Surah Al-Kahf: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Thanks and praise are due to Allah alone. It is He who created and sustains the universe and all that is in it, and who, through the Quran He has sent down, makes known plainly to His servants the reason for their creation and how they should live. In that divine Book there is no contradiction or inconsistency to make it hard to understand.

Through the Quran Allah makes known and warns that those who refuse to live by the divine system of life, who cover it up, and who wage war on it and rebel against Allah will be made to suffer punishment.

He gives those who believe in His call and fulfill what it requires the good news of Paradise, in which they will remain forever.

He also makes known that those who say, “Allah has taken a child,” will be called to account for these ignorant words of theirs, which rest on lies and slander.

Those who attribute a child to Allah have neither any real knowledge nor any proof on which to base such a lie. This word, which they make up among themselves and utter, is a monstrous slander.

O Prophet! Will you wear yourself out with grief because such people do not believe the truths Allah makes known through the Quran?

We have made the blessings We created on the earth, and what We make known through the Book We have sent, each a means of testing, to bring to light who will choose to be a believer and who will prefer to be ungrateful and associate partners with Allah, and to make their own deeds bear witness about them.

Without doubt, when the time comes, We will level all the beauties We have created on the earth and turn it into bone-dry ground.

O Prophet! Though you live in the universe We created with Our boundless knowledge and power, and see and witness that We have power to do whatever We will, are you so very amazed at what some people read from the inscription and say about those companions of the cave?

In the past, these young men, wishing to live by the system of life that is Allah’s call, rebelled against the oppression of the system of shirk and disbelief in their land, and so were subjected to very heavy persecution, and they prayed to their Lord thus: “Our Lord! Protect us with Your mercy, and show us a way out of the situation we are in.”

So We made them fall into a sleep lasting many years in the cave where they had taken refuge. Later We woke them from their sleep, and when they awoke they began asking one another how long they had slept.

O Prophet! We are telling you of the things that befell those young men, from which a lesson should be drawn. They were a few young believers who grasped the reason for their creation and strove with all their might to live life as they were invited to. And We strengthened their faith, heightened their awareness, and reinforced their courage. Then they stood up against the ruler who was forcing them to live by the existing order, and said: “Our Lord is Allah, the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We accept no one but Him as God, nor do we pray to or seek help from anyone but Him; if we were to attempt such a thing, we would have strayed from what is right. But our people would not accept this plain truth; they took the systems of shirk and their rulers as lords and gods, and tried to attribute to Allah the lies and slanders they made up. Who could be more unjust than slanderers who ascribe to Allah the lies they make up?”

The sun, when it rose in the morning, would graze past the right side of the cave where they had taken refuge and fallen asleep to escape the tyrant ruler and his oppressive order founded on shirk, and when it set in the evening it would graze past its left side. They lay in a roomy part of the cave; though they were asleep, had you seen them you would have thought them awake. We turned them now onto their right sides, now onto their left, and their dog lay asleep at the mouth of the cave with its legs stretched out. Had you seen them in this state, you would have fled from there in fear. This too is one of Allah’s miracles. Whoever seeks what is right and strives to attain it, Allah helps him and brings him to what is right.

At last, when the day came, We woke them just as We had left them asleep for a long time. Then they began asking one another how long they had slept there. One of them said, “We slept a day, or a little less than a day,” while another said, “Allah knows best exactly how long we slept; now leave reckoning that, and let one of us take this money and go to the city, find someone who sells wholesome food, and buy something and bring it back. Let him be very careful while shopping, so that no one realizes we are here; for if these people who associate partners with Allah lay hands on us, they will either stone us to death or torture us to bring us back to their beliefs. If we return to their religion (to living by their system), then we will have taken other lords and gods alongside Allah, and we will never prosper, in this world or in the Hereafter.”

And through the young man who went to the city to shop, We made the people aware of them. Our aim in this was to show plainly that Allah’s promise to raise the human being again after causing him to die is true, and that the Day of Reckoning will come.

When the people saw and understood that the money used by the young man who came down to the city dated from a very ancient time, they learned of their situation. Some time later, when the young men died, the people began to argue among themselves about what they should do concerning them. Some of them said, “Let us erect a monument over the cave where they fell asleep, and turn the cave into a shrine,” while others said, “Allah knows best what is right, but it would be better to build a masjid in front of that cave.”

