Then he resumed explaining in response to one who seemed to say: What is it that they have been specifically warned with this severe warning? He, the Exalted, said: ﴿What do they have in it﴾ meaning the saying ﴿of knowledge﴾ at all, because it is something that knowledge cannot be attached to, as there is no existence for it and its existence is not possible. Then he affirmed this meaning and emphasized it with His saying, the Exalted: ﴿nor for their forefathers﴾ who are pleased with following them in religion, even in this which no rational person can conceive. Even if they made a mistake in a worldly matter, they would not follow them in it, as a reminder that it is not permissible for anyone to speak about Allah, the Exalted, without knowledge, especially in the fundamentals of religion. Then he made the matter more severe with His saying, the Exalted: ﴿Great is﴾ meaning their statement, this

Ibn al-Zubayr said in his proof: It is well-established and famous that the Quraysh sent to the Jews in Medina asking them about the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him and his family. The Jews responded by asking him three things. They said: If he answers them, then he is a prophet; if he fails, then the man is a liar, so consider your opinion about him. These were the spirit, the youth who went in the early times and were the people of the cave, and a man who traveled to the east and west of the earth. So Allah sent down to him the answer to what they asked, some of which is in Surah al-Isra: "And they ask you about the spirit" [al-Isra: 85]. And He began Surah al-Kahf with His praise and the mention of the blessing of the Book and what He sent down to the Quraysh and the disbelievers of the Arabs of punishment on the Day of Badr and the Year of the Conquest, and the glad tidings for the believers about that and what Allah, glorified and exalted is He, granted them of eternal bliss. And a warning to those who speak of having a child from the Christians and the great sin they committed and the disgrace of their saying: "They say nothing but lies" and a consolation for the Prophet of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, regarding all of them: "Perhaps you will kill yourself with grief" [al-Kahf: 6]. The verses came together in the greatest of unions and the best of coherence, to mention what the disbelievers asked about the youth: "Or did you think that the companions of the cave and the inscription were among Our signs a wonder?" [al-Kahf: 9]. Then the verses elaborated their story, clarified their matter, and fulfilled their news. Then He mentioned, glorified and exalted is He, the matter of Dhul-Qarnayn and his travels and the end of his affair. He said, glorified and exalted is He: "And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn" [al-Kahf: 83] - the verses. The two stories were separated by admonitions and new verses in the most complete connection and the most perfect coherence. Among them is the story of the two men and the gardens of one of them and the beauty of the two gardens and what was between them and the disbelief of his companion and his delusion. They were from the Children of Israel, and they have a story, and these verses have clarified it by the delusion of one of them regarding what he had and his reliance on the illusion of permanence, and the reliance of his companion on what is with his Lord and his return to Him and the end of his affair - after the dialogue that took place in the verses between them - to remove what the deluded one imagined would last, and the return of that as if it had never been, and nothing remained in his hand except regret. And nothing remained for him from his garden after that great joy except for decay and non-existence. This is the state of one who relies on anything other than the Owner of everything except His face, glorified and exalted is He, is transient and perishing: "Indeed, the worldly life is but play and diversion" [Muhammad: 36]. "So flee to Allah" [al-Dhariyat: 50]. Then He followed that with a parable of the worldly life for those who reflect and understand, and He followed those verses with the story of Musa and al-Khidr, peace be upon them, to its completion. In all of that is a lesson for the Children of Israel, a reprimand for them, and a rebuke for their wrongdoing in their hesitance from faith and their reprimand for their delusion when they fatwaed the disbelievers of Quraysh by asking him, peace be upon him, about the three stories, that they had acquired knowledge and were unique in knowing what no one else knows. So the response of Quraysh came in a way that humbles everyone and cuts off their roots. In the mention of the story of Musa and al-Khidr is a hint for them if they understood, and a stirring for those among them who have been granted happiness, and a reminder for every successful one in submitting to the knowledge of the All-Knowing, the All-Aware. After their reprimand and rebuke for what was indicated, the speech returned to the rest of their question, and He said, glorified and exalted is He: "And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn" [al-Kahf: 83] to the end of the story. And the elaboration of these stories is not our objective, and it has occurred. What remains is only the question about the aspect of the separation of their response and its occurrence in the two surahs, although the question is one. And this is not among our conditions, so let us postpone it, by the will of Allah, to its proper place if He wills - it has ended. And it has been previously mentioned in Surah al-Isra from the response to this that the spirit was included in it, because it is from the secret of the kingdom like the Isra. And it remains that when He summarized the matter for what He mentioned of the great secret, He reproached them for their preoccupation with the question and neglecting what is from its world, which is greater than it and all that has emerged into existence from that world of the spirit, the spiritual which is the basis for the rectification of all existence, which is the great Qur'an. And He magnified its matter by what He mentioned in al-Isra until the situation required in concluding its greatness that it indicates the rectification of existence through it by what He clarified, detailed, and established regarding the two remaining questions, which are from the apparent kingdom in what has been included in them by which the matter has been completed, and what has been clarified regarding its great status. It was most complete in that what was encompassed by it was a surah in its own right. And when the matter of the people of the cave was about preserving the spirit in the body in a way that has never been known before, then its pouring forth, He preceded the answer about the question about them to follow the matter of the spirit, and He concluded with Dhul-Qarnayn to encompass his matter with what he traveled through the earth, and for what he made of the barrier as a sign of the end of the affair of this abode and the conclusion of its matter, and the folding of what has emerged from its spread - and Allah, glorified and exalted is He, knows best.