'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'

Tafsir of Surah Al-Kahf

This surah is Meccan according to the saying of all the interpreters. It has been narrated from a group that the beginning of the surah was revealed in Medina, up to His saying, the Exalted: "Jurzًا", but the first is more correct.

And it is among the best surahs of the Qur'an. It has been narrated that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "Shall I not inform you of a surah whose greatness is between the heavens and the earth, and for whoever brings it, there is a reward like that?" They said: Which surah is it, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "Surah Al-Kahf. Whoever recites it on Friday, will have his sins forgiven between that Friday and the next Friday - and an addition of three days in the narration of Anas - and whoever recites it will be given light between the heavens and the earth, and will be protected from the trial of the grave."

His saying, the Exalted:

﴿All praise is due to Allah, who has sent down to His servant the Book and has not made therein any deviation﴾ ﴿Straightforward, to warn of a severe punishment from Him and to give good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that they will have a good reward﴾ ﴿They will abide therein forever﴾ ﴿And to warn those who say, 'Allah has taken a son'﴾ ﴿They have no knowledge of it, nor do their forefathers. Grave is the word that comes out of their mouths; they say not except a lie﴾

Hafs from Asim used to pause lightly at His saying, the Exalted: "Any deviation" and at "Marqadina" in Yasin. The reason for this beginning in this surah is that when the Quraysh asked him about the three matters: the soul, the cave, and Dhul-Qarnayn - as the Jews had commanded them regarding them - the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said to them: "Tomorrow I will inform you of the answer to your question," and he did not say: "If Allah wills." So Allah, the Exalted, admonished him by withholding revelation from him for fifteen days. The disbelievers of Quraysh spread rumors about him, saying: Muhammad has been abandoned by the spirit that used to come to him from the jinn, and some of them said: He has failed in his lies, and other than that. This troubled the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and it affected him. When the matter that Allah, the Exalted, intended to admonish Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, was concluded, revelation came from Allah, the Exalted, with the answers to the questions and other than that. The revelation began with: "All praise is due to Allah, who has sent down to His servant the Book," meaning: according to your claim, O Quraysh, as one says to a man who loves to insult you but sees nothing but your blessings: All praise is due to Allah, who has bestowed upon me and has done such and such for me, in relation to the blessing upon him. And "the Book" is the Qur'an.

And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿And He has not made therein any deviation﴾ means: He has not led it away from the path of righteousness. "Deviation" is the absence of uprightness, and it is with the breaking of the 'ain in matters and paths, and what does not feel upright as a person, and "deviation" with the opening of the 'ain in persons, like a stick and a wall and the like. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: And He has not made it created.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And His saying, the Exalted: ﴿And He has not made therein any deviation﴾ includes this and all that he mentioned that there is no contradiction in it, and that there is no flaw or difference in it.

