فردوس

Core meaning

Proper name of a garden. The text names it as the end reached by those who have believed and done sound deeds: a lodging, and an inheritance. The translation keeps the name: "the Firdaws".

Uses

1. ٱلْفِرْدَوْس → "the Firdaws" : the garden given as a lodging and received as an inheritance.

   • «كَانَتْ لَهُمْ جَنَّٰتُ ٱلْفِرْدَوْسِ نُزُلًا» — "will indeed have, as a lodging, the Gardens of the Firdaws" (18:107)
   • «ٱلَّذِينَ يَرِثُونَ ٱلْفِرْدَوْسَ» — "who will inherit the Firdaws" (23:11)

Evidence from the text

Each of the two uses closes a portrait. In 18:107, after those whose work has strayed (18:103-106), come those who have believed and done sound deeds: the Firdaws is their lodging, where they abide "eternally, not seeking to be shifted from it" (18:108). In 23:11, the name closes the list of the traits of the believers (23:1-9): those are "the inheritors", and what they inherit is the Firdaws.

The text does not describe the place; it says how one enters it. A lodging (نُزُل) supposes a host who receives; an inheritance supposes what comes to someone by what he has become.

Distinctions

• عدن — the Gardens of permanence: named by their duration, whereas the Firdaws is named as the end of a path

See also

جنن (the Garden)