Al-Kahf 18:58–110

And your Lord is the Forgiver, Full of Mercy. Were He to take them to task, in this world, for what they have earned, He would have hastened for them the chastisement, therein; but they have a tryst, which is the Day of Resurrection, from which they will not find any escape, any refuge.

And those towns, that is to say, the inhabitants of those [towns], such as ‘Ād and Thamūd, as well as others, We destroyed them when they did evil, [when] they disbelieved, and We appointed for their destruction (a variant reading [for mahlikihim] has muhlakihim) a tryst.

And, mention, when Moses, son of Amram (‘Imrān), said to his lad, Joshua son of Nun (Yūsha‘ bin Nūn), who used to follow him around, serve him and acquire knowledge from him, ‘I will not give up, I will not stop journeying, until I have reached the juncture of the two seas — the point where the Byzantine sea and the Persian sea meet, beyond the east, — though I march on for ages’, for a very long time before reaching it, if it be far.

So when they reached a juncture between the two, between the two seas, they forgot their fish — Joshua forgot his luggage [leaving it behind] at the moment of departure, and Moses forgot to remind him — and so it, the fish, made its way into the sea, that is, it formed it — through God’s forming it — by burrowing, that is, like [through] a burrow, which is a passage that is long and enclosed; this was [so] because God, exalted be He, held back the flow of the water [preventing it] from [engulfing] the fish and it [the water] withdrew from around it [the fish] and remained thus like a cleft without closing, and what was beneath it [the cleft] stood still.

And when they had made the traverse, of that location, having journeyed until the morning of the following day, he, Moses, said to his lad, ‘Bring us our breakfast, (ghadā’) that [meal] which is consumed at the beginning of the day. We have certainly encountered on this journey of ours much fatigue’, exhaustion, which took its effect [on them] after the traverse.

He said, ‘Do you see? — in other words, remember, when we sheltered at the rock, in that location, indeed I forgot the fish — and none but Satan made me forget (al-shaytān, ‘Satan’, substitutes for the [suffixed pronoun] hā’ [of ansānī-hu]) to mention it (an adhkurahu, an inclusive substitution, in other words [it should be understood as] ansānī dhikrahu, ‘he [Satan] made me forget the mentioning of it’) — and it, the fish, made its way into the sea in an amazing manner’ (‘ajaban constitutes the second direct object), that is to say, Moses and his lad were amazed by it, because of what has already been explained concerning it.

Said he, Moses, ‘That, namely, our losing the fish, is what we have been seeking!’, what we have been after, for it is a sign for us of the presence of the one whom we seek. So they turned back, retracing their footsteps, until they reached the rock.

So [there] they found one of Our servants, namely, al-Khidr, to whom We had given mercy from Us — according to one opinion this [mercy] was prophethood; according to another it was authority, and this [latter] is the opinion of the majority of scholars — and We had taught him knowledge from Us (‘ilman is the second direct object), in other words, some knowledge of unseen things; al-Bukhārī reports the [following] hadīth: ‘Moses was delivering a sermon among the Children of Israel and was asked, “Who is the most knowledgeable of people?”, to which he [Moses] said, “Myself”. God then reproached him for not having attributed [his] knowledge as [coming] from Him. God then revealed to him the following: “Truly, there is a servant of Mine at the juncture of the two seas; he is more knowledgeable than you”. Moses then asked, “My Lord, how do I reach him?” He [God] said, ‘Take a fish with you and place it in a basket and [the place] where you lose the fish will be [the place] where he is.” He [Moses] took a fish and placed it in a basket and departed together with his lad Joshua son of Nun until they reached the rock. [There] they placed their heads back and fell asleep. The fish began to move about in the basket, until it escaped from it and fell into the sea, and it made its way into the sea in an amazing manner. God then held back the flow of the water [preventing it] from [engulfing] the fish, forming a kind of arch over it. When he awoke, his companion [Joshua] forgot to inform him of [what had happened to] the fish, and so they journeyed on for the remainder of that day and night until on the morning [of the second day] Moses said to his lad, ‘Bring us our breakfast’, to where he says, and it made its way into the sea in an amazing manner’. He [Bukhārī] said, ‘For the fish, it [the way into the sea] was [by] ‘burrowing’ (saraban), and for Moses and his lad it [this way] was ‘amazing’ (‘ajaban) …’ [and so on] to the end [of Bukhārī’s report].