O Prophet! Centuries after this event, some people now come forward and say, “These young men were three, and the fourth was their dog”; others say, “They were five, and the sixth was their dog”; while some say, “They were seven, and the eighth was their dog.” As they enter into needless, pointless arguments on a matter they do not know, the lesson that should be drawn from that event is being covered up. Say to them: “My Lord knows their number best.” In any case very few people have any knowledge about them; be content with the knowledge the Quran gives on this matter, and do not concern yourself with anything beyond the message intended to be given; do not enter into arguments about them beyond the lesson to be drawn from their situation, and do not try to obtain needless information through needless questions.

Never speak with certainty about any matter or any task, saying, “I will certainly do this tomorrow.” Instead say, ‘I will do it if Allah wills (inshallah)’; and if you forget to say inshallah, then as soon as you remember, turn at once to your Lord and pray, expressing the hope: “Inshallah I will not forget again, and my Lord will grant me success in acting with greater awareness and consciousness.”

Some say those young men stayed in the cave three hundred years, while others add nine years to this and say they stayed three hundred and nine years. Say: “Allah knows best how long they were left asleep there, for He alone knows the truth of what takes place in the heavens, on the earth, and between them. He makes known to you what you need to know.”

The right to lay down rulings over His creatures and to govern them by the rulings He lays down belongs to Allah alone. He makes no one a partner in His sovereignty; He knows the essence and the truth of everything. There is no true friend but Him, and all that He does is absolutely perfect. So invite people with your Lord’s Book to the system of life that is the reason for their creation. Do not concern yourself with anything other than what your Lord has made known, and do not fall into the traps of those who add to it or take away from it! No one can change your Lord’s words, and there is no one but Him in whom to take refuge.

Together with the believers who seek their Lord’s good pleasure morning and evening, strive (jihad), standing firm against those who attack you, and never be deceived by the passing allure of worldly life and turn away from the believers. Do not yield to the stubborn ingrates whose hearts We have left deprived of turning to Our call, because they made shirk and disbelief their nature and conditioned themselves to it.

Say: “This Quran has been sent down to make known your Lord’s purpose in creating you, and to guide you to live in keeping with that purpose. So let whoever wishes believe in what has been sent down through the Quran and live accordingly, and let whoever wishes turn away from it and live as he pleases.” But know this: for those who end their worldly lives associating partners with Allah and denying the truth, We have prepared pits of fire in Hell, whose walls are encircled on every side by flames.

In that dreadful fire, when they cry out from thirst, they will be given water like molten metal, whose steam scorches their faces. What an evil drink, and what an evil place Hell is!

To those who believe in Allah’s call and end their worldly lives as befits their faith, Allah gives the good news of the Gardens of Adn (Eden), through which rivers flow, as their reward. There they will be adorned with ornaments of gold and clothed in green garments of fine silk and heavy brocade; seated on thrones, they will be made to live in delight and pleasure. Allah never lets the efforts of those who respond to His call go to waste; He rewards them by the best of what they did. What an excellent reward, and what a pleasant place Paradise is!

O Prophet! Tell those who turn away from Allah’s call the story of these two men, from which lessons should be drawn. To one of them We had given two vineyards, surrounded them with date palms, and grown crops between the two.

Both vineyards yielded their produce in full. And between those two vineyards We had also made a stream flow. So he harvested abundant produce from his gardens and lived in plenty; and then one day, while talking to his friend, who was his neighbor, he swelled with pride and boasted to him: “My wealth and property are far greater than yours, and what is more, I am above you in influence and standing too.” Then this man, who wronged himself by thinking and speaking so, turned and looked at his garden and said to his friend, “I do not think it at all likely that this garden and vineyard of mine will ever wither and perish, and I do not believe that the day they call the Resurrection will ever come. And if such a thing should prove true, and I am raised again and brought before my Lord, I am sure I will be given something better than this there too.”

At this his friend said to him: “By speaking like this, are you not being ungrateful to Allah, who created you first from dust, then from a drop of fluid, gave you your form, and provides for you?” and then he went on:

“Yet I know full well and believe that the true Owner of the things that you and I say we own is Allah. It is He who makes known how the blessings He created should be used, and there is no true god but Him. Shame on you, too, for your arrogance and ingratitude. If only, instead of swaggering and growing insolent as you went in and out of your garden, you had said, ‘Mashallah, how beautifully Allah has created this and bestowed it on me; inshallah I will use it as would please Him and be among those who give thanks,’ and had not looked down on me for wealth, property, and children, it would have been better. If my Lord wills, He can give me something better than your vineyard and garden; and if He wills, He can send a calamity upon your vineyard and garden and level it to the ground. Or He can draw your garden’s water down into the depths of the earth, so that you can never find it again.”

