Talk:Quran/18/2

Commentaries for 18.2

Al Kahf (The cave) - الكهف

18.2 Abbas - Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs

((But hath made it) straight) and it is also said that this means: custodian over all other Scriptures, (to give warning) so that Muhammad (pbuh) gives warning by means of the Qur'an (of stern punishment from Him, and to bring) and so that Muhammad brings the Qur'an (unto the) sincere (believers who do good works) between them and their Lord (the news that theirs will be a fair reward) they will have a fair reward in Paradise.

18.2-3 Asrar - Kashf Al-Asrar

They shall have a beautiful wage, remaining therein endlessly.

It gives this warning to the strangers:

18.2 Jalal - Al-Jalalayn

[a Book] upright, (qayyiman is a second circumstantial qualifier for [added] emphasis) to warn of, to make, by this Book, the disbelievers fear, severe chastisement from Him, from God, and to bring to the believers who perform righteous deeds the good tidings that theirs will be a fair reward,

18.2 Kashani - Kashani

[a servant] upright, that is, He made him upright as he was commanded in His words: so remain upright as you have been commanded [Q. 11:112]. The meaning [of this] is that He made him an affirmer of the Oneness, annihilated in Him, not veiled in his presential vision by the other, nor by his own soul - since this too constitutes a contingent other, but upright in the state of subsistence, as He has said: Truly those who say, 'Our Lord is God!' and then remain upright [Q. 41:30]. Or [it means] that He has made him the sustainer (qayyim) of the affairs of [His] servants and of their guidance, since perfection is contingent upon perfectedness, for he [the Prophet], blessings and peace be upon him, having finished making his soul upright (taqwīm) and cleansing it, the souls of his community were assigned the station (maqām) of his soul and so he was commanded to make these upright and to cleanse them. It is for the same signification that Abraham, may God's blessings be upon him, was called 'a community [unto himself]' [cf. Q. 16:120]. This capacity to make [others] upright, that is, to sustain the guidance of people is subsumed by the very uprightness to which he has been commanded in reality, to warn: this [verb] is connected to the [grammatical] operator (ʿāmil) of qayyiman ('upright'): in other words, He has charged him with the [making upright of the] affairs of servants in order that he should warn, of severe distress: the omission of the first direct object is intended to express generality because no one, neither believer nor unbeliever, is exempt from distress, as God, exalted be He, has said: 'Warn the sincere righteous that I am a jealous One and give good tidings to sinners that I am Forgiving'. For distress represents His vanquishing, which is why He has aggrandised it by the use of the indefinite [form] - in other words, [warn them of] a distress that befits His tremendousness and His might - [and why] He has qualified this [distress] with [the term] 'severe' and specified it by saying that it is: from Him. Vanquishing is of two kinds. One kind is pure vanquishing, outer and inner vanquishing, such as the one that specifically afflicts those who are veiled by idolatrous association.

Another kind is vanquishing in its outer [manifest] aspect but graciousness in its inner [hidden] aspect. Such is [divine] graciousness, as the Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī [b. Abī Ṭālib], peace be upon him, said: 'Glory be to Him whose disfavour towards His enemies is severe just as His grace is all-embracing and whose mercy towards His friends is all-embracing just as His disfavour remains severe'. An example of the latter type is the vanquishing that is specific to the affirmers of Oneness from among the people of annihilation. He has given the warning to all in a nondelimited way in order to alert [all], but then differentiated between grace and vanquishing by making them dependent on attributes and merit, hence He says: and to bring good tidings to the believers, that is, the affirmers of Oneness, since they constitute the counterpart to the idolaters who said that God had taken to Himself a son, who perform righteous deeds, that is, the enduring good deeds and virtues because the fair reward pertains to the garden of effects and acts which is merited by deeds. Know also that the warning and the good tidings, both of which belong to the perfection that is concomitant of his [the Prophet's] being watcher (qayyim) over the two [groups], are the effect and result of the two divine attributes of vanquishing and graciousness the locus of preparedness for the reception of which within the soul of a servant are wrath and passionate desire. For the servant only prepares to receive these [divine attributes] by means of the two attributes of [his] wrath and passionate desire and their annihilation, just as he is only prepared for the two virtues of courage and self-restraint when those attributes are present: when these [wrath and passionate desire] are annihilated, the two [divine attributes] take their place, because each of the two is the shadow of one of those two [divine attributes] and disappears with their actualisation. Thus when the heart has imbibed these two [divine attributes] and the assumption of them as character traits has been perfected there ensues from vanquishing the warning, upon the meriting of the locus as a result of disbelief and idolatry and [there ensues] from graciousness the good tidings, upon the meriting by means of faith and righteous deeds, since effusion only takes place when the locus has acquired the meriting [of it].

[18:5] They do not have, in this any knowledge, nor did their fathers: in other words, they have no knowledge regarding that claim [about God having a son], rather it issues from extreme ignorance and [blind] imitation of their fathers and not from any knowledge or certainty, a fact which is reinforced by His words: Dreadful is the word, in other words, how great [in injustice] is that statement, that comes out of their mouths: in their hearts there can be no such meaning, since it is impossible and has no meaning. For certain knowledge testifies that the sublime necessary existence is unique in essence and cannot be likened to defective contingent existence. A son is the like of his father in terms of species and his equal in terms of strength. But presential vision of the essence stipulates that creation will be annihilated in the Truth and the effect in the Witnessed, whereupon there will be nothing there except Him and no other, let alone [that there should be] a like or a son, as one of them has said:

'In this existence, even if outwardly it as well as your life should be multitudinous outwardly, there is only you'.

They speak nothing but lies, since rational proof and the consciousness of the tasting in the presential vision are both in accord on the impossibility of that.

18.1-5 Kathir - Ibn Al Kathir

The Revelation of the Qur'an brings both Good News and a Warning

In the beginning of this Tafsir, we mentioned that Allah, praises His Holy Self at the beginning and end of matters, for He is the One to be praised in all circumstances, all praise and thanks be to Him, in the beginning and in the end. He praises Himself for revealing His Mighty Book to His Noble Messenger Muhammad, which is the greatest blessing that Allah has granted the people of this earth. Through the Qur'an, He brings them out of the darkness into light. He has made it a Book that is straight, neither distorted nor confusion therein. It clearly guides to a straight path, plain and manifest, giving a warning to the disbelievers and good news to the believers. This is why Allah says:

وَلَمْ يَجْعَل لَّهُ عِوَجَا

(and has not placed therein any crookedness.) meaning, there is nothing twisted or confusing about it. But He has made it balanced and straightforward as He said;

قَيِّماً

((He has made it) straight), meaning straightforward,

لِّيُنْذِرَ بَأْسًا شَدِيدًا مِّن لَّدُنْهُ

(to give warning of a severe punishment from Him,) meaning, to those who oppose His Prophet and disbelieve in His Book, He issues a warning of severe punishment hastened in this world and postponed to the world Hereafter.

مِن لَّدُنْهُ

(from Him) means, from Allah. For none can punish as He punishes and none is stronger or more reliable than Him.

وَيُبَشِّرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

(and to give good news to the believers,) means, those who believe in this Qur'an and confirm their faith by righteous actions.

أَنَّ لَهُمْ أَجْرًا حَسَنًا

(that they shall have a fair reward.) means, a beautiful reward from Allah.

مَّاكِثِينَ فِيهِ

(They shall abide therein) means, in what Allah rewards them with, and that is Paradise, where they will live forever.

أَبَدًا

(forever.) means, for always, never ending or ceasing to be.

وَيُنْذِرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُواْ اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدًا

(And to warn those who say, "Allah has begotten a child.'') Ibn Ishaq said: "These are the pagan Arabs, who said, `We worship the angels who are the daughters of Allah.'''

مَا لَهُمْ بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ

(No knowledge have they of such a thing, ) meaning, this thing that they have fabricated and made up.

وَلاَ لاَبَآئِهِمْ

(nor had their fathers.) meaning, their predecessors.

كَبُرَتْ كَلِمَةً

(Mighty is the word) This highlights the seriousness and enormity of the lie they have made up. Allah says:

كَبُرَتْ كَلِمَةً تَخْرُجُ مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ

(Mighty is the word that comes out of their mouths.) meaning, it has no basis apart from what they say, and they have no evidence for it apart from their own lies and fabrications. Hence Allah says:

إِن يَقُولُونَ إِلاَّ كَذِبًا

(They utter nothing but a lie.)

Reason why this Surah was revealed

Muhammad bin Ishaq mentioned the reason why this Surah was revealed. He said that an old man from among the people of Egypt who came to them some forty-odd years ago told him, from `Ikrimah that Ibn `Abbas said: "The Quraysh sent An-Nadr bin Al-Harith and `Uqbah bin Abi Mu`it to the Jewish rabbis in Al-Madinah, and told them: `Ask them (the rabbis) about Muhammad, and describe him to them, and tell them what he is saying. They are the people of the first Book, and they have more knowledge of the Prophets than we do.' So they set out and when they reached Al-Madinah, they asked the Jewish rabbis about the Messenger of Allah. They described him to them and told them some of what he had said. They said, `You are the people of the Tawrah and we have come to you so that you can tell us about this companion of ours.' They (the rabbis) said, `Ask him about three things which we will tell you to ask, and if he answers them then he is a Prophet who has been sent (by Allah); if he does not, then he is saying things that are not true, in which case how you will deal with him will be up to you. Ask him about some young men in ancient times, what was their story For theirs is a strange and wondrous tale. Ask him about a man who travelled a great deal and reached the east and the west of the earth. What was his story And ask him about the Ruh (soul or spirit) -- what is it If he tells you about these things, then he is a Prophet, so follow him, but if he does not tell you, then he is a man who is making things up, so deal with him as you see fit.' So An-Nadr and `Uqbah left and came back to the Quraysh, and said: `O people of Quraysh, we have come to you with a decisive solution which will put an end to the problem between you and Muhammad. The Jewish rabbis told us to ask him about some matters,' and they told the Quraysh what they were. Then they came to the Messenger of Allah and said, `O Muhammad, tell us,' and they asked him about the things they had been told to ask. The Messenger of Allah said,

«أُخْبِرُكُمْ غَدًا عَمَّا سَأَلْتُمْ عَنْه»

(I will tell you tomorrow about what you have asked me.) but he did not say `If Allah wills.' So they went away, and the Messenger of Allah stayed for fifteen days without any revelation from Allah concerning that, and Jibril, peace be upon him, did not come to him either. The people of Makkah started to doubt him, and said, `Muhammad promised to tell us the next day, and now fifteen days have gone by and he has not told us anything in response to the questions we asked.' The Messenger of Allah felt sad because of the delay in revelation, and was grieved by what the people of Makkah were saying about him. Then Jibril came to him from Allah with the Surah about the companions of Al-Kahf, which also contained a rebuke for feeling sad about the idolators. The Surah also told him about the things they had asked him about, the young men and the traveler. The question about the Ruh was answered in the Ayah;

وَيَسْـَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلِ الرُّوحُ

(And they ask you concerning the Ruh (the spirit); say: "The Ruh...'') 17:85.

18.1-4 Maududi - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an

That is, "There is nothing intricate or complicated in it that may be beyond anyone's understanding nor is there anything that deviates from the straight path of the Truth and thus cause hesitation in the mind of a truth-loving person."

"Those people" includes the Christians, the Jews and the mushrik Arabs who assigned offspring to Allah.