of Paradise! And how could it be permissible for them to say regarding the first provision they are provided with of its fruits, when nothing else has preceded it for them: 'This is what we were provided with before'? Unless a person of error and misguidance attributes to them lying speech, from which Allah has purified them (1), or unless someone denies that this was part of their speech for the first provision they were provided with of its fruits, thereby denying the truth of what Allah made obligatory to be true by His statement: {Whenever they are provided with a provision of fruit therefrom}, without setting up any indication that a specific condition among conditions was intended by it rather than another.

Thus it has become clear through what we have explained that the meaning of the verse is: Whenever those who believe and do righteous deeds are provided with a provision from a fruit of the fruits of Paradise in Paradise, they say: "This is what we were provided with before this in the world." (2)

If a questioner asks us and says: How could the people say, "This is what we were provided with before," when that which they were provided with before has ceased to exist by their eating it? And how could it be permissible for the people of Paradise to make a statement that has no reality to it?

It is said: The matter is other than what you have gone to regarding that. Rather, its meaning is: This is of the type of fruit and provision that we were provided with before this. Just like a man saying to another: "So-and-so has prepared for you such-and-such foods, varieties of cooked dishes, roasts, and sweets." So the one to whom that was said says: "This is my food in my home." Meaning by that: that the type of food his companion mentioned he had prepared for him is his food, not that the specific individual items his companion informed him he had prepared for him are his food. Rather, that is something which it is not permissible for any listener who hears him say that to imagine he meant or intended, because that is contrary to the customary way of speech of the speaker. Indeed, the speech of every speaker is directed toward what is known among people in its customary usages, not to obscure meanings. Likewise is that in His statement: "They said: This is what we were provided with before," since what they had been provided with before had passed away and ceased to exist. Thus it is known that they meant by that: This is of the type that we were provided with before, and of its kind