Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Their greeting on the day they meet Him will be peace, and He has prepared for them a noble reward.”

Then Allah the Exalted said: The pronoun refers to the believers. The meaning of the greeting is supplicating for longevity. So if one says, “May you live,” it means he is supplicating for your longevity. Then it became a name for what is used to welcome a guest or an entrant, or similar expressions indicating honor. So the greeting, originally, is what? It is supplicating for longevity and life. Then it was transferred in common usage to everything by which a person is welcomed and greeted with expressions of honor. So “their greeting” means the greeting of the believers. Whom do they meet? Allah. On the day they meet Allah, which is the Day of Resurrection, whether in the vast plains of the Resurrection or after their entry into Paradise. So their greeting at that time is The author said: “with the tongues of the angels”, meaning that the angels are the ones who greet these people by the command of Allah. If they greet them by the command of Allah, it is as if the one greeting is Allah. But this diverts the verse from its apparent meaning, for the apparent meaning of the verse is that the one greeting is Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And if the peace is from Allah, it is pure information and not supplication, for Allah the Exalted does not supplicate for anyone, but He informs of the eternal peace that is not subject to any deficiency or any fear. But if it is from the angels, it may be information or it may be supplication. [Ar-Ra'd: 24] The correct view, without doubt, is that this peace is from Allah, because He says: The one who meets is the one who greets, and He is the one who gives life to these people. And there is no doubt that if the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, says to them, “Peace be upon you,” all fear is removed from them. For this reason, Paradise is called the Home of Peace, as Allah the Exalted said: [Yunus: 25] because it is a home safe from every affliction. There is no sickness in it, no death, no old age, and no deficiency in provision. Rather, it contains what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and what has not entered the heart of any human being, as the Mighty and Majestic said: [As-Sajdah: 17] They say, “purification after cleansing,” meaning the purification of water after we have removed the germs from it. What is the meaning? Purification means adorning with beauty after cleansing. First, we polish the water and remove its defects and dirt, and then we adorn it. Do not adorn it while it is full of dirt; that is not appropriate. So when He said: meaning from afflictions, He mentioned after that This is purification after cleansing. When He informed them that they are safe from every affliction, He made it clear that He has prepared for them a noble reward. The author said: “It is Paradise”. The reward means the recompense, which is what is given to the worker in exchange for his work. It is called a reward and it is called wages. But it has been mentioned to us many times that the reward of the workers for their work is not a matter of exchange. For if it were a matter of exchange, it would be one of the blessings of Allah upon the servant that encompasses all his work. Rather, if it were on the basis of exchange, your success in the work would be a blessing that requires a reward. For this reason, some of them said:
“If my gratitude is a blessing of Allah, a blessing upon me, then gratitude is due for it in like manner.
So how can the attainment of gratitude be achieved except by His grace, even if the days lengthen and life continues?”
And it is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: So how do we describe the work if it is not a wage? We describe it as a cause, not a wage. For this reason, Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has stated in several verses that this recompense is a consequence of what they used to do, meaning by reason of what they used to do. So the letter *ba* in His saying: indicates causality. And the letter *ba* in the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): indicates exchange. And by this, the two texts are reconciled. The reward is the noble one. And the noble one is the one who bestows the reward as a favor. We must know that “noble” is used for the generous one who gives money, and it is used for the beautiful thing. From this is the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to Mu'adh: meaning the good deed. So his saying: means beautifully. So what is the nobility of this recompense or this reward? That Allah made the good deed how many times? Ten times its value, up to seven hundred times, up to many multiples. This is one aspect. And from another aspect, how long is the duration of a person’s stay in this world compared to the Hereafter? It is nothing at all and cannot be compared. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: The world you are in, or the world before you, or the one after you? The one before you, the one after you, and the one you are in. The place of the whip, and the whip, as you know, is about a meter long, is better than the world and what is in it. So the nobility of this reward means that it is not attributed to the work, or more accurately, the work is not attributed to it, because its nobility is vast and has no end. O Allah, make us and you among them.