And so it was. One day, through a calamity, that arrogant ingrate’s vineyard and garden were laid waste, all he had was taken from him, his labors came to nothing, and his dreams were destroyed. He sank to his knees, wringing his hands and writhing in remorse, and kept lamenting, “Ah, if only I had not grown arrogant and ungrateful toward my Lord and spoken those insolent words, and had not taken my own self as a god alongside Allah and associated partners with Him!”

Yet he should have used his reason and known that it is Allah who gave him so many blessings, and that there is no power that can protect him from Him or help him against Him. Nor is it possible for a human being to be self-sufficient and solve his problems on his own. Surely Allah is the true Friend, Helper, and Protector of those who take refuge in Him. He rewards those who turn to Him with the finest rewards and brings them to the finest outcomes.

O Prophet! Give this example too to those who boast and grow arrogant over the wealth, property, and riches We have granted them in their worldly lives: “What you imagine you possess in your brief worldly life is just like the plants We make grow green and lush on the earth with the rain We send down from the sky. Then this greenery dries up and turns to chaff scattered by the wind. Thus has Allah ordained the laws of the order of nature. Allah’s power suffices for everything, and you too will in the end meet truths like this.”

Wealth and property, family and children: these are the passing adornments and beauties of worldly life. The real and lasting beauties are those of the everlasting life of Paradise, to be attained by living in a way that pleases Allah.

When the day comes, We will tear the mountains from their places and set them moving, and leave the earth flat, bare, and empty. On That Day We will raise all the dead and gather them together, and they will be lined up in rows before your Lord. Their Lord will say to them: “Here you have come to Our presence today all alone, just as We created you the first time; yet while in the world most of you did not believe that you would come before Us and give account.”

And on that day the books of deeds, in which the records of what every person did in worldly life were kept, will be set out; and those who lived disregarding Allah’s call, when they see the records in their books of deeds, will say in terror, “Alas! What kind of book is this? It has left out nothing small or great; every deed and every word of ours has been put on record,” and so they will come face to face with their worldly lives. The truth is that your Lord wrongs no one, and punishes no one with torment without cause.

When We created Adam, We commanded the angels, “Be ready to help and serve Adam in the life We will have him live.” At this all the angels prostrated themselves before Us, showing that they would obey Our command; but Iblis alone grew arrogant, would not consent to obey Our command, and opposed it. He was of the jinn.

O you who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth! Are you too opposing your Lord’s call, just as Iblis (Satan) grew arrogant and opposed his Lord’s command? Yet you were told and warned that Iblis is your enemy. Now, despite this, what an evil exchange you are making by following in his footsteps!

Just as no one had any share in the creation of the heavens, the earth, or what is between them, neither did they witness the creation; and We have given no one authority to lay down rulings over what We have created and to rule it. Nor have We taken any of them as helpers.

On the Day of Reckoning those who associated partners with Allah, who rebelled against their Lord by following in Satan’s footsteps, will be addressed thus: “Come on, then; call to your aid those whom you followed against My call and took as gods, and let them come and save you from the punishment.” They will call, but not a sound will come from those they call, for between them there will be pits filled with fire. When they are brought to the edge of those pits of fire, they will realize they are to be cast into them, but they will find no way to escape.

Through this Quran We have explained the truths to people in detail, with various examples and repetitions. But most people, instead of reflecting on Our verses and reaching the truth, chose the way of blind rejection.

So, though a Book and a Prophet have come to guide them, by this attitude of theirs they seem to be waiting for the destructive calamities that befell those before them, or the punishment of the Hereafter, to come upon them.

Yet We send the prophets and the Book to give good news to those who believe and to warn those who turn away. But those who are ungrateful to Allah and rebel against His call go after human systems founded on oppression and mock Our verses.

Who could be more ignorant and more unjust than one who, after his Lord’s call has reached him, treats it with indifference, pays no heed to the sins he has committed and is committing, and forgets them? Over the hearts of ingrates who have conditioned themselves to live like this We have drawn veils that keep them from understanding the Quran, and put heaviness in their ears. However much you call such stubborn people to what is right, they will not come.