Moses said to him, ‘May I follow you for the purpose that you teach me of what you have been taught [in the way] of probity?’, namely, [something] of right conduct through which I might be rightly-guided (a variant reading [for rashadan] has rushdan, ‘probity’); he asked him this because to increase [one’s] knowledge is [something which is] always sought.

Said he, ‘Truly you will not be able to bear with me.

And how can you bear with that whereof you have never been informed?’: in the above-mentioned hadīth [of Bukhārī] after this verse [there is the following statement]: ‘O Moses, I possess knowledge which God has taught me and which you do not have, and [equally] you possess knowledge which God has taught you and which I do not have’. (His saying khubran, ‘informed’, is a verbal noun meaning that which you have never encompassed, in other words, the truth of which you have never been informed of.)

He said, ‘You will find me, God willing, patient, and I will not disobey, in other words, and [you will also find me] non-disobedient [towards], you in any matter’, with which you charge me. He [Moses] made this [statement] conditional upon the Will [of God] because he was not confident of himself in what he had committed himself to. Indeed, this is the custom of prophets and saints, namely, that they do not put their trust in themselves for a single moment.

He said, ‘If you follow me then do not question me (lā tas’alnī, a variant reading has lā tas’alannī) concerning anything, that you might find objectionable in what I do, according to your [limited] knowledge, and be patient, until I [myself] make mention of it to you’, in other words, [until] I mention it to you with [an explication of] the reason for it. Moses accepted his precondition bearing in mind the respect which a student should exercise in the presence of a teacher.

So they set off, making their way on foot along the coast of the sea, until, when they embarked on the ship, which was carrying them, he, al-Khidr, made a hole in it, by destroying a plank or two on the starboard side with an axe after they had sailed into deep waters. Said he, Moses, to him, ‘Did you make a hole in it to drown its people? (li-tughriqa ahlahā, ‘for you to drown its people’; a variant reading has li-yaghraqa ahluhā, ‘so that its people might drown’). You have certainly done a dreadful thing’, that is, a grave and reprehensible thing — it is reported that the water did not [actually] penetrate it.

He said, ‘Did I not say [that] you would not be able to bear with me?’

He said, ‘Do not take me to task on account of that which I forgot, that is, [on account of the fact that] I was not mindful of submitting to you [in the matter] and of refraining from showing disapproval of your actions, and do not exhaust me, [do not] charge me, in this affair of mine with difficulty’, [with] hardship during my companionship of you, in other words, treat me throughout it with forgiveness and indulgence.

So they set off, after leaving the ship, making their way on foot, until, when they met a boy, who had not yet reached puberty, playing with [other] boys, among whom his face was the fairest — and he, al-Khidr, slew him, by slitting his throat with a knife while he lay down, or by tearing his head off with his hand, or by smashing his head against a wall, all of which are [different] opinions (the coordinating fā’ [of fa-qatalahu, ‘and he slew him’] is used here because [it indicates that] the slaying took place after the encounter; the response to idhā, ‘when’ is [the following statement, qāla …]) — he, Moses, said, to him: ‘Have you slain an innocent soul, that is, a pure one that had not reached the age of [legal] responsibility (a variant reading [for zākiya] has zakiyya), [one slain] not in retaliation for another soul?, in other words, one that has not slain any soul. Verily you have committed an dreadful thing’ (read nukran or nukuran), that is to say, an abomination.

He said, ‘Did I not say to you that you would never be able to bear with me?’ (laka, ‘to you’, has been added to that [same statement] which was made before because this time there could not be any excuse [for Moses’s impatience].

