Surah Kahf Tafseer Part 1- Introduction and Background

FADHAIL OF SURAH KAHF

1. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "Whoever commits to memory the first ten Ayat of the Surat Al-Kahf, will be protected from (the trial of) Ad-Dajjal (Antichrist)."

In another narration, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "(Whoever commits to memory) the last ten Ayat of Surat Al-Kahf, he will be protected from (the trial of) Ad-Dajjal (Antichrist)."

(Muslim:809)

2.Abu ad Darda R.A. narrated: “Whoever recites Surah Al Kahf on Firday, then he will be given a light emanating from him between the two Jumu’ahs(that Friday and the following Friday).” (Al Baihaqi 3:29)

3. Narrated Al-Bara':

A man was reciting Surat Al-Kahf and his horse was tied with two ropes beside him. A cloud came down and spread over that man, and it kept on coming closer and closer to him till his horse started jumping (as if afraid of something). When it was morning, the man came to the Prophet, and told him of that experience. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "That was As-Sakina (tranquility) which descended because of (the recitation of) the Qur'an."

Sahih al-Bukhari 5011

(Sakinah refers to angels because they bring sakinah with them wherever they go and they descended because they wanted to listen to the recitation of this majestic Surah)

4.The Messenger of Allah(s.a.w) mentioned the Dajjal one morning, he belittled him and mentioned his importance until we thought that he might be (hidden) behind a cluster of date-palms." He said: "We departed from the presence of the Messenger of Allah(s.a.w), then we returned to him, and he noticed that(concern) in us. So he said: 'What is wrong with you?'" We said: 'O Messenger of Allah! You mentioned the Dajjal this morning, belittling him, and mentioning his importance until we thought that he might be amidst a cluster of the date-palms.'

He said: 'It is not the Dajjal that I fear for you. If he were to appear while I am among you, then I will be his adversary on your behalf. And if he appears and I am not among you, then each man will have to fend for himself. And Allah will take care of every Muslim after me. He is young, with curly hair, his eyes protruding, resembling someone from 'Abdul-Uzza bin Qatan.

Whoever among you sees him, then let him recite the beginning of Surah Ashab Al-Kahf.'"He said: 'He will appear from what is between Ash-Sham and Al-'Iraq, causing devastation toward the right and toward the left. O worshippers of Allah! Hold fast!'" We said: 'O Messenger of Allah! How long will he linger on the earth?' He said: 'Forty days, a day like a year, a day like a month, a day like a week, and the remainder of his days are like your days.'" We said: 'O Messenger of Allah! Do you think that during the day that is like a year, the Salat of one day will be sufficient for us?' He said: 'No. You will have to estimate it.' We said: 'O Messenger of Allah! How fast will he move through the earth.' He said: 'Like a rain storm driven by the wind. He will come upon a people and call them, and they will deny him, and reject his claims. Then he will leave them, and their wealth will follow him. They will awaken in the morning with nothing left. Then he will come upon a people and call them, and they will respond to him, believing in him. So he will order the Heavens to bring rain, and it shall rain, and he will order the land to sprout, and it will sprout. Their cattle will return to them with their coats the longest, their udders the fullest and their stomachs the fattest.' He said: 'Then he will come upon some ruins, saying to it: "Bring me your treasures!" He will turn to leave it, and it will follow him, like drone bees. Then he will call a young man, full of youth, and he will strike him with the sword cutting him into two pieces. Then he will call him, and he will come forward with his face beaming and laughing. So while he is doing that, 'Eisa bin Mariam, peace be upon him, will descend in eastern Damascus at the white minaret, between two Mahrud, with his hands on the wings of two angels. When he lowers his head, drops fall, and when raises it, gems like pearls drop from him.' He said: 'His (the Dajjal's) breath does not reach anyone but he dies, and his breath reaches as far as his sight.' He said: 'So he pursues him(the Dajjal) and he catches up with him at the gate of Ludd where he kills him.' '"

(TIRMIDHI) Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2240

 4 MAIN STORIES IN SURAH KAHF

1^st is trial of faith:

A number of young men are guided to believe in the One and Only Lord and because they lived in a city of disbelievers they decide to escape to the cave, fearing execution after calling people to monotheism. Allah  makes the boys fall asleep for 300 years, and then they wake up to a new society filled with faith. 

2^nd is trial of wealth:

There was a man who had 2 gardens with a river running between them. The garden had farms in between and was surrounded by palm trees. So he had natural irrigation and he had the best of produce. Everything produced was of the finest quality.

There was another man who had a very small garden/farm and he wasn’t rich at all. So, one day, the rich man claimed that he had greater wealth and more labour working under him and he rubbed it in. He believed it would stay forever and would never perish. And he denied the Qiyamah.

His companion said Why don’t you say there is no power except Allah? It may be that Allah gives me something better and takes it away from you. It is in Allah SWT’s hands. One day he woke up, his gardens were destroyed by a wind.

His problem was his reliance on himself instead of Allah. So, wealth can lead to arrogance and become a fitnah. We forget that the world is temporary.