Allah is merciful and forgiving toward those who grasp the truth, repent of their shirk and disbelief, and turn to what is right. Had your Lord willed, He would have punished them at once for the sins they committed; but there is a time set by law for punishing them. When That Day comes and the term is up, they cannot possibly escape Allah’s punishment. Just like the term We granted the communities We destroyed before for their shirk, disbelief, and oppression, for these too there is a term set beforehand.

Allah has bound the time and conditions of every matter to laws. Allah alone knows the inner side and true nature of every matter, and when and how it will end.

Long ago Moses set out with his companion to meet, at the place where the two seas meet, a learned man on whom Allah had bestowed favor and superior knowledge, and to benefit from his knowledge, and he had said that he would reach it even if he had to walk to the end of his life.

At the rocks by the seashore where they last stopped to rest, they forgot the fish they had brought with them to eat; indeed the fish had already fallen into the sea and vanished from sight.

When they had gone on from that place and grew hungry, Moses said to his companion, “This journey has worn us out; bring out that fish and let us eat.” His companion said to him: “I forgot to tell you about the fish: you remember the rock where we last sat down to rest? There the fish fell into the sea in an astonishing way and vanished. I think it was Satan who made me forget to tell you.”

At this Moses said excitedly, “That is the place we were looking for; that was our meeting point,” and at once they turned back the way they had come, and when they got there they met a servant of Ours on whom We had bestowed superior knowledge from Our presence and to whom We had given tasks.

Moses at once said to him: “I want to be with you and go with you wherever you go, so that by benefiting from your knowledge I may learn the true nature of what is taking place and be able to do what is right.”

The man to whom We had given knowledge said to Moses: “While you are with me, you will not be able to bear what we will encounter and what will take place. How could you bear things whose inner side and true nature you cannot know and understand? Better attend to your own affairs.” And Moses said to him: “Inshallah you will find me a patient man; I will not interfere in, oppose, or object to anything you do.” Then Our servant to whom We had given knowledge said to Moses: “If you are to come with me, then you will ask me nothing until I explain to you the nature of what I do.”

Moses accepted the proposal of this man, who was endowed with special knowledge and given special tasks, and set out with him. When they reached a coastal town, they boarded a ship to continue their journey, and as they were about to leave the ship, the learned man pulled out several planks from its bottom so that it would be damaged and take on water. At this Moses said, “Do you want to sink the ship and drown those who will board it? Is that why you made a hole in its bottom? What you have done is not right at all.”

The man to whom knowledge had been given said to Moses: “Did I not tell you that you would not be able to bear being with me?” Moses said, “For a moment I forgot my word and asked without thinking. Forgive me, and do not rebuke me for it.”

So they left the ship and continued on their way, and on the road they came upon a young man. The learned man killed this young man who crossed their path. At this Moses said angrily, “How can you take the life of an innocent person without cause, not in return for another life? What you have done is a terrible thing.”

The learned man to whom knowledge had been given turned to Moses again and said, “I told you that you would not be able to bear being with me.”

Moses at once pulled himself together and said, “If I ask you anything after this, do not keep me company or travel with me. I would have no face left to apologize to you anyway,” and they went on their way. They asked the people of a town they passed through for some food, but the people of that town showed no hospitality and gave them no food. Meanwhile, seeing a wall on the point of collapse in a street they were passing through, the learned man stopped there and repaired the wall, saving it from falling. Again Moses could not keep from speaking: “Would it have been so bad if you had asked for a fee for this work? At least we could have fed ourselves with it.” At this the learned man said to Moses, “Now the time has come for us to part ways. But before we part, I will explain to you the inner side of the events about which you showed no patience and asked.”

“Let us begin with the matter of the ship... That ship belonged to some poor people who earned their living from the sea. I damaged it deliberately, for had they continued on their way, the men of a ruler who seized every sound ship lay in wait ahead of them. As for the young man I killed, his mother and father were believers who had taken Allah alone as Lord and God and believed in His call. The knowledge had been conveyed to me that the young man had to be killed because he would bring his mother and father deep suffering. May Allah, their Lord, grant them in place of this child a good and compassionate child.

As for my repairing the wall that was on the point of collapse, that wall was the wall of the house of two orphan children who lived there, and beneath the wall was a treasure belonging to those children. Their father had died a believer who had taken Allah alone as Lord and God and believed in Him. That is why your Lord willed, as a favor and mercy to them, that they should come into their treasure when they reached adulthood; so I did none of these things of my own will. That is the inner side of the things you could not be patient with and bear.” (Through these experiences of Moses, Allah makes known to us the truth that even prophets cannot know and understand the inner side of the events one meets or lives through.)