And for this reason, he said, ‘If I ask you about anything after this, after this instance, then do not keep me in your company, do not allow me to follow you, for truly you [will] have found from me (read ladunnī or ladunī), on my part, [sufficient enough] excuse’, for you to part company with me.

So they set off, until, when they came to the folk of a [certain] town, namely, Antioch (Antākya), they asked its folk for food, they asked them for food by way of hospitality, but they refused to extend them any hospitality. They then found in it a wall, one hundred cubits high, about to collapse, that is, it was close to falling down because of its tilt; so he, al-Khidr, straightened it, with his [own] hands. He, Moses, said, to him, ‘Had you wished, you could have taken (a variant reading [for la-ttakhadhta] has la-takhidhta) a wage for it’, some [sort of] payment, since they did not extend us any hospitality despite our need for food.

Said he, al-Khidr, to him, ‘This is the parting, that is, the moment for parting, between me and you (baynī wa-baynika, here [the preposition] bayna has been annexed to a non-multiple [noun], but this is allowed [grammatically] because it is then repeated with [its other noun together with] the coordinating wāw). I will inform you, before I part company with you, the interpretation of that over which you were not able to maintain patience.

As for the ship, it belonged to poor people, ten [in number], who earned a living on the sea, with it, leasing it [to others], as a way of gaining [a living]; and I wanted to make it defective, for behind them, whenever they returned — or [meaning] before them now — was a king, a disbeliever, seizing every ship, that was usable, by force (ghasban, is in the accusative as a verbal noun containing an explanation of the nature of such ‘seizure’).

And as for the boy, his parents were believers and We feared lest he should overwhelm them with insolence and disbelief — for he is as [described] by the hadīth of Muslim, ‘He was [incorrigibly] disposed to disbelief, and had he lived [longer] this [disposition of his] would have oppressed them, because of their love for him, they would have followed him in such [a path of disbelief]’.

So We desired that their Lord should give them in exchange (read yubaddilahumā or yubdilahumā) one better than him in purity, that is, in righteousness and God-fearing, and closer, than him, to mercy (read ruhman or ruhuman, in other words [it is to be understood as] rahmatan, ‘by way of mercy’) namely, [closer to] dutifulness towards his parents. Thus God, exalted be He, gave them in exchange a girl, who [afterwards] married a prophet and gave birth to a prophet through whom God guided an entire community.

And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys [who lived] in the city, and beneath it there was a treasure, a buried trove of gold and silver, belonging to them. Their father had been a righteous man, and so because of his righteousness they were protected both in [terms of] their souls and their possessions, and your Lord desired that they should come of age, that is, [He desired for them] the attainment of maturity, and extract their treasure as a mercy from your Lord (rahmatan min rabbik is a direct object denoting reason, operated by [the verb] arāda, ‘He desired’). And I did not do it, namely, what has been mentioned of [his] making a hole in the ship, the slaying of the boy and the repair of the wall, of my own accord, that is, [out of] my own choosing; nay, it was because of a command in the form of an inspiration from God. This is the interpretation of that over which you could not maintain patience’ (one may say istā‘a or istatā‘a to mean ‘he had the capacity for [something]’; in this instance and the previous one both forms [of the verb] have been used. Moreover, there is a variety of expression in the use of fa-aradtu, ‘I desired’, fa-aradnā, ‘We desired’, and fa-arāda rabbuk, ‘Your Lord desired’).

And they, the Jews, question you concerning Dhū’l-Qarnayn, whose name was Alexander; he was not a prophet. Say: ‘I shall recite, relate, to you a mention, an account, of him’, of his affair.

Indeed We empowered him throughout the land, by facilitating [for him] the journeying therein, and We gave him to everything, of which one might have need, a way, a route to lead him to that which he sought.

And he followed a way, he took a route towards the west,

until, when he reached the setting of the sun, the place where it sets, he found it setting in a muddy spring (‘ayn hami’a: [a spring] containing ham’a, which is black clay): its setting in a spring is [described as seen] from the perspective of the eye, for otherwise it is far larger [in size] than this world; and he found by it, that is, [by] the spring, a folk, of disbelievers. We said, ‘O Dhū’l-Qarnayn — by [means of] inspiration — either chastise, the folk, by slaying [them], or treat them kindly’, by [merely] taking them captive.

