Surah Al-Baqarah 2:35
سُورَةُ البَقَرَةِ · Medinan · Verse 35 of 286
وَقُلْنَا يَٰٓـَٔادَمُ ٱسْكُنْ أَنتَ وَزَوْجُكَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ وَكُلَا مِنْهَا رَغَدًا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمَا وَلَا تَقْرَبَا هَٰذِهِ ٱلشَّجَرَةَ فَتَكُونَا مِنَ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
Translation
We said, ‘Adam, live with your wife in this garden. Both of you eat freely there as you will, but do not go near this tree, or you will both become wrongdoers.’
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And We said: O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in the Garden, and eat freely from wherever you wish; but do not approach this tree, lest you be among the wrongdoers.' al-Saadi and Ibn Kathir note the vast permission and the single limit, 'eat freely from wherever you wish', with only one thing forbidden: near-total freedom, bounded by a single test. Ask yourself: the design is telling, abundance almost without limit, and one prohibition. Yet the human heart fixates on the one 'no' amid a thousand 'yeses'. It mirrors my own life: overwhelmingly blessed, permitted so much, yet obsessed with the few things withheld, feeling deprived by a single boundary while ignoring an ocean of gifts. The forbidden tree is small; the freedom is enormous. Do I dwell in gratitude for all that is open to me, or in resentment fixated on the one door God, in His wisdom, asked me to leave shut?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur.
Topics that discuss this verse
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