Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:18
سُورَةُ الوَاقِعَةِ · Meccan · Verse 18 of 96
بِأَكْوَابٍۢ وَأَبَارِيقَ وَكَأْسٍۢ مِّن مَّعِينٍۢ
Translation
with glasses, flagons, and cups of a pure drink
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'With goblets, pitchers, and a cup from a flowing spring.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the drink is from 'ma'in', a pure, ever-flowing spring, not a stagnant store; living water, endlessly renewed at the source. Ask yourself: the pleasures I chase here are drawn from finite stores, a fixed supply that depletes with use, so I must keep refilling, hoarding, worrying it will run out. This verse pictures delight drawn from a flowing source that never empties. It names the difference between a pleasure I have to ration and a joy fed by an inexhaustible spring. Am I anxiously guarding shallow, drying reservoirs of happiness, when the reward held out is a joy poured continuously from a source that cannot run dry?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:18 is discussed in 7 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:18 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.