What does “udkhulul jannata antum wa azwajukum tuhbarun” mean (Qur’an 43:70)?
“Udkhulul jannata antum wa azwajukum tuhbarun” is the invitation spoken to the believers on the day of resurrection, and the verse reads: “Enter the garden, you and your spouses, in delight.” [Qur’an 43:70]. In Arabic it is written ٱدخلوا ٱلجنّة أنتم وأزوٰجكم تُحْبَرون. Word by word: “udkhulū” is a command given to a group, “enter”; “al-jannata” is the garden; “antum wa azwājukum” is “you and your spouses”; and “tuḥbarūn” is a passive verb from the root ḥ-b-r, which holds gladness and honour together in one word.
The sentence falls at the close of a passage about the hour. It opens with the hour arriving while people do not perceive it (43:66), and with close friends on that day becoming enemies to one another except for those mindful of God (43:67). Then the address turns to the believers: “My servants, no fear is upon you this day, nor shall you grieve” (43:68), spoken to “those who believed in our signs and surrendered themselves to God” (43:69). The invitation follows immediately, and after it come “whatever the souls desire and the eyes delight in” (43:71) and “the garden you have been given to inherit for what you used to do” (43:72).
“Azwāj” is read in more than one way by the commentators. Its ordinary sense is spouses, and much of the tradition takes it that way here, so that a husband and wife who both reach the garden enter it together. Others read it more widely as those of like kind, the company a person belongs with, since the root carries pairing rather than marriage alone. Both readings are transmitted and the verse does not settle between them. The same pairing appears in Ya-Sin, where the people of the garden are “they and their spouses, in shade, reclining on couches” (36:56), and the theme of being joined to one’s people runs through “their spouses, and their descendants” (13:23), the angels’ prayer to “admit them to the gardens of Eden you have promised them” (40:8), and the promise “we join their descendants to them” (52:21).
“Tuḥbarūn” is the promise attached to the entering. The root ḥ-b-r describes a gladness that reaches the face, and the same verb returns in Ar-Rum for those who believed and did righteous deeds: “they will be in a garden, filled with joy” (30:15). The command to enter belongs to a family of welcomes across the Qur’an: “Enter the garden — no fear upon you, nor shall you grieve.” (7:49), “Enter them in peace, secure.” (15:46), and the greeting at the opened gates of Az-Zumar, where those who were mindful are told they have been good and may “enter here to stay” (39:73).
📖 Source: Qur’an 43:66–73; 36:56; 13:23; 40:8; 52:21; 30:15; 7:49; 15:46; 39:73
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