وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِى صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّۢ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهِمُ ٱلْأَنْهَٰرُ ۖ وَقَالُوا۟ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِى هَدَىٰنَا لِهَٰذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَهْتَدِىَ لَوْلَآ أَنْ هَدَىٰنَا ٱللَّهُ ۖ لَقَدْ جَآءَتْ رُسُلُ رَبِّنَا بِٱلْحَقِّ ۖ وَنُودُوٓا۟ أَن تِلْكُمُ ٱلْجَنَّةُ أُورِثْتُمُوهَا بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
And We will have removed whatever is within their breasts of resentment, [while] flowing beneath them are rivers. And they will say, "Praise to Allah, who has guided us to this; and we would never have been guided if Allah had not guided us. Certainly the messengers of our Lord had come with the truth." And they will be called, "This is Paradise, which you have been made to inherit for what you used to do."
Introduction
This is āyah 43 of Sūrat Al-A'raaf (The Heights), the 39th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 8. Meccan verses tend to address faith, the oneness of God, and the hereafter.
This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.
Revelation & occasion
- Period
- Meccan
- Order revealed
- 39 of 114
- Surah
- Al-A'raaf (7)
We shall strip away all the rancor that is in their breasts.... And it will be called out, “This is your Garden; you have been made to inherit it for what you were doing.” This is the attribute of the chevaliers of the Tariqah and the wayfarers of the road of the Haqiqah. The Exalted Lord first made their hearts pure of caprices and innovations so that they would step onto the avenue of the Sunnah and find the way to the plain texts of God's Book and MuṣṬafā's Sunnah. They let go of their own imagination and understanding in the signs of the attributes and dismissed the discernment of their own intelligence. They put forth their necks in compliance, accepted with their hearing, and set out on the road of surrender so as to escape from asserting His similarity and declaring His ineffectuality. Once more He made their hearts pure of this world and the defilement of this world so that the light of recognition shone in their hearts and the eyes of wisdom appeared in their hearts. He honored them with His gaze and removed friendship for the creatures from their hearts so that they were with Him entirely. They went forward in the reality of solitariness and came back from the secondary causes to the Causer. They saw One, they heard One, and they reached One, their tongue with remembrance, their hearts with reflection, their spirits with love; their tongues in men- tioning, their hearts in secret whispering, and their spirits in joy. As soon as my heart became entranced by Your beauty, it became the slave of Your majestic loveliness. Oh, exalted is he who sees Your face, Oh, magnificent is he who goes into Your sack. Know, however, that as long as the beginningless covenant does not seize your skirt, your heart will not accept this work. As long as the Real does not join with you, this path will not get along with you. As long as the Real does not gaze upon you, your heart will not want Him. And it will be called out, “This is your Garden; you have been made to inherit it for what you were doing.” He said “for what you were doing” to soothe the heart of the servant and to increase His caressing of him. Otherwise, the servant knows that his own neglectful deeds are not fitting for that Threshold and that those way stations and degrees are not the recompense for these acts. Nonetheless, through His bounty He makes the unworthy worthy and He adorns the displeasing. In this He shows the servant His good Godhood and loving kindness.
Tafsir
Hafiz Ibn Kathir
Chains of transmission
Oral — isnād
- ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation
Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.
- 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation
Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.
- TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation
Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.
Written — the manuscript record
- ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation
The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).
- 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation
Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.
- Modern printModern printawaiting curation
The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.
A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.
And now — what do you think?
The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.
Community resources
No community resources for this verse yet.