complete sentence. In this lower level, Allah gives it a color, it's something you can describe. Green is a sign of dense, healthy foliage.
Ayah 50 'In them both will be two springs flowing free (tajriyaan).' In the higher level of Jannah, the water will be flowing- the water level is high.
Compare to Ayah 66 'In them both will be two springs bubbling out (nadhaakhataan). Here the water is bubbling out.
Ayah 52: 'In them both will be every kind of fruit in pairs (zawjaan).' Indescribable fruits, things your eyes have never seen, in all different varieties. Just like apples have 30 varieties, the fruits in Jannah will also have many varieties.
Compare to Ayah 68: 'In them are fruits, dates, and pomegranates.' There is a list: indicates there's not as much variety as upper level. Here is nice, but there's a menu. The lower level never feels bad when you read it, only when you compare it to the higher level do you see the difference. You will be content in both, you will not even know there is a higher or lower level.
Ayah 54: 'reclining upon couches (furush) lined with silk (istabraq).' These are couches with an inner lining of lush silk. Why would you describe furniture by what's on the inside? To make you think - if it's inner lining is silk, the outer fabric must be something even more luxurious. 'and the fruits of the two Gardens will be near at hand' When you want something, the fruit you want will just come and dangle itself in front of you. You don't even need to get up. In Jannah, the stomach never gets full, no bloating, no urination. You can eat for the enjoyment of eating and not suffer any after effects.
The description of Jannah is in ayahs 46 until the end of the Surah. The scholars have said that this group of ayahs is describing two types of packages in Jannah: the elite package in the the upper levels of Jannah in ayahs 46-61 and the standard package in the lower levels of Jannah in ayahs 62-end. It is very common for the Qur'an to describe the righteous into two groups. And if you compare the two sections in parallel, you will see the same blessings, but one a higher notch than the other.
Ayah 46: 'But for him who fears the standing before His Lord (maqama Rabihi) there will be two Gardens.' You need taqwa, fear of standing before Allah, to get there.
Compare with Ayah 62 'And below these two, there are two other Gardens (jannataan).' Fear not mentioned here. The people who get this type of Jannah did not have the amount of fear the upper people had. Fear is the main emotion that keeps you from sins. Hope motivates you to do good deeds. Giving charity is far easier that avoiding sin. That's where the real test lies.
Two Jannahs? Is it exactly two? The theme of the surah is duality, everything is mentioned in pairs. And this is a well known technique in Arabic to use the dual form of the word in order to emphasize. Don't take it literally. Keep in mind that English does not have a dual form, only singular and plural forms. But Arabic has 3 - singular, dual, and plural.
Ayah 48: 'With afnan - full of branches'. Why does Allah describe Jannah as full of branches? By concentrating on the insignificant, your imagination is turned on to imagine the rest. It's like your wife visiting a fancy hotel in Dubai and she tells you 'even the elevator buttons are made of diamonds.' So this upper level of Jannah is so magnificent, it cannot be described with words. It leads you to try to imagine it.
Compare with Ayah 64: 'Mud hammataan - being dark green' This is the shortest verse in the Qur'an that is a complete sentence. In this lower level, Allah gives it a color, it's something you can describe. Green is a sign of dense, healthy foliage.
Ayah 50 'In them both will be two springs flowing free (tajriyaan).' In the higher level of Jannah, the water will be flowing- the water level is high.
Compare to Ayah 66 'In them both will be two springs bubbling out (nadhaakhataan). Here the water is bubbling out.
Ayah 52: 'In them both will be every kind of fruit in pairs (zawjaan).' Indescribable fruits, things your eyes have never seen, in all different varieties. Just like apples have 30 varieties, the fruits in Jannah will also have many varieties.
Compare to Ayah 68: 'In them are fruits, dates, and pomegranates.' There is a list: indicates there's not as much variety as upper level. Here is nice, but there's a menu. The lower level never feels bad when you read it, only when you compare it to the higher level do you see the difference. You will be content in both, you will not even know there is a higher or lower level.
Ayah 54: 'reclining upon couches (furush) lined with silk (istabraq).' These are couches with an inner lining of lush silk. Why would you describe furniture by what's on the inside? To make you think - if it's inner lining is silk, the outer fabric must be something even more luxurious. 'and the fruits of the two Gardens will be near at hand' When you want something, the fruit you want will just come and dangle itself in front of you. You don't even need to get up. In Jannah, the stomach never gets full, no bloating, no urination. You can eat for the enjoyment of eating and not suffer any after effects.
