English Translation and Commentary of the Holy Quran (2010)

by Maulana Muhammad Ali

Chapter 18: Al-Kahf — The Cave (Revealed at Makkah: 12 sections, 110 verses)

Section 1 (Verses 18:1–18:12): A Warning to the Christians

Translation:

بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

اَلۡحَمۡدُ لِلّٰہِ الَّذِیۡۤ اَنۡزَلَ عَلٰی عَبۡدِہِ الۡکِتٰبَ وَ لَمۡ یَجۡعَلۡ لَّہٗ عِوَجًا ؕ﴿ٜ۱﴾

18:1 Praise be to Allah! Who revealed the Book to His servant, and did not allow in it any crookedness,

قَیِّمًا لِّیُنۡذِرَ بَاۡسًا شَدِیۡدًا مِّنۡ لَّدُنۡہُ وَ یُبَشِّرَ الۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ الَّذِیۡنَ یَعۡمَلُوۡنَ الصّٰلِحٰتِ اَنَّ لَہُمۡ اَجۡرًا حَسَنًا ۙ﴿۲﴾

18:2 rightly directing,1 to give warning of severe punishment from Him and to give good news to the believers who do good that theirs is a goodly reward,

مَّاکِثِیۡنَ فِیۡہِ اَبَدًا ۙ﴿۳﴾

18:3 staying in it forever;

وَّ یُنۡذِرَ الَّذِیۡنَ قَالُوا اتَّخَذَ اللّٰہُ وَلَدًا ٭﴿۴﴾

18:4 and to warn those who say: Allah has taken to Himself a son.

مَا لَہُمۡ بِہٖ مِنۡ عِلۡمٍ وَّ لَا لِاٰبَآئِہِمۡ ؕ کَبُرَتۡ کَلِمَۃً تَخۡرُجُ مِنۡ اَفۡوَاہِہِمۡ ؕ اِنۡ یَّقُوۡلُوۡنَ اِلَّا کَذِبًا ﴿۵﴾

18:5 They have no knowledge of it, nor had their fathers. Grievous is the word that comes out of their mouths. They speak nothing but a lie.2

فَلَعَلَّکَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفۡسَکَ عَلٰۤی اٰثَارِہِمۡ اِنۡ لَّمۡ یُؤۡمِنُوۡا بِہٰذَا الۡحَدِیۡثِ اَسَفًا ﴿۶﴾

18:6 Then perhaps you will kill yourself with grief, sorrowing after them, if they do not believe in this announcement.3

اِنَّا جَعَلۡنَا مَا عَلَی الۡاَرۡضِ زِیۡنَۃً لَّہَا لِنَبۡلُوَہُمۡ اَیُّہُمۡ اَحۡسَنُ عَمَلًا ﴿۷﴾

18:7 Surely We have made whatever is on the earth an embellishment for it, so that We may try which of them is best in works.

وَ اِنَّا لَجٰعِلُوۡنَ مَا عَلَیۡہَا صَعِیۡدًا جُرُزًا ؕ﴿۸﴾

18:8 And We shall surely make what is on it dust, without vegetation.4

اَمۡ حَسِبۡتَ اَنَّ اَصۡحٰبَ الۡکَہۡفِ وَ الرَّقِیۡمِ ۙ کَانُوۡا مِنۡ اٰیٰتِنَا عَجَبًا ﴿۹﴾

18:9 Or, do you think that the companions of the Cave and the Inscription were from among Our wonderful signs?5

اِذۡ اَوَی الۡفِتۡیَۃُ اِلَی الۡکَہۡفِ فَقَالُوۡا رَبَّنَاۤ اٰتِنَا مِنۡ لَّدُنۡکَ رَحۡمَۃً وَّ ہَیِّیٔۡ لَنَا مِنۡ اَمۡرِنَا رَشَدًا ﴿۱۰﴾

18:10 When the youths sought refuge in the Cave, they said: Our Lord, grant us mercy from Yourself, and provide for us a right course in our affair.

فَضَرَبۡنَا عَلٰۤی اٰذَانِہِمۡ فِی الۡکَہۡفِ سِنِیۡنَ عَدَدًا ﴿ۙ۱۱﴾

18:11 So We prevented them from hearing in the Cave for a number of years,6

ثُمَّ بَعَثۡنٰہُمۡ لِنَعۡلَمَ اَیُّ الۡحِزۡبَیۡنِ اَحۡصٰی لِمَا لَبِثُوۡۤا اَمَدًا ﴿٪۱۲﴾

18:12 then We raised them up that We might know which of the two parties was best able to calculate the time for which they remained.7

Commentary:

  1. The Quran is here described as possessing two qualifications. The first refers to its own perfection, there is no crookedness in it; and the second speaks of it as a book suited to make others perfect, for it is called qayyim, as meaning one that rightly directs others. ↩
  2. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said: He who remembers the first ten verses of the chapter entitled The Cave is protected from the tribulation of Dajjāl (the Antichrist) (Sahih Muslim, 6:42). In another report the last ten verses of The Cave instead of the first ten are mentioned (Abu Dawud, 36:12). Now in the first and the last sections of this chapter the Christian doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is condemned. In the first section a warning is given to those who say Allah has taken to Himself a son (v. 4), in the last two to those who take My ser­vants to be friends besides Me (v. 102), and this doctrine, the doctrine of son­ship and of the divinity of a servant of God, is the basic doctrine of the Christian reli­gion. Moreover, in the concluding ten verses, a true description of the occupa­tion of Christian nations is given in the words whose effort goes astray in this world’s life (v. 104). The Holy Prophet’s saying quoted above plainly shows that the Dajjāl of the Hadith is the same as the upholders of the erroneous Christian doc­trine of the sonship and divinity of Jesus Christ. Christianity, in its present form, being opposed to the true teachings of Christ, is thus the only Antichrist known to the Quran. ↩
  3. The anxiety which the Holy Prophet felt on account of a fallen huma­nity was so great that he is spoken of here as almost killing himself with grief. His was a life of absolute devotion to the cause of humanity, his only concern being that man should rise to the true dignity for which God had made him. This anxiety was not only for those who were directly addressed by him, but, as the context shows, it was as deep for another people, who attributed a son to the Divine Being, and whom outward finery was to mislead to such an extent as to make them strangers to spiritual truth. Reading the next verse leaves no doubt that the Prophet was shown the earthly embellishments which are so great a trial for Christendom today. The word announcement here refers to the Quran. ↩
  4. The picture drawn here is of the beautiful cities of the modern age, with all their attractions and luxuries, which so engross people that they neither pay attention to the preaching of truth nor to the pursuit of righteousness. The earth will be first beautified to its utmost, we are told here, and then laid waste, by man’s own hands, lofty buildings being reduced to dust and beautiful gardens being turned into bare earth without any vegetation on it. All prophecies made known through the righteous servants of God, the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus Christ, and then through the Quran and the Hadith, point to world-wide conflicts in the latter days, of nation rising against nation, and of destruction of cities on a vast scale. Science first embellished the earth and science is now turn­ing it into a waste, by its atom bombs and other diabolic inventions. ↩
  5. The Cave stands for the Christian institution of monkery, this being the distinctive characteristic which it assumed soon after its birth. Raqīm means an inscrip­tion or a tablet with a writing upon it. The Inscription contains a propheti­cal reference to an aspect of the Christian religion quite opposed to its first aspect of growth in the Cave. Inscription (or Advertisement) is, in fact, as prominent a feature of the business activities of the Christian nations of today as the Cave was a feature of their religious activities in the early days. The Quran seems to have chosen the epithets to designate the Christian nations by indicating their most pro­minent characteristics in their early and their latter days. The account from here to v. 22 is generally identified with the memorable story of the “seven sleepers”, Christian youths who took refuge in a cave to escape the persecution of the Roman Emperor Decius around the year 250 C.E. Accord­ing to the story, the Emperor ordered the entrance to the cave to be blocked with stones. It is stated that the youths fell asleep as soon as they were shut up in the cave, and awoke 187 years after this in the reign of Theodosius (some state 375 years), when the stones were removed to supply building material for some edifice. They then sent one of their number to bring food for them from the city, but he was taken to the judge on presenting a coin of the reign of Decius, and thus the youths were discovered. The story as narrated in the Quran does not credit the unnatural incidents of the above account. It only speaks of some men having taken refuge in a dark cave on account of a religious persecution; where and when it does not state. After they had rested for a part of a day, they made arrangements to get their food from outside (v. 19), and remained in this condition for “a number of years” (v. 11), but were subsequently discovered, and an edifice being built at the mouth of the cave caused their death (v. 21). It mentions con­jectures as to their number and the number of years they remained in the cave (v. 22), but does not go beyond saying that there were some men who remained in the cave for some years. However, the story itself is not without a deeper meaning, and more state­ments than one show that there is a reference to the history of Christianity itself in the story. ↩
  6. The meaning is that these people remained cut off from the rest of the world for a number of years. The Quran does not support the story that they remained in the cave for hundreds of years or that they were asleep all this time. ↩
  7. The raising them up might signify raising them up from sleep, as also raising them up into a condition of activity, after their remaining cut off from the world, as stated in the previous verse. ↩

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