فَهُوَ في عيشَةٍ راضِيَةٍ

في جَنَّةٍ عالِيَةٍ

قُطوفُها دانِيَةٌ

So he will have a pleasant life,

in an elevated garden,

whose clusters [of fruits] will be within easy reach.

EXEGESIS

So he will have a pleasant life is repeated in 101:7. It is a summary of the state of the felicitous and the three verses following this provide details to this pleasant life.

Rāḍiyah means pleasant but also means content and filled with satisfaction. So he will have a pleasant life can also, therefore, be read as: So he will have a life filled with contentment. And this would reflect the life of a soul at complete peace (89:27), pleased with God (rāḍiyah) and God too pleased with it (marḍiyyah) (89:28). A life and state of contentment in every sense: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

In an elevated garden (verse 22) is also given in 88:10. Numerous Islamic traditions speak of multiple levels in paradise, so elevated garden here may mean in its bounties and status, or spatially, or both. This is explained in greater detail under the verses in a lofty paradise (88:10) and in it there are raised couches (88:13).

Whose clusters [of fruits] will be within easy reach (dāniyah) in verse 23 also means the person in paradise will eat of them as he pleases, as much and as often.

Quṭūf (clusters) is picked fruit.^{‎[1]Hans Wehr, q-ṭ-f.} Qiṭāf is the picking season or the gathering and harvest of fruit.^{‎[2]Hans Wehr, q-ṭ-f.} Qiṭf also suggests quickly plucking a fruit from a tree.^{‎[3]Tibyan, 10/102.} Dāniyah means near or close. Quṭūfuhā dāniyah, therefore, gives us the meaning of fruit that is within easy reach, to pluck and eat. Indeed, verse 23 has led to the birth of the Arabic metaphor: dāni al-quṭūf, which means ‘within reach, at hand, easy to apply or use’.^{‎[4]Tibyan, 10/102.}

Most verses regarding the food and drink in paradise have been understood with this meaning, of constant accessibility and being ready-at-hand, and not requiring any toiling. For example, and goblets set (88:14) is explained by most exegetes to mean goblets that are ready-at-hand. See also 55:54, 56:32-33, and 76:14-19.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. From Salmān al-Fārsī from the Prophet: ‘None shall enter paradise without a pass that reads: “In the name of Allah, the all-beneficent, the all-merciful. This is a permit from Allah for so-and-so. Admit him into the elevated garden, whose clusters [of fruits] are within easy reach.”’^{‎[5]Ibn Kathir, 8/230-1; Tabrisi, 10/521.}
2. From the Prophet: ‘I saw paradise and came upon a cluster of grapes. Had I taken it, you would have eaten of it so long as the world remained.’^{‎[6]Bukhari, h. 5197; Muslim, h. 907.}

[1] Hans Wehr, q-ṭ-f.
[2] Hans Wehr, q-ṭ-f.
[3] Tibyan, 10/102.
[4] Tibyan, 10/102.
[5] Ibn Kathir, 8/230-1; Tabrisi, 10/521.
[6] Bukhari, h. 5197; Muslim, h. 907.