Compare with Ayah 76: 'Reclining on green fine cushions (rafraf) and rich beautiful carpets ('abqariyy). In the lower level, they will also be reclining - relaxing. But rafraf is not as soft as furush, it's more like cushions. Also, notice the color is given again, so it's something that can be imagined, it's a color that we know. This indicates that the upper levels of Jannah will have colors that are beyond our spectrum of colors.
After talking about the foliage, the rivers, the fruits, and the furnishings of Jannah, the next blessing is the Hur al 'ayn.
Ayah 56: 'There will be women limiting their gaze (qasirat'il tarf), untouched by man or jinn.' This is an indirect reference to hur al 'ayn. A woman who will be looking only at one man - her attention will only be for this man. The jinn is mentioned, meaning that the jinn will also have their own hur.
Ayah 58: 'They are like rubies (yaqut) and small pearls (marjaan). Their purity will be like rubies, their color white like pearls.
Ayah 60: 'Is there any reward for good (Ihsan) other than good (Ihsan)?' This is a rhetorical question: If a person has practiced Ihsan, what can they expect from Allah except Ihsan? Remember that the section about the higher levels of Jannah began by talking about Taqwa (fear of standing before Allah). And now it ends by talking about Ihsan - the highest level of faith (Emaan). This shows that this is the higher level of Jannah, given to those with Ihsan.
Some additional description about Hur from the lower section:
Ayah 70: 'In them are women who are pure and beautiful (khayrat hisaan).' Hisaan is the plural of hasnaa' - the one who is stunningly beautiful.
Ayah 72: 'Hur guarded (maqsoorat) in tents (khiyaam).' Hur is the plural of hawar which means big beautiful eyes. Why bring up the eyes? Because if the eyes are so perfect, then what do you think the rest of her will be? Allah also uses the word hawar because it is a decent way to describe beauty and the body of a woman. It is not indecent or vulgar. The tents: each one will be in her own tent - not for everyone to see. The Prophet (SAW) described these tents as carved inside hollow pearls. Also, notice in this ayah the direct reference to Hur al 'Ayn.
Ayah 74: 'Untouched by man nor jinn.' Same as before.
End of description of Jannah
Some discussion about Hur al 'ayn by the Shaykh to keep in mind:
A lot of sisters are uncomfortable listening to a discussion about Hur. It's understandable that no woman wants to share her husband with any other woman. The wives of the Prophet (S) were also very jealous. Allah has created men and He knows what entices men. Allah created women and He knows what will entice women. For man, the #1 attraction is a woman, this is in the Qur'an. Let me very frank here, Jannah would not be a Jannah for a man without hoor. If you ask a woman what she would want in Jannah, she would say a good book on the beach with some tea. The woman is a private creature.
So in the end of the day, Allah has said what He has said. Your job is to submit. You don't have to be happy nor do you have to understand. But you don't have a right to reject or ridicule. Because then you are rejecting and ridiculing Allah. Console yourself that you will not be sharing him in this world and that when you get to Jannah, it will not be an issue. There it won't matter to you because there are no feelings of jealousy in Jannah.
Qurtubi explained the Hur as just a thing in Jannah. They will not be enjoying the Jannah. But the women of Jannah have entered Jannah because of their deeds and will be enjoying all the aspects Jannah. And the companionship and love of the husbands will only be towards their spouse and not the Hur.
Brothers, it is not funny to joke about Hu al 'Ayn in front of your wife. Allah never talks about this topic in a derogatory fashion. The Prophet (SAW) never teased 'Aishah about the hur. Anyone who does this is not a gentleman. If you want hur al 'ayn, you will get it by waking up for tahajjud, not by joking about it in front of your wife. The more you joke about it, the less chance you have of getting it. If your wife said something about another man, your blood would boil. Isn't your wife also human too? From the sunnah and the seerah, we never see the Prophet (SAW) or the sahaba cracking jokes about the hur.
When non-Muslims bring up hur al 'ayn, say ok, here in this world, when somebody becomes a millionaire and they go on a vacation, what is their ultimate vacation? Good food, good wine, good women, beaches, and palm trees. They try to get it here on earth, we will get it in Jannah.
From Q&A:
We don't know how many levels of Jannah there are. We don't have a certain number. Some get confused between Jannah and samaawaat. There are 7 heavens, samaawaat - this is referring to the 7 layers of Allah's creations. We are on the first heaven and Jannah is in the 7th, the highest layer.
Women who were single in the dunya or died before getting married will have a spouse in Jannah.
Your spouse in Jannah will be kind and loving, even if he was not so kind in the dunya.
You will get whatever you ask for in Jannah - if you like gardening you can do that, if you like fishing you can fish... etc.
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Wallahu A3lam.
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