O Prophet! They ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn. Say: “Let me tell you what has been made known to me about him. Allah says: We granted Dhul-Qarnayn wide means, power, and authority on the earth, gave him knowledge of the places he would go to, and showed him the ways. And with this knowledge and power he set out to carry out his tasks. Going westward as far as he could go, he reached the place where the sun seemed to be setting in dark, murky water, and there he came upon a people who associated partners with Allah and were immoral.” Then We said to him: “O Dhul-Qarnayn! You may punish them, or you may treat them well.” And Dhul-Qarnayn addressed them thus: “Whoever among you insists on taking other lords and gods alongside Allah and persists in remaining in shirk, refuses to live on the right path that is Allah’s call, and continues in oppression, we will punish him. And when the Day of Reckoning comes, such people will be brought before their Lord and punished with a far more severe punishment. But those who turn to Allah alone and strive to live in keeping with the reason for their creation will be rewarded with the finest gifts in this world and the Hereafter, and in their striving their Lord will help them and make their affairs easy.”

Some time later Dhul-Qarnayn left there and, for a new task, reached the farthest place he could reach in the direction of the sunrise, and when he got there he came upon a people over whom the sun was never absent.

We had given Dhul-Qarnayn enough knowledge, power, and means to reach these places and such communities. Surely We know the extent of what We bestowed on him and what it was. Then Dhul-Qarnayn set out on a new road.

Changing direction and continuing on his way, Dhul-Qarnayn reached a community living between two mountains, who understood the language he spoke, if only a little. They said to Dhul-Qarnayn: “O Dhul-Qarnayn! Gog and Magog, who live behind these mountains, keep infiltrating among us, spreading corruption in our land and causing mischief. Build a barrier between them and us, on condition that we give you whatever it costs, and save us from them.”

Dhul-Qarnayn said to them: “The knowledge, power, and authority my Lord has granted me are far better and more valuable than what you would give me. Just help me with your physical strength, and I will build a barrier between you and them; now bring me blocks of iron ore.” He filled the gap between the two mountains with the blocks of iron that were brought, then lit a fire and, fanning it with bellows, melted the iron ore. When the iron was red-hot, he said, “Now bring the copper being melted on the other side and pour it over it,” and so he built a barrier there that could not be crossed. After this Gog and Magog could neither climb over that barrier nor bore a hole through it.

When the barrier was finished, Dhul-Qarnayn gathered the people and addressed them thus: “Thanks be to my Lord, who granted the knowledge and power to build this. This barrier will be leveled to the ground and destroyed only when the time my Lord has set comes; the Day my Lord has promised will surely come.”

When the Day of Resurrection comes, We will leave people to surge like waves, and they will rush about here and there in fear and terror. At last the Trumpet will be blown, and We will gather them all together.

On That Day We will bring face to face with Hell those who persisted in associating partners with Allah and denying the truth and turned away from Allah’s call. For they abandoned Allah, took His servants as protectors (awliya), and hoped for help from them. Surely the destination of such people will be Hell.

Say: “Shall I tell you who will be the greatest losers in respect of what they have done?”

They are those who, without wondering about and looking into what the true reason for their creation is, think they are doing good and right things, and whose labors therefore go to waste. Yet they thought they were doing good and right deeds.

Such people paid no heed to the truths their Lord made known through His verses, and without reflecting on them and grasping them, rejected the Hereafter and the Day of Reckoning. That is why what they did in the world has gone to waste; in the Hereafter We will not even see any need to weigh their deeds, and We will give them no value at all.

Their penalty will be the fire of Hell, for they also mocked Our verses and Our Prophet and called them lies.

But for those who believe and strive to live by the righteous deeds their faith requires, mansions have been prepared as a reward in the gardens of Firdaws in Paradise. They will remain there forever and will never be made to leave.

O Prophet! Say: “If the seas were ink for writing the words of my Lord, even if we added as much again to them, the seas would still run dry, and my Lord’s words would not run out.”

Say to those who associate partners with Allah: “I am a human being like you; but it is revealed to me that our Lord and our God is Allah alone. So whoever seeks to win his Lord’s good pleasure and feels responsible toward Him, let him strive to live in keeping with the reason for his creation. Thus let him be freed from associating partners with Allah and from being a servant of servants.”