And His saying, exalted is He: "Qayyiman" is in the accusative case as a description of "the Book." It means that it is placed after the wording, that is: He sent down the Book as Qayyiman. And there is an interruption between the description and the described by His saying: ﴿And He did not make therein any crookedness﴾. Al-Tabari mentioned this interpretation from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him. It is permissible that it is in the accusative case due to an implied verb, the meaning of which is: He sent it down, or He made it Qayyiman. And in some copies of the companions, it is: "And He did not make therein any crookedness but made it Qayyiman," as said by Qatadah. The meaning of "Qayyim" is upright. This is the saying of Ibn Abbas and Al-Dhahhak. It is said that its meaning is that it is Qayyim over all the Books by its arrangement. Al-Mahdawi mentioned this.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is a possibility and is not from the uprightness. It is possible that the meaning of "Qayyim" is its standing by the command of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, over the worlds. This meaning is supported by what follows it of warning and glad tidings concerning the worlds. And "the severe punishment": the torment of the Hereafter. It is possible that the punishment of this world, such as Badr and others, is included with it in the warning. Its accusative case is on the second object, and the meaning is: to warn the worlds. And His saying, exalted is He: "From Him" means: from Him and from before Him, and the pronoun refers back to Allah, exalted is He. The majority read: "From Him" with a dammah on the dal and a sukoon on the nun and a dammah on the ha. And Asim in the narration of Abu Bakr read: "Min Ladunhi" with a sukoon on the dal and a slight dammah on it and a kasrah on the nun and ha. In "Ladun" there are dialects. It is said: "Ladun" like "Sab'u," and "Ladun" with a sukoon on the dal, and "Ludun" with a dammah on the lam, and "Ladanu" with a fathah on the lam and dal. It is a word built on sukoon, and it is followed by the deletion of the nun with the addition. Abdullah and Talhah read: "And He gives glad tidings" with a fathah on the ya, a sukoon on the ba, and a dammah on the sheen. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿That they will have a reward﴾ means: that they will have a reward. And "the good reward": the bliss of Paradise, preceded by the good of this world. And "Makhithin" is a description of the pronoun in "for them," and "Abadan" is an adverb; because it indicates an endless time.

The judge Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And we have pointed out in the interpretation of this verse to the matter of the Jews questioning the Quraysh about the three issues, and it is appropriate to state how that was.

Ibn Ishaq reported from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them, with a chain of narration that he said: Quraysh sent Al-Nadr ibn Al-Harith and Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt to the rabbis of the Jews in Medina. They said to them: Ask them about Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and describe his characteristics to them, for they are the people of the first scripture, and they have knowledge of the prophets that we do not have. So they set out until they reached Medina. They asked the rabbis of the Jews about the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him. The rabbis said to them: Ask him about three things. If he informs you about them, then he is a true prophet. If he does not, then the man is a fabricator, so form your opinion about him. Ask him about the young men who disappeared in ancient times, and what was their story? For they had an amazing tale. And ask him about a wandering man who reached the eastern and western parts of the earth, what was his prophecy? And ask him about the spirit. So Al-Nadr and Uqbah returned to Mecca and asked the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, about that, and the matter was as we have mentioned.

And His saying, the Most High: "And to warn those who said, 'Allah has taken a son'". The people of this statement are some of the Jews regarding 'Uzayr, the Christians regarding the Messiah, and some of the Arabs regarding the angels. The pronoun in "by it" may refer back to the saying contained in "they said" mentioned earlier, and the phrase "they have no knowledge of it" would be in the position of a state, meaning: they said while being ignorant. It may also refer back to "the son", meaning: they have no knowledge of this son whom they claimed, so the phrase would be a description of His saying: "a son". This was said by Al-Mahdawi, and it is objectionable; for only the speaker can describe it, and they do not intend to describe it. The correct opinion according to me is that it is a negation that Allah, the Most High, informed about their ignorance in that, so there is no place for the phrase in the grammatical structure. It may also refer back to Allah, the Most High, and this interpretation is more condemnatory of them and more conclusive of their complete ignorance, and this is the saying of Al-Tabari.

And His saying, the Most High: "And not their forefathers" refers to those who took this statement from them.

And the majority read: "Great is the word" with "word" in the accusative case, as you say: Zayd is a good man. And they explained the word as a description of it coming out of their mouths. Some of them said: Its accusative is for interpretation, like the accusative in His saying: "And evil is the resting place" [Al-Kahf: 29]. And a group said: Its accusative is for the state, and the estimation is: Their lie is great - or something like this - as a word. And these words are called a word in that they are a single statement, just as they say for a poem: a word.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: And this statement stands in the self with a single meaning, so it is appropriate to call it a word. Al-Hasan, Yahya ibn Yamur, Ibn Mahid, and Al-Qawwas reported from Ibn Kathir: "A word" in the nominative case as it is a subject of "great". And His saying, the Most High: "They say nothing but lies" means: They say nothing except lies, for it is the negation.