Appearance
The Men on the Aʿrāf
وَبَيْنَهُمَا حِجَابٌ ۚ وَعَلَى ٱلْأَعْرَافِ رِجَالٌ يَعْرِفُونَ كُلًّۢا بِسِيمَىٰهُمْ ۚ وَنَادَوْا۟ أَصْحَـٰبَ ٱلْجَنَّةِ أَن سَلَـٰمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ ۚ لَمْ يَدْخُلُوهَا وَهُمْ يَطْمَعُونَ
(7:46) There will be a veil between them. And on the Elevations will be certain men who recognize each of them by their mark. They will call out to the inhabitants of paradise, ‘Peace be to you!’ (They will not have entered it, though they would be eager to do so.
The question
Who are the “men on the Elevations (al-aʿrāf)” who recognise everyone by their marks on the Day of Resurrection — angels, people whose good and evil deeds are equal, the disadvantaged, or people of the highest rank near God?
Views answered: the exegetes' many views (up to fourteen), the view of most exegetes: those whose good and evil deeds are equal, Tafsīr al-Manār
Al-Mizan's argument
Al-Mizan sets out three possibilities — that the men on the Aʿrāf are not human, that they are people left out of the reckoning, or that they are people of high rank — and argues for the last: the verse calls them “men”, which angels are never called, and what the verses say of them (overseeing both groups, recognising everyone, greeting the people of paradise, admitting believers to it) fits only those near to God. It lists the exegetes' views on the Aʿrāf and up to fourteen views on the men, reduces them to three, and notes that most exegetes favour the view that they are those whose good and evil deeds are equal, because of the narrations. It then assesses Tafsīr al-Manār point by point: al-Manār rejected a narration naming ʿAbbās, Ḥamzah, ʿAlī and Jaʿfar correctly, but for the wrong reason, through a literal picture of the hereafter. In the narrations al-Mizan examines the reports about those whose deeds are equal, explains them as referring to the disadvantaged waiting for God's decree, and gives the narrations from the Imams that the men on the Aʿrāf are the Imams themselves.
Reading guide
Each part opens the commentary at that point.
- The veil, the Elevations, and three possibilities
- Why they are people of high rank
- Not angels, and not the disadvantaged
- What the verses say of them
- The exegetes' views on the Aʿrāf
- Up to fourteen views on the men, in three groups
- The narration naming ʿAbbās, Ḥamzah, ʿAlī and Jaʿfar
- Assessing Tafsīr al-Manār
- The meaning of Aʿrāf in the Qur'an
- Narrations: those whose good and evil deeds are equal
- How those narrations are to be understood
- Narrations from the Imams on the men of the Aʿrāf
- “We are the Aʿrāf”: the meaning of these narrations