18 Sūrat al Kahf ~ the Cave
In the name of God the Compassionate the Merciful 0
All praise belongs to Allāh, the One 1
Who has sent down to His servant the book,
And has not made in it crookedness,
Straight, 2
To warn of a severe punishment from Him,
And give good news to the faithful, those who do virtuous deeds,
That for them is a beautiful reward.
They will abide in it forever. 3
And to warn those who say Allāh has taken a son. 4
They do not have any knowledge of it, and not their forefathers. 5
Grave is the word coming out of their mouths.
They do not speak but a lie.
Then perhaps you would be one who kills yourself over their footsteps, 6
Grief stricken that they do not believe in this narrative.
Surely We made what is on the earth an adornment for it, 7
That We may test which of them is best in conduct.
And indeed, We shall surely make what is on it barren ground. 8
Or have you thought that the companions of the cave, 9
And the inscription,
Were a wonder among Our signs?
When the youths sought shelter in the cave, they said: 10
Our Rabb, grant us mercy from Your Presence,
And incline us to correct guidance in our affair.
And so We reached out over their ears in the cave for a number of years. 11
Then We raised them up, 12
In order to make known which of the parties best [knew]
For what time they had stayed.
We narrate to you their stories in truth. 13
Indeed, they were youths who believed in their Lord,
And We increased them in guidance.
And We attached on their hearts when they stood and said: 14
Our Rabb is the Lord of the heavens and the earth.
Never will we invoke besides Him any god,
Certainly we would have then said a transgression.
These, our people, have taken gods besides Him. 15
Why do they not come to them with a clear authority?
And who is more wrong than one who invents a lie against Allāh?
And when you withdraw from them and what they serve except God, 16
Then flee to the cave.
Your Rabb will extend for you His mercy,
And will facilitate your affair conveniently for you.
And you have seen the sun when it rose, 17
Inclining away from their cave to the right,
And when it set, passing from them to the left,
While they lay in the open space of it.
That was from the signs of Allāh.
Whomever God guides, then he is the guided one.
And whomever He lets go astray,
Then never will you find for him a protector, a guide.
You would have thought them awake while they slept. 18
And we turned them to the right and to the left,
While their dog stretched his two forelegs over the threshhold.
If you had looked at them, surely you would have recoiled in flight,
And surely you would have been filled by them with terror.
And like that We raised them, 19
That they might question among themselves.
Said a speaker among them: How long have you stayed?
They said: We have remained a day or a part of a day.
They said: Your Lord knows best how long you have stayed.
So send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the city,
And let him observe which is the purest food,
And let him bring you provision from it.
Let him exercise caution, and not let anyone become aware of you.
Indeed, if they come to know about you, 20
They will stone you, or bring you back to their cult.
And never will you succeed then, ever.
And in that manner, 21
We let [the people] come upon them,
So that they might know that the promise of Allāh is true,
And that, of the hour, there is no doubt in it.
When they disputed between themselves of their affair, and they said:
Construct a building over them, their Rabb knows best about them,
Said those who prevailed in the matter:
Surely we must establish over them a mosque.
They say three, the fourth of them their dog, 22
And they say five, the sixth one of them their dog.
Guessing about the unseen, they say seven, the eighth of them was the dog.
Say: My Lord knows best their number.
None knows them except a few,
So do not dispute in them except an obvious question.
And do not ask about them among anyone.
And do not say of anything: 23
Indeed, I will do that tomorrow,
Except Allāh wills. 24
And remember your Rabb when you forget, and say:
Perhaps my Rabb will guide me to a nearer rightly guided way than this.
And they remained in their cave three hundred years, and add nine. 25
Say: Allāh knows best in what they remained. 26
For Him is the Unseen of the heavens and the earth.
How clearly He sees of it, and how clearly He hears.
Not for them, besides Him, is there any protector.
And He does not share in His commands [with] anyone.
And recite what has been revealed to you of the book of your Rabb. 27
None can alter His words,
And never will you find a refuge other than Him.
And be patient yourself with those who call their Lord 28
In the morning and the evening, wanting His face.
And do not let your eyes overlook them,
Desiring the ornaments of worldly life.
Do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of remembering Us,
And [who] follows his desires, and whose affairs are neglected.
And say: The truth is from your Rabb, 29
So whoever wills, let him believe,
And whoever wills, let him disbelieve.
Indeed, we have prepared for the wrongdoers a fire.
Its walls will surround them. And if they seek relief,
They will be relieved with water like molten metal,
Scalding the faces.
Wretched is the drink, and evil is the resting place.
Truly, the ones who believed, and did virtuous deeds, 30
Indeed, We will not neglect the reward of [one] who does good deeds.
Those, for them are gardens of permanence. 31
Rivers flow from beneath them.
They will be adorned in there with bracelets of gold,
And will wear green garments of silk and brocade,
Reclining there on couches.
Excellent is the reward, and beautiful the resting place.
