As-Sajdah 32:17 - Linguistic Miracle

Therefore, no soul knows what was kept hidden for them, of what is the coolness of eyes; as a reward of what they consistently used to do They stayed up late at night and preferred standing in prayer over resting their eyes. Their eyes hurt because of lack of sleep, and to compensate, Allah will cool their eyes in the hereafter with things they have never seen. This also applies metaphorically to other aspects as we discussed in the last verse. They left the comfort of their bodies their desires, and therefore they shall be compensated by Allah with things and in a manner they have never seen or experienced before.

Some grammatical nuances:

Therefore -The letter fa is translated as therefore but it can also be fa al faṣīḥa which

exposes or reveals a hidden sentence that is understood from the context. If we take this to be a fa al faṣīḥa, then the verse would be rendered as - They were rewarded in a

manner above their hopes and expectations and hence, no soul knows what was kept hidden for them, of what is the coolness of the eyes.

They had hopes and expectations from Allah on how He will reward them, but the way Allah rewarded them on judgment not only surpassed their hopes and expectations, it was something they had never even known. They did not even think that the things Allah rewarded them with could even exist. This is why it says “what was hidden from them.” It means something whose existence was withheld from them such that they did not even know about it. This famous ḥadīth perfectly describes this verse:

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ عَنِ ، عَنْ هَمَّ امِ بْنِ مُنَبِّهٍ ، أَخْبَرَنَا مَعْمَرٌ ، أَخْبَرَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ ، حَدَّ ثَنَا مُعَاذُ بْنُ أَسَدٍ

وَلاَ ، وَلاَ أُ ذُنٌ سَمِعَتْ ، النَّ بِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ” قَالَ اللَّهُ أَعْدَدْتُ لِعِبَادِي الصَّالِ حِينَ مَا لاَ عَيْنٌ رَأَ تْ خَطَرَ عَلَى قَلْبِ بَشَرٍ

The Prophet ( )ﷺ said, “Allah said, “I have prepared for My righteous slaves (such excellent things) as no eye has ever seen, nor an ear has ever heard nor a human heart can ever think of.’ (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 7498) Soul- The word س ‰ نف - translated as soul- is indefinite which creates meaning of

generality. Any soul that was righteous, not just the prophets or the people especially chosen by Allah; but every single person. Anyone who does any good, will be rewarded for that with such excellent things that he has never seen, nor heard and which have never crossed his mind.

Of what is the coolness of eyes - The normal expected way of speech would have been so no soul knows what is kept hidden for the coolness of their eyes - instead of the way it is phrased in this verse. This creates an Idafah which denotes the meaning of perfection and completeness. For example, if I say; their project will be perfectly completed versus the perfect project will be completed; there is a difference. In the first sentence, perfection

is relative to their plans while the second sentence denotes completeness and perfection in totality. It is the perfect project. There is no other project that surpasses it. Same is the meaning in this verse. The coolness and comforting of the eyes is not relative to each person; rather it is perfect and complete by itself. There is nothing that surpasses such comfort.

A reward of what they consistently used to do -The present tense here denotes repetition

of action. These were consistent actions, almost habitual. Recall that in verse 15, Allah described the believers as those who submitted and became humble inside this world as opposed to the disbelievers who only did so on judgment day. Just as the disbelief in judgment and justice led the disbelievers to commit grave crimes whose consequences they faced on judgment day, so did the humility and submission to

Allah, while alive in this world, led the believers to do such excellent deeds that led them to obtain the perfect and everlasting comfort.