26خِتامُهُ مِسكٌ ۚ وَفي ذٰلِكَ فَليَتَنافَسِ المُتَنافِسونَMuhammad Asadpouring forth with a fragrance of musk.1 To that [wine of paradise], then, let all such aspire as [are willing to] aspire to things of high account:Lit., "the end whereof (khitamuhu) will be musk". My rendering of the above phrase reflects the interpretation given to it by several authorities of the second generation of Islam, and by Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Muthanna (all of them quoted by Razi). The "pure wine" (rahiq) of the hereafter - which, contrary to the wine of this world, will carry "the seal" (i.e., the sanction) of God because "no headiness will be in it, and they will not get drunk thereon" (37:47) - is another symbol of paradise, alluding, by means of comparisons with sensations that can be experienced by man, to the otherworldly sensations of joy which, in a form intensified beyond all human imagination, are in store for the righteous. Some of the great Muslim mystics (e.g., Jalal ad-Din Rumi) see in that "pure wine" an allusion to a spiritual vision of God: an interpretation which, I believe, is fully justified by the sequence.