The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 5) — Page 165
PT. 27 AR-RAḤMĀN 49. Having many varieties of trees. 4075 50. Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you twain deny? 51. In both of them there are two fountains flowing freely. 4076 52. Which, then, of the favours of your Lord will you twain deny? pursuit of material pleasures and comforts. One Paradise consists in giving up one's desires for the sake of God in this world and the other in being blessed with God's pleasure in the next. A true believer perpetually basks in the sun of God's grace in this life which cares cannot disturb. This is Paradise upon earth which is granted to a God-fearing man and in which he constantly dwells; the promised Heaven in the next world is only an image of the present Paradise, being an embodiment of the spiritual blessings which such a man enjoys in this life. It is to this paradisiacal state of a true believer that the two Quranic verses refer, viz. "We are your friends in this life and in the Hereafter," (41:32) and "for them are glad tidings in the present life and also in the Hereafter" (10:65). The "two Gardens" may also refer to the mighty Byzantine and Iranian Empires of which the conquest was promised to the Muslims. The Holy Prophet in a vision was given the keys of the palaces of the Emperors of Constantinople and Iran. The 3061 CH. 55 ذَوَاتَا أَفْنَانٍ فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّ بْنِ فِيْهِمَا عَيْنُنِ تَجْرِينِ فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَنِ vision was literally fulfilled during the Caliphate of ‘Umar when these countries were conquered by Muslim armies. The fact that in a ḥadīth, Sāiḥān and Jaihān, the two rivers of Iran; and Furāt (the Euphrates) and Nīl (the Nile) have been spoken of as the rivers of Paradise (Muslim), lends powerful support to the view that the "Gardens" spoken of in the verse were the fertile valleys watered by these two sets, each of two rivers. 4075. Commentary: Just as in the present life true believers had undergone many kinds of sacrifice for the sake of their Lord and had done all sorts of good and those sacrifices and good works will righteous deeds, so in the next life assume the form of flowers and fruits of various hues and tastes. This seems to be the meaning of this verse. 4076. Commentary: The "two fountains running freely" may be the spiritual embodiments of (the obligations owed to God) and (the obligations a Muslim owes to his fellow beings) which the