And set forth to them this parable of two men. 32
For one of them We provided two gardens of grapes,
And We bordered them with date palms,
And We placed crops between both of them.
Each of the two gardens produced its fruit, 33
And was not defective in anything.
And from within the two We caused to gush forth a river.
And the fruit was for him. 34
So he said to his companion, while talking with him:
I am greater than you in wealth, and stronger in men.
And he entered his garden while he did harm to his soul, 35
He said: I do not think that this will ever perish.
And I do not think the hour will occur. 36
And if I am brought back to my Lord,
I shall certainly find a better return than this.
Said his companion to him, while he was talking to him: 37
Do you disbelieve in the One Who created you from dust,
Then from a seed drop, then fashioned you [into] a man?
Yet as for me, it is Allāh, my Rabb, 38
And I do not associate with my Rabb anyone.
And why, when you entered your garden, did you not say 39
What Allāh wills?
There is no power except with God.
If you see me [as] less than you in wealth and children,
It may be that my Rabb will give me better than your garden, 40
And will send upon it a reckoning from the sky,
Then it will become slippery ground,
Or its water become sunken so you will never be able to find it. 41
And his fruits were encircled. 42
So he began wringing his hands over what he spent on it,
While it collapsed on its trellises. And he said:
O, I wish I had not associated anyone with my Rabb.
And there was not for him a force to help him other than God, 43
And he was not helped.
There the protection is from God, the Truth. 44
It is the best reward and the best end.
And strike for them the example of the life of the world, 45
Like water which We send down from the sky,
Then mingles with the plants of the earth,
Then becomes dry stalks, scattered by the winds.
And God is over everything all powerful.
Wealth and children are the adornment of the life of the world. 46
But the enduring virtuous deeds are better with your Rabb in reward,
And better in hope.
On the day we will cause the mountains to move, 47
You will see the earth leveled before you.
And We will gather them,
And We will not leave behind from them anyone.
And they will be presented before your Lord in rows. 48
Certainly you have come to Us as when We created you the first time.
No, you claimed, that We had not made for you an appointed time.
And the book will be delivered, 49
And you will see the criminals fearful of what is in it.
And they will say: O woe unto us.
For what is this book that leaves out not a small thing and not a great one,
But that it has numbered it?
And they will find what they did presented.
And your Lord does not wrong anyone.
And when We said to the angels: Bow down before Adam, 50
So they prostrated, except Iblīs.
He was of the jinn,
And he rebelled against the command of his Rabb.
Will you then take him and his offspring as guardians other than Me,
While they are to you enemies?
Wretched for the wrongdoers is the exchange.
I did not make them witnesses to the creation of the heavens and earth, 51
And not the creation of themselves.
And I am not the One to take the misleaders [for] helpers.
On the day, He will say: Call My partners, the ones whom you claimed. 52
Then they will call them but they will not respond to them.
And We will place between them a barrier. 53
And the criminals will see the fire.
And they will be certain they will be caused to fall in it.
And they will not find from it a way of escape.
Certainly We have explained in this Qur’ān 54
Of every example for mankind,
But the human being is in most things argumentative.
And nothing prevents that humanity believe, 55
And they ask forgiveness,
When guidance has come to them,
Except that the way of the ancients come to them,
Or the punishment comes facing [them].
And We did not send the messengers save as bearers of good news 56
And as warners.
And the ones who disbelieve dispute by means of falsehood,
To refute the truth with it.
And they take My signs and what they are warned in mockery.
And who is more wrong than [one] who is reminded 57
Of the signs of his Lord, but turns away from them,
And forgets what his hands have sent forth?
Truly, We have placed coverings over their hearts,
Lest they understand it, and in their ears deafness.
And if you call them to guidance, then they will not be guided, ever.
And your Rabb is the Forgiving, the Owner of Mercy. 58
If He were to seize them for what they have earned,
Certainly He would have hastened the punishment for them.
But for them there is an promised time,
Never will they find from it an escape.
And We destroyed these towns when they wronged, 59
And We made for their destruction an appointed time.
And when Moses said to his young helper: 60
I will not cease until I reach the junction of the two seas,
Or I will go on for a long time.
But when they reached the junction between them, 61
They forgot their fish, and it took its way into the sea, disappeared.
Then when they had crossed beyond, he said to his boy: 62
Bring us our morning meal.
Certainly we have suffered in our journey this fatigue.
[The boy] said: Did you see when we retired to the rock? 63
Then, indeed, I forgot the fish.
And none but the shayṭān caused me to forget to mention it.
And it took its way into the sea wondrously.
[Moses] said: That is what we were seeking. 64
So they returned by retracing their footprints.
Then they found a servant from among Our servants, 65
Whom We had granted mercy from Us,
And We had taught him knowledge from Our presence.
Moses said to him: May I follow you on [the premise] 66
That you teach me of what you have been taught of right guidance?