He said, ‘As for him who does wrong, by way of [practising] idolatry, we shall chastise him, We shall slay him. Then he shall be returned to his Lord and He shall chastise him with an awful chastisement (read nukran or nukuran), that is, a severe [one], in the Fire.

But as for him who believes and acts righteously, he shall have the fairest reward, namely, Paradise (the annexation construction [jazā’u l-husnā, ‘the fairest reward’] is explicative; a variant reading has jazā’an al-husnā, ‘[he shall have] as a requital that which is fairest’; al-Farrā’ said that this accusative [reading of jazā’an] is [intended] as an explanation [of the nature of the requital] by way of attribution [to ‘that which is fairest’]; and we shall speak to him mildly in our command’, that is to say, we shall command him with what he will find easy [to bear].

Then he followed a way, towards the east,

until, when he reached the rising of the sun, the place where it rises, he found it rising on a folk, namely, Negroes (zanj), for whom We had not provided against it, that is, [against] the sun, any [form of] cover, in the way of clothing or roofing, as their land could not support any structures; they had underground tunnels into which they would disappear at the rising of the sun and out of which they would emerge when it was at its highest point [in the sky].

So [it was], in other words, the situation was as We have stated; and We encompassed whatever pertained to him, that is, what Dhū’l-Qarnayn possessed in the way of machinery, men and otherwise, in knowledge.

Then he followed a way,

until, when he reached between the two barriers (read al-saddayn or al-suddayn here and [likewise] further below [at verse 94, saddan or suddan]) — [these were] two mountains [lying] in the remote regions beyond the land of the Turks; Alexander sealed the breach between the two, as will be described [below] — he found on this side of them, that is, in front of them, a folk that could scarcely comprehend speech, in other words, they could only understand it after much agonising (a variant reading [for yafqahūna, ‘comprehend’] has yufqihūna, ‘be understood’).

They said, ‘O Dhū’l-Qarnayn, truly Gog and Magog (read Ya’jūj wa-Ma’jūj or Yājūj wa-Mājūj: these two are non-Arabic names of two tribes and are therefore indeclinable) are causing corruption in the land, plundering and oppressing [us] when they come forth to attack us. So shall we pay you a tribute, some [form of] payment (a variant reading [for kharjan] is kharājan), on condition that you build between us and them a barrier?, an obstruction, so that they will not be able to reach us.

He said, ‘That, wealth and so on, wherewith my Lord has empowered me (makkannī, a variant reading has makkananī) is better, than the tribute that you offer me, and so I have no need for it. I shall build for you the barrier without [demanding] a fee; so help me with strength, in that which I [will] demand from you, and I will build between you and them a rampart, a fortified barricade.

Bring me ingots of iron!’, namely, pieces thereof, as large as the [blocks of] stone to be used in the construction; he used these [ingots] in his construction, placing between them firewood and coal. Until, when he had levelled up [the gap] between the two flanks (read al-sudufayn, or al-sadafayn or al-sudfayn, meaning, the two flanks of the two mountains) he set up bellows and [lit a] fire around this [construction] — he said, ‘Blow!’, and they blew, until, when he had made it, namely, the iron, a fire, that is, like a fire, he said, ‘Bring me molten copper to pour over it’ (the two verbs [ātūnī, ‘bring me’, and ufrigh, ‘pour’] are in contention over this [direct object, qitran, ‘molten copper’]; it [this direct object] has been omitted before the first [verb] because it is being governed by the second [verb]). Thus he poured the molten copper over the hot iron so that it penetrated between the [individual] ingots, making a [solid] single whole.

And so they, Gog and Magog, were not able to scale it, to climb up its length, because of its [great] height and smoothness, nor could they pierce it, because of its firmness and thickness.

Said he, Dhū’l-Qarnayn, ‘This, namely, the barrier, the ability to make it, is a mercy from my Lord, a grace [from Him], because it prevents them from coming forth. But when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, [the promise] of their coming forth, which will be near [the time of] the Resurrection, He will level it, pulverised and flattened, for my Lord’s promise, of their coming forth and [of] other things, is [always] true’, it will be. God, exalted be He says:

And on that day, the day of their coming forth, We shall let some of them surge against others, mixing with one another, on account of their multitude, and the Trumpet, namely, the Horn signalling the Resurrection, shall be blown and We shall gather them, namely, creatures, in one place, on the Day of Resurrection, a [single] gathering.

And on that day We shall present, We shall bring close, Hell to the disbelievers, plain to view,

those [disbelievers] whose eyes (alladhīna kānat a‘yunuhum substitutes for al-kāfirīna, ‘the disbelievers’) were masked from My remembrance, namely, the Qur’ān, such that they were blind, unable to be guided thereby, and who could not [bear to] hear, that is to say, they were unable to listen to what the Prophet used to recite to them, out of spite for him, and so they did not believe therein.

Do the disbelievers reckon that they can take My servants, namely, My angels, [as well as] Jesus and Ezra, as patrons, as lords, beside Me? (awliyā’a, ‘as patrons’, constitutes the second [direct] object of [the verb] yattakhidhū, ‘that they can take’; the second direct object of [the verb] hasiba, ‘reckon’, has been omitted). The meaning is: do they suppose that the mentioned ‘taking [as patrons]’ will not incur My wrath and that I will not punish them for this? No! Truly We have prepared Hell for the disbelievers, these [the ones mentioned above] and others, as [a place of] hospitality, in other words, it has been prepared for them just as a house is prepared for a guest.

Say: ‘Shall We inform you who will be the greatest losers in [regard to] their works? (al-akhsarīna a‘mālan, a specification that happens to correspond to that which is specifically meant); and these [losers] are described in His words [as being]:

Those whose effort goes astray in the life of this world, [those] whose deeds are invalid, while they reckon, they think, that they are doing good work, [good] deeds for which they will be rewarded.

Those are they who disbelieve in the signs of their Lord, in the proofs of His Oneness, [proofs] such as the Qur’ān and otherwise, and the encounter with Him’, that is, and [who disbelieve] in resurrection, reckoning, reward and punishment. So their works have failed, they are invalid, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall not assign any weight to them, in other words, We shall not accord them any value.

That, namely, the matter which I [God] have mentioned concerning the failure of their deeds and so on (dhālika, ‘that’, constitutes the subject) is their requital — Hell — because they disbelieved and took My signs and My messengers in mockery, that is to say, [taking] both of them as something to be derided.

Truly those who believe and perform righteous deeds — theirs will be, according to God’s prescience, the gardens of Firdaws, which are at the centre of Paradise and [at] its highest part (the annexation thereto [of firdaws to jannāt, ‘gardens’] is explicative) as [a place of] hospitality, as an abode;

wherein they will abide, with no desire, demand, to be removed from them, to be transferred to some other [gardens].

Say: ‘If the sea, in other words, [if] its waters, were ink (midād is what one writes with) for the Words of my Lord, [Words] that testify to His laws and His marvels, such that these [Words] are written with it, the sea would be spent, in recording them, before the Words of my Lord were spent (read as tanfada or yanfada) even though We brought the like of it, namely, [the like of] the sea, as replenishment’, in order to add it to the other [sea], it would [also] be spent, while they [God’s Words] would not be exhausted (madadan, ‘as replenishment’, in the accusative because it is a specification).

Say: ‘I am only a human being, a son of Adam, like you; it has been revealed to me that your God is only One God (annamā, the anna assimilated with the mā retains [its function of referring to] the verbal noun), in other words, the Oneness of the Divine is [what is being] revealed to me. So whoever hopes to encounter his Lord, through the Resurrection and the Requital, let him do righteous work and not associate with the worship of his Lord, that is to say, [let him not commit idolatry] in [performing] it by feigning [faith] before, anyone’.