3^rd is trial of knowledge:

Musa A.S. thinks he has the most knowledge. Allah tells him there is someone else who has more knowledge. Musa AS goes with Khidr AS on a journey, and along that journey Khidr does 3 actions which make no sense to Musa AS. First, he made a hole in the ship he was traveling. Then he kills a boy. Then they start building a wall in a town where the people were very inhospitable to them. Then he didn’t even get paid for it. He keeps asking questions and eventually has to part ways because of it. Then Khidr explains the hikmah behind his actions. He made a hole in the boat because the boat was owned by someone poor, and the king had decided to take all working boats for their navy, so he made a hole so the king would not take it since it was damaged. The boy was killed because he was going to be a source of evil for their parents and would have caused them great hurt by disbelief. The wall was built because the people of the town were very greedy and stingy and didn’t even give them hospitality. So, there were orphan children in this town and their father had buried savings for them in the ground. This wall was falling apart and the gold would have been exposed. So he built this wall so that when they grow up, they can dig it themselves and make use of it. Then he explains that everything was done with the hukm of Allah. This story tells us that there are hidden blessings behind everything that happens in our life and Allah knows best the reality of the situations.

4^th is trial of power:

Zulqarnain uses his power to spread justice. He had the rare combination of power and strength of imaan. He uses every resource for the right purpose. He went to a land where people complained about the fitna of Yajooj Majooj and they were primitive people who could barely understand him. He built a giant wall between mountains to protect people from the fitna of Yajooj Majooj without taking anything in return and exploiting their own resources. Allah put us on earth to do the best we can on Earth, using the resources of the earth.

When he makes the wall after years, he says it is from the loving mercy of the Allah although he made it with his own hands along with the people. He doesn’t build it and say this is the greatest structure ever built and nobody can scale it, but he said that one day Allah’s promise will come and it will be leveled. This does not mean that we should not do anything in this world, because it will perish but we should make all our efforts and never forget the reality of the world.

HOW IS SURAH KAHF LINKED WITH DAJJAL?

Dajjal will beautify the world like never before, and he will test people like never before.

There is no fitnah greater than Dajjal. Dajjal will claim to be a god on earth and he will be given certain miracles.  He will test people’s faith and will ask people to believe in him as god.

It was narrated that Abu Umamah Al-Bahili said:

"The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) addressed us, and most of his speech had to do with telling us about Dajjal. He warned about him, and among the things he said was: 'There will not be any tribulation on earth, since the time Allah created the offspring of Adam, that will be greater than the tribulation of Dajjal. Allah has not sent any Prophet but he warned his nation about Dajjal. I am the last of the Prophets, and you are the last of the nations. He will undoubtedly appear among you. If he appears while I am among you, I will contend with him on behalf of every Muslim, and if he appears while I am not among you, then each man must fend for himself and Allah will take care of every Muslim on my behalf. He will emerge from Al-Khallah, between Sham and Iraq, and will wreak havoc right and left. O slaves of Allah, remain steadfast. I will describe him to you in a manner in which none of the Prophets has described him before me. He will start by saying "I am a Prophet," and there is no Prophet after me. Then a second time he will say: "I am your Lord." But you will not see your Lord until you die. He is one-eyed, and your Lord is not one-eyed, and written between his eyes is Kafir. Every believer will read it, whether he is literate or illiterate.

Part of his Fitnah will be that he will have with him Paradise and Hell, but his Hell will be a Paradise and his Paradise a Hell. Whoever is tested with his fire (hell), let him seek the help of Allah and recite the first Verses of Al-Kahf, then it will be cool and safe for him, as the fire was for Ibrahim.

Part of his Fitnah will be that he will say to a Bedouin: "What do you think, if I resurrect your father and mother for you, will you bear witness that I am your Lord?" He will say: "Yes." Then two devils will appear to him in the form of his father and mother and will say: "O my son, follow him, for he is your Lord."

 And part of his Fitnah will be that he will overpower a single soul and kill him, then he will cut him with a saw until he falls in two pieces. Then he will say: "Look at this slave of mine; I will resurrect him now, then he will claim that he has a Lord other than me." Then Allah will resurrect him and the evil one will say to him: "Who is your Lord?" and he will say: "Allah is my Lord, and you are the enemy of Allah, you are Dajjal. By Allah, I have never had more insight about you than I have today."

"The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: 'Part of his Fitnah will be that he will command the sky to rain, and it will rain, and he will command the earth to bring forth vegetation and it will do so.

And part of his Fitnah will be that he will pass by a clan and they will disbelieve in him, so all their flocks will perish and none will be left. And part of his Fitnah will be that he will pass by a clan who will believe in him, so he will command the sky to rain, and it will rain, and he will command the earth to bring forth vegetation and it will do so, until their flocks will come back in the evening of that day, bigger and fatter than they have ever been, with their flanks stretched and their udders full of milk. There will be no part of the earth left that he does not enter and prevail over, except for Makkah and Al-Madinah, for he will not approach them on any of their mountain paths but he will be met by angels with unsheathed swords, until he will stop at the red hill at the end of the marsh. (Sunan Ibn Majah 4077)

Narrated Imran ibn Husayn:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Let him who hears of the Dajjal (Antichrist) go far from him for I swear by Allah that a man will come to him thinking he is a believer and follow him because of confused ideas roused in him by him.

