Al-Nāziʿāt, 40-41 (Tafsīr Al-Saʿdī)

Shaykh
Categorized under: Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil, Fear, Matters of the Heart, Qurʿān, Tafsīr, Taqwá

وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ وَنَهَى النَّفْسَ عَنِ الْهَوَىٰ (40) فَإِنَّ الْجَنَّةَ هِيَ الْمَأْوَىٰ (41)

As for one who fears standing before his Lord [for the Reckoning] and forbids his [own] soul from [partaking] in [ruinous] desires, indeed, Paradise is the place where he will come to reside. (Al-Nāziʿāt, 40-41)

The great scholar, ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir Al-Saʿdī, may Allāh have mercy on him, said:

وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ
As for the one who fears standing before his Lord

Meaning: He fears standing before Him and His just retribution. So this fear has an effect on his heart and he forbids his [own] soul from [following] its desires, [those] that would hold him back from obeying Allāh. His desires [then] become subordinate to that which the Messenger [ﷺ] came with, and he fights the lusts and desires that get in the way of goodness.

فَإِنَّ الْجَنَّةَ
Then, indeed, Paradise

[which has all good things, happiness, and bliss]

هِيَ الْمَأْوَى
is the final destination

for the one who fits this description.

Source: Taysīr Al-Karīm Al-Raḥmān