He said: Indeed, you will never be able to have patience with me. 67
And how can you be patient for that of which 68
You do not contain any knowledge?
[Moses] said: You will find me if God wills, 69
Patient, and I will not disobey your command.
He said: Then if you follow me, do not ask me about anything 70
Until I present to you a reminder of it.
So they both set out, until when they embarked on the ship. 71
He made a hole in it.
[Moses] said: Did you make a hole in it to drown its people?
Certainly, you have done a grievous thing.
He said: Did I not say, indeed, 72
You will never be able to have patience with me?
[Moses] said: Do not blame me for what I forgot. 73
And do not be hard on me in my distressing case.
And so they both proceeded until when they met a boy, 74
Then he killed him.
[Moses] said: Have you killed a pure soul
For other than a soul?
Certainly you have done an evil thing.
He said: Did I not say to you 75
That you will never be able to have patience with me?
[Moses] said: If I ask about anything after it, 76
Then do not have me as a companion.
Certainly, you have obtained from me an excuse.
So they went forth, until they approached the people of a town. 77
They asked for food of its people,
But they refused to offer them hospitality.
Then they found in it a wall wanting to crumble,
So he set it straight.
[Moses] said: If you had wished,
Surely, for that you could have taken a payment for it.
He said: This is the parting between me and you. 78
I will inform you of the interpretation
Of that with which you were not able to have patience.
As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working in the sea. 79
So I intended to render it defective,
And as there was a king after them who seized every ship by force.
As for the boy, both his parents were believers. 80
And we feared that he would overburden them with transgression
And disbelief.
So We intended that their Lord would exchange for them 81
One better than him in purity and closer in affection.
And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the town, 82
And a treasure for them was underneath it.
And their father [had been] virtuous.
So your Rabb intended that they both reach their maturity,
And should bring forth the treasure as a mercy to them from your Lord,
And I did it not on my command.
That is the meaning of what you were unable to have patience with.
And they ask you about Dhul Qarnayn. 83
Say: I will recite a remembrance about him to you.
Indeed, We had established him well in the land, 84
And We gave him of everything a means.
So he followed a path, 85
Until, when he reached the setting place of the sun, 86
He found it setting into a spring of dark mud.
And he found near it a people.
We said: O Dhul Qarnayn, either you punish them,
Or treat them with kindness.
He said: As for who does wrong, 87
Then soon we will punish him,
Then he will be returned to his Rabb,
And He will punish him with a terrible torment.
But as for one who believes and who does virtuous deeds, 88
Then for him there is a beautiful reward.
And We will speak to him from our command with ease.
Then he followed a path, 89
Until, when he reached the rising place of the sun, 90
And he found it rising upon a people.
We had not made for them against it any shelter.
Thus. 91
And certainly, 92
We contained all of what he had [of] experience.
Then he followed a path, 93
Until, when he reached between the two mountains,
He found beside them a people who could almost not understand speech.
They said: O Dhul Qarnayn, 94
Indeed, Gog and Magog are both corrupters in the land.
So may we make for you a payment,
That you build between us and them a barrier?
He said: What my Lord established me in here is better. 95
But, assist me with strength,
I will make between you and them a barricade.
Bring me blocks of iron. 96
Until, when he had leveled between the two cliffs,
He said: Blow.
Until, when he made it fiery, he said:
Bring me molten copper that I may pour over it.
So they were not able to scale it, nor were they able to bore into it. 97
He said: This is a mercy from my Rabb, 98
But when the promise of my Rabb comes,
He will make it crushed flat.
And the promise of my Lord is true.
And We will leave some of them that day to surge over others. 99
And blown will be the trumpet.
Then we will gather them all together.
And We shall present hell that day to the unfaithful made visible. 100
The ones whose eyes had been veiled from remembering Me, 101
And were not able to hear.
Those who disbelieve, 102
Do they then
Think that they can take My slaves besides Me as protectors?
Truly We have prepared hell as a lodge for the faithless.
Say: Shall we let you know who are the greatest losers in their deeds? 103
Those who have gone astray in their efforts in worldy life, 104
While they think they are accumulating good works.
They are the ones 105
Who have no faith in the signs of their Rabb and in experiencing them.
So vain are their deeds We will accord them no weight
On the day of the standing.
That is their recompense, 106
Hell.
Because they had no faith,
And they took My signs and My messengers in mockery.
Indeed, those who believed and did virtuous deeds, 107
There will be gardens in paradise for them as home,
Abiding forever in it. 108
They will not desire leaving from it.
Say: If the sea were ink for the words of my Rabb, 109
Surely the sea would be run out before the words of my Rabb ran out.
Even if we brought the same [amount] as aid.
Say: I am only a human being like you. 110
It is revealed to me that your god
Is God,
One.
So, whoever hopes for the encounter with his Rabb,
Let him do virtuous deeds,
And not associate in the worship of his Rabb anyone.