Tafsir for verses: 18:39, 18:40, 18:41
وَلَوۡلَآ إِذۡ دَخَلۡتَ جَنَّتَكَ قُلۡتَ مَا شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِٱللَّهِۚ إِن تَرَنِ أَنَا۠ أَقَلَّ مِنكَ مَالٗا وَوَلَدٗا ٣٩ ﴿39 فَعَسَىٰ رَبِّيٓ أَن يُؤۡتِيَنِ خَيۡرٗا مِّن جَنَّتِكَ وَيُرۡسِلَ عَلَيۡهَا حُسۡبَانٗا مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ فَتُصۡبِحَ صَعِيدٗا زَلَقًا ٤٠ ﴿40 أَوۡ يُصۡبِحَ مَآؤُهَا غَوۡرٗا فَلَن تَسۡتَطِيعَ لَهُۥ طَلَبٗا ٤١ ﴿41
39Why, when you entered your garden, did you not say, ‘(Everything is) as Allah wills. There is no power except with Allah’? If you see me inferior to you in wealth and children, 40then, it is likely that my Lord will give me (what is) better than your garden, and will send to it a punishment from the heavens, and it will become a barren land. 41Or, its water will sink deep in the earth, so that you will never be able to search it out.”
AI-Assisted Translation: This translation was produced by AI agents carefully trained over several months and thoroughly reviewed. It does NOT replace the scholarship of traditional scholars and is intended as a step in the right direction to make classical tafsir more accessible. There may still be inaccuracies—please report them promptly so we can improve the translation quality.

Commentary

What Allah wills may be that 'ma' is a relative pronoun, raised in position as it is a news of a deleted subject, its estimation being: the matter is what Allah wills. Or it may be conditional, with the position being accusative and the consequence being deleted, meaning: whatever Allah wills happens. An example of this deletion of the answer is found in the saying, 'And if there had been a Qur'an by which the mountains could be moved.' The meaning is: Why did you not say upon entering and looking at what Allah has provided you of it, 'the matter is what Allah wills,' acknowledging that all good in it has only occurred by the will and grace of Allah, and that its matter is in His hands: if He wills, He leaves it flourishing, and if He wills, He destroys it. And you said, 'There is no power except by Allah,' affirming that what you were strengthened by in its cultivation and management is only by His assistance and support, for no one is strong in their body or in the dominion of their hand except by Allah, the Exalted. And from Urwah ibn al-Zubair, he used to breach his wall during the ripe days, allowing whoever wished to enter. And when he entered, he would repeat this verse until he exited. Whoever read 'aqalla' in the accusative has made 'ana' a separation, and whoever raised it has made it a subject and 'aqall' its predicate, and the sentence is an object. Secondly, 'let me see.' And in the saying 'and a child,' it is a support for those who interpreted 'nafar' as children in the saying 'and more honored in number.' The meaning is: If you see me poorer than you, I expect from the action of Allah that He will turn what I have and what you have from poverty to wealth, granting me, due to my faith, a garden better than your garden and stripping you, due to your disbelief, of His blessing and destroying your orchard. 'Al-hisban' is a source like 'al-ghufran' and 'al-batl', meaning accounting, i.e., a measure that Allah has determined and accounted for, which is the judgment of its destruction. And al-Zajjaj said: 'A punishment of accounting,' and that accounting is the reckoning of what your hands have earned. It was said that 'hisban' refers to the singular of 'hisbanah', which are the lightning strikes. 'Saeedan zalqan' refers to a white land that slips upon it due to its smoothness. And 'ghawran' both are described by the source.

Explore Other Scholars on This Verse

Compare different scholarly perspectives on Surah Al-Kahf verse 39

Al-ZamakhshariAbū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar al-Zamakhsharī
Learn more about Al-Zamakhshari
1299 / 2978