(Sunnan Abi Dawud 4319)

He will be given power and will control huge parts of the earth and the believers will only be left in a small minority. He will test people by his ability to control the rain. He will give to who believes him and take from who disbelieves him. He will claim to bring the dead back to life.

He will test people with wealth, as he will be able to extract all the wealth from the ground with his command, and he will give only to those who follow him.

He will test people with knowledge as he will claim to have the knowledge of the unseen.

Before Dajjal actually comes, there is the fitnah of dajjal enveloping the world. It will involve 4 main aspects:

1) God and religion will be replaced by the physical Universe and science

2) The focus on the soul will be replaced by focus on the body

3) The afterlife will be forgotten and people will only live for dunya

4) Morality will become relative and religion will no longer be a moral authority

What should be our response?

Narrated Anas:

A man asked the Prophet (ﷺ) about the Hour (i.e. Day of Judgment) saying, "When will the Hour be?" The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "What have you prepared for it?" The man said, "Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Apostle." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "You will be with those whom you love." We had never been so glad as we were on hearing that saying of the Prophet.

(Sahih Bukhari 3688)

We need to be like those young men who stay away from the fitnah like the ashaab e kahf ran from the fitnah surrounded them. Just like Allah helped the ashaab e kahf miraculously, he will aid us when we stand firm on imaan.

Kahf literally means cave, so it implies that this surah is a means of seeking refuge, security, and protection from all the fitnahs.

All of the stories mentioned in this Surah reinforce the reality of this world and remind us that this world is a test and the reward is in akhirah.

CONTEXT OF REVELATION

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 that 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,

(I will tell you tomorrow about what you have asked me.) but he did not say `If Allah wills.' inshaaAllah. 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, (and also with Surah Al Isra) which also contained a rebuke for feeling sad about the idolators. The Surah also told him about the things they had asked him about.

(Ibn Kathir)

And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the soul. Say, "The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little." (17:85)

CHRISTIAN VERSION OF SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS

The Ashaab e Kahf were known as seven sleepers of Ephesus (which is now in Turkey).

The king in 249-251 was Decius who believed in Greek mythology and multiple pagan gods. He built their monuments in the middle of the city. This king expected the whole town to bow to these gods and worship them. If anybody refused to pay respect to them, he was punished or slaughtered.

Seven young men refused to do it while the rest of the people were doing it. These youths were sons of illustrious citizens of Ephesus. Appearing before the emperor for trial, the young men confessed their faith in Christ.

They were arrested and given a death sentence and supposed to be publicly executed. OR another version says that Decius permitted them to go free as they were minors, however, hoping that they would change their minds while he was off on a military campaign.

Either way, the youth fled from the city and hid in a small cave, where they passed their time in prayer, preparing for martyrdom.

Learning where the young men were hidden, the emperor ordered that the entrance of the cave be sealed with stones so that the saints would perish from hunger and thirst.

Years later, desiring to preserve the memory of the saints, a few Christians placed on the mouth of the cave, an inscription. On them were inscribed the names of the seven youths and the details of their suffering and death.

The youth remained into a miraculous sleep lasting almost two centuries. In the meantime, the persecutions against Christians had ceased.

 During the reign of the emperor Theodosius(408-450), there was a major debate going on. Some of them said, “How can there be a resurrection of the dead when there will be neither soul nor body, since they are disintegrated?” Others affirmed, “The souls alone will have a restoration, since it would be impossible for bodies to arise and live after a thousand years, when even their dust would not remain.” Therefore, the Lord revealed the mystery of the Resurrection of the Dead and of the future life through His seven saints.

The owner/shepherd of the land on which the cave was situated, removed the rocks to build a shed for himself.’ He saw light enter a cave, and saw some men sleeping inside wearing ancient clothes. They awoke from their sleep, unaware that almost two hundred years had passed. Their bodies and clothing were in the same state.

The youths sent one of them to buy bread for them in the city. Going toward the city, the youth was astonished to see a cross on the gates. Hearing the name of Jesus Christ freely spoken, he began to doubt that he was approaching his own city. When he paid for the bread, he gave the merchant coins with the image of the emperor Decius on it. He was detained, as someone who might be concealing a horde of old money.

They took him to the city administrator. Hearing the bewildering answers of the young man, the bishop perceived that God was revealing some sort of mystery through him, and went with other people to the cave.

At the entrance to the cave the bishop found the inscription. Going into the cave and seeing the saints alive, everyone rejoiced and perceived that the Lord was demonstrating to the Church the mystery of the Resurrection of the Dead. It proved that the body and soul both would be raised.

Soon the emperor himself arrived in Ephesus and spoke with the young men in the cave and offered to build a monument. They again proclaimed the greatness of Jesus and told their story and then died in front of them in the cave as their purpose had been fulfilled.

Christian scholars called them martyrs. One of them said that their souls and bodies have direct access to heaven.  And because they are already in heaven, they are saints and asking them for help is a means of getting into paradise. (NAK)