Sūrah 83 · Āyāt 18–28

The passage (83:18-28). The mirror-image of Sijjin now opens with {Kalla!}: {Indeed the record of the righteous is in 'Illiyyun} — {a written record, witnessed by those brought near (al-muqarrabun)}. There follows the most luminous scene in the Surah: {the righteous (al-abrar) in bliss, upon couches gazing}, their faces bearing {the radiance of bliss}, {given to drink of a sealed pure-wine (rahiq makhtum) whose seal is musk} — {and for that let the competitors compete} — {its mixture from Tasnim, a spring from which those brought near drink}.

'Illiyyun and the radiance. Al-Tusi and al-Tabarsi range the classical views of 'Illiyyun — the seventh heaven where believers' souls are (Qatada, Ka'b), Sidrat al-Muntaha, Paradise itself (Ibn 'Abbas), or a tablet of chrysolite beneath the Throne — and explain the sound-plural form (waw/nun) as magnifying "elevation upon doubled elevation." Al-Mizan makes the structural point that these verses exactly parallel the Sijjin verses, so 'Illiyyun is "the high ranks and stations of nearness to God." On {witnessed by the muqarrabun}, al-Tabarsi and al-Tusi take them as the recording angels, whereas al-Mizan argues from {a spring the muqarrabun drink} that they are "a people of Paradise higher in rank than the general righteous" — the people of certainty who see it (cf. Takathur 5-6).

The drink of the righteous. All four sources read {rahiq} as pure, unadulterated wine (al-Khalil: "the finest"), {makhtum} either sealed in its vessel with musk or having a musk-scented finish — al-Tabarsi and al-Tusi give both, al-Mizan favoring "only the precious, pure thing is sealed." On {let the competitors compete}, al-Mizan glosses tanafus as racing toward the good (Hadid 21; Ma'ida 48), and al-Tabarsi cites the hadith that "whoever fasts for God on a hot day, God gives him to drink of the sealed pure-wine," and the Prophet's bequest to 'Ali to the same effect. On {Tasnim}, al-Tabarsi and al-Tusi describe a spring poured "from above," which al-Mizan, with al-Tusi, shows the verse itself defines: {a spring the muqarrabun drink} — drunk pure by the brought-near but mixed into the righteous' cup, proving (al-Mizan) "Tasnim is superior to the sealed pure-wine, and the muqarrabun higher in rank than the righteous."

The Imami reading. Al-Qummi and al-Burhan identify the muqarrabun who drink Tasnim pure as "the Family of Muhammad" — the Messenger, 'Ali, Fatima, al-Hasan, al-Husayn, and the Imams — anchoring this in {the foremost, the foremost; those are the brought-near} (Waqi'a 10-11) and {We joined their progeny to them} (Tur 21). Al-Burhan carries the lengthy "clay of 'Illiyyun" cosmology (al-Kafi, from Imam al-Baqir: the believers' hearts created from the same clay as the Imams), the al-Mi'raj narration of the two pre-existent lights, al-Harith al-Hamdani's vision of the Shi'a's stations, and Imam al-Sadiq's word that "whoever leaves wine, even not for God's sake, to guard himself, God gives him the sealed nectar" — all rendered here as-attributed Shi'i ta'wil, set beside the plain eschatological reading the same works also carry.