ارك

Core meaning

The adorned couch: the seat of honoured rest, where one reclines in the Garden and from where one looks on.

Uses

1. عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ with مُتَّكِـِٔين → "reclining on adorned couches" : the rest of those who have received the Garden.

   • «مُّتَّكِـِٔينَ فِيهَا عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ» — "reclining on adorned couches" (18:31)
   • «عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ مُتَّكِـُٔونَ» — "reclining upon adorned couches" (36:56)

2. عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ with a gaze → "on adorned couches", "upon adorned couches" : the place from which the virtuous observe, and from which they laugh at those who laughed at them.

   • «عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ يَنظُرُونَ» — "on adorned couches, they will look" (83:23)
   • «ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنَ ٱلْكُفَّارِ يَضْحَكُونَ عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ» — "those who believed are laughing at the disowners, upon adorned couches" (83:35)

Evidence from the text

The five uses describe the Garden, and the word is never alone there: it carries a posture, that of peaceful reclining (18:31, 36:56, 76:13), or a gaze (83:23, 83:35). The adorned couch is not a piece of furniture described: it is the place of one who has nothing more to fear.

Sura 83 makes it the place of a reversal. In this world, those who cut themselves off "used to laugh at those who believed" (83:29) and winked at one another as they passed; on the appointed day, "those who believed are laughing at the disowners, upon adorned couches" (83:34-35), and they look whether these have received the return of what they used to do (83:36). The laughter changes sides, and the adorned couch is the seat from which one witnesses it.

See also

وكء (to recline) · ضحك (laughter)