The Star
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[53:14]
by the lote-tree of the farthest limit,

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* v.14 : I.e., on the occasion of his mystic experience of the “Ascension” (mi‘rāj). Explaining the vision conveyed in the expression sidrat al-muntahā, Rāghib suggests that owing to the abundance of its leafy shade, the sidr or sidrah (the Arabian lote-tree) appears in the Qur’ān as well as in the Traditions relating to the Ascension as a symbol of the “shade – i.e., the spiritual peace and fulfilment – of paradise. One may assume that the qualifying term al-muntahā (“of the utmost [or “farthest”] limit”) is indicative of the fact that God has set a definite limit to all knowledge accessible to created beings, as pointed out in the Nihāyah: implying, in particular, that human knowledge, though potentially vast and penetrating, can never – not even in paradise (the “garden of promise” mentioned in the next verse) – attain to an understanding of the ultimate reality, which the Creator has reserved for Himself (cf. note 6 above).