Surah Al-Kahf 18:45-49 - Quran Translation Commentary

45. Narrate for them the example of the life of the world like water which We send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth flourishes mingling with it, then becomes dry scatter.⁶³ the winds blow them away Allah has power over all things.⁶⁴

46. Wealth and children are the ornaments of the life of the world, and the good deeds or lasting merit are better for reward with your Lord, and better in respect of hope.⁶⁵

47. And (think of) the Day when We will move the mountains and you will see the earth as a leveled plain,⁶⁶ and We will gather them (mankind) together and will not leave any one of them.⁶⁷

48. And they will be ranged before your Lord in ranks.⁶⁸(They will be told):” Now verily you have come to Us as We created you at first. But you thought that we had not set an appointed time⁶⁹for your return.”

49. And the book (of recorded deeds) will be set down (before them), and you will see the guilty will be in fear of what will be therein, and they will be saying: “Woe to us: What kind of a book is this that leaves not a small thing nor a great thing but has recorded it! ⁷⁰ And they will find all that they did confronting them, and your Lord wrongs no one.⁷¹

Commentary

63. In this example the spring of this life has been shown to be like the pomp and spring of the land. After the rainfall the vegetation flourishes on the land and it becomes green, but this splendour is temporary, after a few days it loses its colour, and it is razed to smithereens, then the winds blow them away. Thus this splendour of the world mingles with the dust. The condition of the life of this world is the same. Its spring lasts for a few days only, thereafter it is going to succumb to autumn, which ends all its charms. Therefore, those who make the life of this world their goal will only get autumn as their share.

It should be noted that there is a lot of difference between living a life with pleasure of the material world as the goal and living a life with success in the Hereafter as the goal. Here what is condemned is the first kind of life.

64. That is: As Allah is able to bring in spring, He is also able to bring in autumn, and He is powerful enough to bring in such autumn on the earth that it would destroy its splendour forever.

65. Wealth and children are the bounties from God, but when man is so much overpowered by their love and forgets the Hereafter, then it is a deviation from the very purpose of life. That is why Qur’an strikes at the root of such a mentality, and the point which it wants to bring home to the people is that the thing which remains even after the death and after the destruction of the world is their good deeds, and on the basis of the good deeds their reward with God will be decided, and on the basis of that only a stave can hope to receive the favours and bounties from his Lord. Therefore, the direction which a man’s life in this world should take should be that his life should be the life of good conduct and he should perform as many good deeds as possible. In the matter of property and children a man should adopt the attitude which would help in increasing his good deeds and virtues.

66. When the Doomsday will occur, the shape of the earth and its system will be changed completely. No mountain, even if it is Himalaya, will remain in its place. They will all be flying in the air, and as it is mentioned at another place in the Qur’an they will be broken to smithereens. And when this will be the condition of the mountains, then what will be the condition of the houses, high-rise buildings and palaces constructed by men. All will be destroyed and the earth will be converted into an open ground.

67. That is: All the members of the human race, being born and dying, from Adam till the Doomsday, will be revived and gathered together in the maidan of Hashr (Doomsday). He may be a king or a beggar, a wealthy man or a poor fakir, believer or a disbeliever, everyone without any exception will be caused to be present.

68. At that time they will appear before God so that they may answer for what they did in the world. This appearance of theirs will be very orderly and disciplined, accordingly they will be made to stand in rows, for they are appearing before the Ruler of the universe,—— and the rows formed during the salat (prayer) is its example.

69. When the people will appear before Allah in an orderly manner, Allah will say that the intimation He had given about their being revived has come out to be totally true, but they, the deniers of the Hereafter, had thought that they would not be required to appear before God, and that God had neither promised it nor had He appointed any fixed time for that. That day they would realise that it was their wrong thinking, and the truth was, that was conveyed through Divine Books and His messengers.

70. The record of every person’s deeds will be presented to him or her and it will be such a record that not even a single act, however slight it might be, would have been left out. Men will be absolutely astounded to find such a complete and correct record of their acts, for they had been denying the existence of the Hereafter, therefore, such a record will be unexpected for them.

71. That is: Nobody’s rights will be trampled nor any excess will be committed against anybody. Every demand and requirement of justice and fair-play in respect of everybody will be fulfilled.

The sketch of the Divine Court given in these ayat is neither found in the Bible nor in any other book. It is the speciality of only Qur’an that it delineates the would-be happenings of the Day of Judgement with such details that it creates conviction and satisfaction. The contents of these verse which narrate the scene of men’s appearance before God are masterpieces, which effectively change one’s way of thinking. It should be noted that this belief in the Hereafter is different from the theory of the Transmigration of souls of the polytheists of India. According to this theory neither a Doomsday will occur nor mankind will have to appear before God, nor is there any concept of accountability for one’s acts.