At-TīnThe Fig

Ibn ʿAbbās and others held that the fig and olive refer to well-known lands associated with these fruits, often linked to the region of Prophet ʿĪsā عليه السلام; al-Ṭūr Sīnīn is the mountain where Allah spoke to Mūsā عليه السلام; 'this secure city' is Makkah, from which Muḥammad ﷺ was sent.

Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

Al-Qurṭubī records differing views on whether al-tīn and al-zaytūn name the actual fruits, sacred mountains bearing them, or lands where prophets were sent, without settling on one meaning as certain.

Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān

Al-Ṭabarī considers the most correct view to be that al-tīn and al-zaytūn refer to the known fruits, while Ṭūr Sīnīn and al-balad al-amīn refer to Mount Sinai and Makkah.

Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān

Aḥsan taqwīm refers to the finest proportion and form: an upright stature, sound limbs, and faculties of reason and understanding granted to no other creature in this combination.

Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

Al-Qurṭubī notes that some early exegetes read taqwīm as including moral and intellectual capacity, not merely bodily shape — the human being alone was given the disposition to know and worship.

Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān

'The lowest of the low' (asfala sāfilīn) is explained by most exegetes as the weakness and decrepitude of old age, or, by others, as the lowest depths of the Hellfire for those who reject faith — the exception in āyah 6 shows the second sense fits the argument better: only disbelief and evil deeds bring that lowest fall.

Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

Al-Ṭabarī transmits both views — old age (arḏal al-ʿumur) and the Fire — but explicitly selects old age as most correct, arguing that the exception in āyah 6 guarantees believers an uninterrupted reward for their good deeds even when decrepitude prevents them from performing them.

Cited toAl-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān

Having established creation in the best form and the real difference belief and deeds make, denying recompense afterward becomes unreasonable; the closing question calls the reasoning mind to affirm what it should already accept.

Cited toIbn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm

It is reported that reciting this closing āyah invites the response 'Balā, wa-anā ʿalā dhālika min al-shāhidīn' ('Yes indeed, and I am among those who testify to it') — a practice attributed to some early reciters, though not as an obligatory ruling upon every reciter.

Cited toAl-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān