Surah 18. Al-Kahf

ALL PRAISE is due to God who has bestowed this divine writ from on high upon His servant, and has not allowed any deviousness to obscure its meaning¹ :

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "and has not given it any deviousness". The term 'iwaj signifies "crookedness", "tortuousness" or "deviation" (e.g., from a path), as well as "distortion" or "deviousness" in the abstract sense of these words. The above phrase is meant to establish the direct, unambiguous character of the Qur’an and to stress its freedom from all obscurities and internal contradictions: cf. 4:82 - "Had it issued from any but God, they would surely have found in it many an inner contradiction!"

Praise be to Allah Who has revealed the Book to His servant and did not make it complicated.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Praise be to Allah Who hath revealed the Scripture unto His slave, and hath not placed therein any crookedness,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[a divine writ] unerringly straight, mean to warn [the godless] of a severe punishment from Him, and to give unto the believers who do good works the glad tiding that theirs shall be a goodly reward -

  - Mohammad Asad

It is straightforward so that He may warn about the terrible punishment for the unbelievers from Him and give good news to the believers who do good deeds that they shall have a goodly reward,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

(But hath made it) straight, to give warning of stern punishment from Him, and to bring unto the believers who do good works the news that theirs will be a fair reward,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[a state of bliss] in which they shall dwell beyond the count of time.

  - Mohammad Asad

which they will enjoy forever.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Wherein they will abide for ever;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Furthermore, [this divine writ is meant] to warn all those who assert, "God has taken unto Himself a son."

  - Mohammad Asad

Further to warn those who say "Allah has begotten a son."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And to warn those who say: Allah hath chosen a son,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

No knowledge whatever have they of Him,² and neither had their forefathers: dreadful is this saying that comes out of their mouths, [and] nothing but falsehood do they utter!

  - Mohammad Asad

Most of the classical commentators (and, as far as I am aware, all the earlier translators of the Qur'an) relate the pronoun in bihi to the assertion that "God has taken unto Himself a son", and hence take the phrase to mean, "They have no knowledge of it", i.e., no knowledge of such a happening. However, this interpretation is weak inasmuch as absence of knowledge does not necessarily imply an objective negation of the fact to which it relates. It is, therefore, obvious that bihi cannot signify "of it": it signifies "of Him", and relates to God. Hence, the phrase must be rendered as above - meaning that they who make such a preposterous claim have no real knowledge of Him, since they attribute to the Supreme Being something that is attributable only to created, imperfect beings. This interpretation is supported, in an unequivocal manner, by Tabari and, as an alternative, by Baydawi.

They have no knowledge about it, nor do their forefathers, this is a monstrous word that comes from their mouths. They speak nothing but a lie.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

(A thing) whereof they have no knowledge, nor (had) thee fathers. Dreadful is the word that cometh out of their mouths. They speak naught but a lie.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But wouldst thou, perhaps,³ torment thyself to death with grief over them if they are not willing to believe in this message?⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "it may well be that thou wilt...", etc. However, the particle la'alla does not, in this context, indicate a possibility but, rather, a rhetorical question implying a reproach for the attitude referred to (Maraghi XIII, 116).

This rhetorical question is addressed, in the first instance, to the Prophet, who was deeply distressed by the hostility which his message aroused among the pagan Meccans, and suffered agonies of apprehension regarding their spiritual fate. Beyond that, however, it applies to everyone who, having become convinced of the truth of an ethical proposition, is dismayed at the indifference with which his social environment reacts to it.

O Muhammad! You probably will kill yourself in grief over them, if they do not believe in this Message (The Qur'an).

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Yet it may be, if they believe not in this statement, that thou (Muhammad) wilt torment thy soul with grief over their footsteps.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Behold, We have willed that all beauty on earth be a means by which We put men to a test,⁵ [showing] which of them are best in conduct;

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "We have made all that exists on earth as its adornment in order that We might put them [i.e., all human beings] to a test": meaning that God lets them reveal their real characters in their respective attitudes - moral or immoral - towards the material goods and benefits which the world offers them. In further analysis, this passage implies that the real motive underlying men's refusal to believe in God's spiritual message (see preceding verse) is almost always their excessive, blind attachment to the good of this world, combined with a false pride in what they regard as their own achievements (cf. 16:22 and the corresponding note [15]).

We have decked the earth with all kinds of ornaments to test the people and to see which of them do the best deeds.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Lo! We have placed all that is in the earth as an ornament thereof that we may try them: which of them is best in conduct.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

and, verily, [in time] We shall reduce all that is on it to barren dust!

  - Mohammad Asad

In the end We shall reduce all that is on it to a barren wasteland.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And lo! We shall make all that is therein a barren mound.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[AND SINCE the life of this world is but a test,]⁶ dost thou [really] think that [the parable of] the Men of the Cave and of [their devotion to] the scriptures could be deemed more wondrous than any [other] of Our messages?⁷

  - Mohammad Asad

This interpolation establishes the elliptically implied connection between the long passage that follows and the preceding two verses.

Lit., "that the Men of the Cave... were more wondrous...", etc. - the implication being that the allegory or parable based on this story is entirely in tune with the ethical doctrine propounded in the Qur'an as a whole, and therefore not "more wondrous" than any other of its statements. - As regards the story of the Men of the Cave as such, most of the commentators incline to the view that it relates to a phase in early Christian history - namely, the persecution of the Christians by Emperor Decius in the third century. Legend has it that some young Christians of Ephesus, accompanied by their dog, withdrew into a secluded cave in order to be able to live in accordance with their faith, and remained there, miraculously asleep for a great length of time (according to some accounts, referred to in verse 25 of this surah, for about three centuries). When they finally awoke - unaware of the long time during which they had lain asleep - they sent one of their company to the town to purchase some food. In the meantime the situation had changed entirely: Christianity was no longer persecuted and had even become the official religion of the Roman Empire. The ancient coin (dating from the reign of Decius) with which the young man wanted to pay for his purchases immediately aroused curiosity; people began to question the stranger, and the story of the Men of the Cave and their miraculous sleep came to light. As already mentioned, the majority of the classical commentators rely on this Christian legend in their endeavour to interpret the Qur'anic reference (in verses {9-26}) to the Men of the Cave. It seems, however, that the Christian formulation of this theme is a later development of a much older oral tradition - a tradition which, in fact, goes back to pre-Christian, Jewish sources. This is evident from several well-authenticated ahadith (mentioned by all the classical commentators), according to which it was the Jewish rabbis (ahbar) of Medina who induced the Meccan opponents of Muhammad to "test his veracity" by asking him to explain, among other problems, the story of the Men of the Cave. Referring to these ahadith, Ibn Kathir remarks in his commentary on verse {13} of this surah: "It has been said that they were followers of Jesus the son of Mary, but God knows it better: it is obvious that they lived much earlier than the Christian period - for, had they been Christians, why should the Jewish rabbis have been intent on preserving their story, seeing that the Jews had cut themselves off from all friendly communion with them [i.e., the Christians]?" We may, therefore, safely assume that the legend of the Men of the Cave - stripped of its Christian garb and the superimposed Christian background - is, substantially, of Jewish origin. If we discard the later syncretic additions and reduce the story to its fundamentals - voluntary withdrawal from the world, agelong "sleep" in a secluded cave and a miraculous "awakening" after an indeterminate period of time - we have before us a striking allegory relating to a movement which played an important role in Jewish religious history during the centuries immediately preceding and following the advent of Jesus: namely, the ascetic Essene Brotherhood (to which, as I have pointed out in note [42] on 3:52, Jesus himself may have belonged), and particularly that of its branches which lived in self-imposed solitude in the vicinity of the Dead Sea and has recently, after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, come to be known as the "Qumran community". The expression ar-raqim occurring in the above Qur'an-verse (and rendered by me as "scriptures") lends strong support to this theory. As recorded by Tabari, some of the earliest authorities - and particularly Ibn 'Abbas - regarded this expression as synonymous with marqum ("something that is written") and hence with kitab ("a writ" or "a scripture"); and Razi adds that "all rhetoricians and Arabic philologists assert that ar-raqim signifies [the same as] al-kitab". Since it is historically established that the members of the Qumran community - the strictest group among the Essenes - devoted themselves entirely to the study, the copying and the preservation of the sacred scriptures, and since they lived in complete seclusion from the rest of the world and were highly admired for their piety and moral purity, it is more than probable that their mode of life made so strong an impression on the imagination of their more worldly co-religionists that it became gradually allegorized in the story of the Men of the Cave who "slept" – that is, were cut off from the outside world - for countless years, destined to be "awakened" after their spiritual task was done. But whatever the source of this legend, and irrespective of whether it is of Jewish or Christian origin, the fact remains that it is used in the Qur'an in a purely parabolic sense: namely, as an illustration of God's power to bring about death (or "sleep") and resurrection (or "awakening'); and, secondly, as an allegory of the piety that induces men to abandon a wicked or frivolous world in order to keep their faith unsullied, and of God's recognition of that faith by His bestowal of a spiritual awakening which transcends time and death.

Do you think that the Companions of the Cave and of Ar-Raqeem (this may refer to the name of their dog, or the tablet on which their names are inscribed or the mountain in which the cave is situated) were among Our wonderful signs?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Or deemest thou that the People of the Cave and the Inscription are a wonder among Our portents?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

When those youths took refuge in the cave, they prayed: "O our Sustainer! Bestow on us grace from Thyself, and endow us, whatever our [outward] condition, with consciousness of what is right!"⁸

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "and provide for us, out of our condition (min amrina), consciousness of what is right" - which latter phrase gives the meaning of the term rushd in this context. This passage is a kind of introduction to the allegory of the Men of the Cave, giving a broad outline of what is expounded more fully in verses {13} ff.

When those young men took refuge in the cave, they said "Our Rabb! Have mercy on us from Yourself and guide us out of our ordeal."

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

When the young men fled for refuge to the Cave and said: Our Lord! Give us mercy from Thy presence and shape for us right conduct in our plight.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall