Surah Al-Kahf 18:102-110 - Quran Translation Commentary

102. Do¹²⁷ the disbelievers think that they can take My slaves as their protecting friends beside Me? Verily we have prepared Hell for the reception of the disbelievers.¹²⁸

103. Say: “May We inform you who will be the greatest losers by their acts?”

104. Those whose efforts go waste in the life of the world, and they deem that they do good work.¹²⁹

105. These are the people who disbelieve in the revelation of their Lord and in the meeting with Him. Therefore, their acts are vain and on the Day of Resurrection We will assign no weight to them.¹³⁰

106. That is their reward: Hell, because they disbelieved, and made fun of my revelations and My messengers.

107. (However), verily for those who believed and performed good acts, for their reception are the gardens of Paradise.¹³¹

108. There they will dwell forever, not desiring to be shifted from there.¹³²

109. Say: If the waters of) Sea were ink with which to write the words of my Lord, the sea would be used up before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if we brought another sea to replenish it.”¹³³

110. Say: “I am only a human being like you, it is revealed to¹³⁴ me that your God is only one God. Then let him who hopes to meet his Lord do righteous deeds and let him not associate anyone in the worship of his Lord.”¹³⁵

Commentary

127. These are the final ayat of this surah in which admonitions and warning are given in connection with polytheism and the denial of the Hereafter.

128. This is a warning for those who take others, instead of Allah as their master or saviour. About them they think that if the Day of Resurrection arrives, these angels, whom they have taken as their ‘Wasila’ or means or agency to reach God, will intercede on their behalf. It is being made clear to them that this is their wrong impression. How the angels or other righteous and pious slaves of God will help them in their salvation, when Allah has prepared Hell for them.

It should be noted that even if a man believes in the Hereafter, his belief in considering pious people as his master and saviour is a misguidance which strikes at the root of the sense of being accountable before God. The result is that instead of himself doing righteous deeds, man relies on the intercession of some pious men. In this way the belief in the Hereafter becomes meaningless. The Christians have made Prophet Eesa (Christ) as their saviour, and accordingly their belief about, ‘Atonement’ is a clear proof of it, and as a result of this belief their belief in the Hereafter has been nullified.

There are persons of corrupt belief among Muslims too, who have taken Ali (R) and Husain (R) as their saviours and others have taken ‘Peerani- Peer’ as their saviour. It is the result of this belief that they have become heedless of the consequences in the Hereafter.

129. That is: Those who have made this world, instead of the next one, as their goal in life, those whose entire striving is for making their worldly life as grand a success as possible. Such people have placed their entire life career in the wrong direction by not fixing a right goal for themselves, and they are under the wrong impression that they are doing the right thing.

Even today a large section of the human society has made success in this world as the goal of its life. Such people keep only the worldly benefits in their view in their individual living, and in their social life too they keep it as their goal. If they do any service for their community, it is for improving its lot in the world, if they indulge in any educational activity, that is also with a view to enriching their community with the worldly learning. If they undertake any economic programme, it is for making their people live a comfortable life. In short, all their activities center round the objective of worldly and material progress. They have no other better or higher purpose before them. They have no goal of building up humanity in the real sense of the word. They consider these services of theirs as great achievements and take pride in them.

130.Those who have the success in this world as their goal neither believe in the revelation of God nor do they believe in being hauled up before God. Therefore, all their deeds and their achievements are sure to go waste. In the balance of the Hereafter they will be without any weight. When they had done all that they did for this world and they had received its fruits in the world, then why should they get its rewards in the Hereafter !

131. Firdaus is another name for Paradise, and by mentioning its gardens it appears that the word Firdaus is used to express the Paradise which will have many gardens.

132. That is: They wil1 not be bored in the Paradise, desiring to be shifted from there, but they will stay there fully contented and satisfied and happy and will like to dwell there for ever.

From the narration in the Qur’an and the Sunnah the concept of the Paradise that is formed is that its vastness wil1 be like the vastness of the heavens and the earth, and in it the ranks wil1 be as high as stars which are seen at a very great height. In other words the Paradise itself is a world in which there will be no desire or wish of the people of the faith that will not be fulfilled. Therefore the people of the Paradise will never like to move away from there.

133. It is a hint towards the fact that the wonders and magnificence of Allah’s might mentioned in the Surah are only a few divine words that have been presented for reflecting and providing food for thought. Otherwise there is such a limitless treasure of divine wonders and splendour that the entire water of all the seas of the world would not suffice as ink to put it down on paper. It is no exaggeration. It is a fact. If on the characteristics and quality or an atom or particle an article can be written, then it cannot be imagined how much material and what efforts, etc. would be required to write on the universe! What is purported to be brought home is the point that Allah’s greatness, the vastness of His knowledge, and the wonders of His might and wisdom are limitless, endless and unimaginable!

From such a concept of Allah’s greatness the path of tawheed is also lighted and a belief in the Hereafter is also created.

134. It means that I am a man like other men but the only distinction is that I receive revelation from God. The revelation is received by me and not by you, and on account of this revelation from God I have been appointed to the office of Messenger of God.

In spite of this clear explanation by the Qur’an there is a section among the Muslims who is not prepared to recognise the prophet as a man. It tries to show him, with the help of wrong interpretations and baseless narratives, to be super human. It does not brook that the Prophet be called a man, although calling him a man expresses his real high rank, that even though a man he has attained such a high place of prophethood, which is not possible for others to achieve, and which distinguishes him from others.

When the Christians indulged in excess in their respect for Prophet Eesa (Christ), they made him the son of God. It shows that indulging in excesses in paying respects to the Prophet opens up avenues of straying.

135. Allah’s being the only God means that the being that has real authority and power is Allah only, and He alone is worthy of worship. Therefore, worship is His due. And as believing in other beings associated with God is polytheism. Similarly, to join some other being with Him in worshipping is also polytheism. The first Polytheism is that of belief and the other is that of action, and the teaching of Islam is that man should keep his belief as well as his action free from any traces of polytheism.

What things are included in worship have been explained clearly by the Qur’an at appropriate places, e.g. to invoke God for meeting our needs, to appeal to Him for Unseen help, to read the rosary, to bow down with humility, to be afraid with awe, to beseech, to seek shelter, to pray, to give conditional pledge if prayers answered, to seek nearness, to invoke His name while slaughtering an animal, to offer sacrifice, to be thankful on receiving bounty, to be humble to, to hope to get something from Him, to love intensely, to offer prayer, to observe fast, to go round His house, and to perform rituals, etc. In short, all forms of offering obeisance is included in worship, and worship is exclusively reserved for Allah alone.

It should be noted that with the worship of Allah, obedience to Him is an essential condition. But to term worship as mere obedience is ignorance of the reality of worship. The relation of worship or obeisance is with that specific spirit which is ingrained in the nature, and its expression is directed towards the real Lord only, while obedience is intellectual decision and is the act of the limbs and physical organs. The examples given above are called worship in the common language as well as in the religious terminology, and they are not examples of obedience.

The great difference between worship and obedience is this that worship of any other person or thing besides Allah is not permissible, while obedience can be for any person, within the limits of the Shariah, and Allah has given clear command to obey the Prophet, while worship of the Prophet is not only not permissible but is polytheism.