كُلوا وَاشرَبوا هَنيئًا بِما أَسلَفتُم فِي الأَيّامِ الخالِيَةِ
[They will be told:] ‘Eat and drink, enjoying [yourselves], for what you had sent in advance in past days.’
EXEGESIS
Hanīʾan is an adverb of manner from hanīʾ and is a congratulatory term used to express that which is healthful, salubrious, and wholesome. It is always used in the Quran regarding consumption (4:4) and especially food and drink (52:19, 69:24, 77:43). The terms hanīʾan marīʾan (4:4) or hanīʾan laka have come to be an Arabic expression for ‘bon appétit!’.
The term al-ayyām al-khāliyah has also become an Arabic expression for ‘days past’ and even used as al-qurūn al-khāliyah (past centuries).
Khāliyah, translated as past here, suggests empty, void, open, free, and vacant. Besides empty or vacant, permutations of the original root khalā can also suggest to pass, elapse, and be over time.
For what you had sent in advance (bi-mā aslaftum) refers to the righteous actions they performed whilst in the world, as given in two other verses very similar to this: [They will be told:] ‘Eat and drink, enjoying [yourselves], [as a reward] for what you used to do’ (52:19 and 77:43).
In past days then, means in the days when they lived on the earth.
EXPOSITION
This is an affectionate address by God or His angels to the faithful. The words for what you had sent in advance in past days confirms that man ‘sends’ his good and evil ahead of him, to the next world, where it awaits him in the form of bliss or torment respectively (2:110, 22:10, 75:13, 78:40, 82:5). It is noteworthy as well that whilst the wrongdoers will not be punished with any more than what they deserve, the righteous will have their good deeds, however insignificant, multiplied, and they shall be rewarded abundantly out of God’s grace and mercy (2:261, 6:160, 27:89, 28:84).
Eat and drink, enjoying [yourselves] is an invitation to the faithful to indulge themselves, without guilt, in all that they had held themselves back from in the world when seeking to purify their souls. The physical pleasures of paradise have a spiritual dimension to them that is absent from the corporeal pleasures of this world. The latter is sought only to alleviate pain and one tires from worldly pleasures after having indulged in them. In paradise, however, the apparent physical pleasures also increase one’s realisation of the Benefactor, thereby elevating a person in his or her proximity to God.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- From the Prophet: ‘Work [good], follow [right], and come close [to Allah] [to show your submission and obedience to Him], but know that none of you will enter paradise due to his actions.’ They asked: ‘Not even you, O Apostle of Allah?’ ‘Not even me,’ he replied, ‘unless Allah covers me with His mercy and grace.’
Note: This tradition and others like it confirms the understanding in Islam that God, out of His kindness, rewards man for his past actions by giving them some importance, purifying them from the taints of selfishness and polytheism, multiplying them, and then rewarding man for what you had sent in advance in past days, but in reality, man stands in need of God’s grace to attain salvation in the hereafter, and this is also proven by the verse, were it not for Allah’s grace and His mercy upon you, not one of you would ever be pure (24:21).
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
The phrase al-ayyām al-khāliyah translates literally as ‘empty days’ and so has also been understood by some exegetes, including Rāzī and Suyūṭī, to allude to the days of fasting whilst in this world.
[1] Hans Wehr, h-n-ʾ.
[2] Hans Wehr, kh-l-w.
[3] Bukhari, 7/70, h. 577; Muslim.
[4] Razi, 30/629; Suyuti, 6/262.