surah al-kahf ayah 34-42

8/17/2019 Surah Al-Kahf Ayah 34-42

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2.45 Day 50: Tafsir – Part 45

SURAH

AL-K

AHF – A

YAH34-42

Description

This video discusses the tafsir of ayahs 34-42.

Video starts at 3:44

We have been given the description of the gardens that belong and are the property of one of the two gardeners. It’s

also important to note that other than a passing implicit reference, the property of the second gardener has not been

referred to. Which means either the property is insignificant, or its nothing to speak of, or they know each other and

they’re not even neighbors.

Ayah 34

ا ه ل ن

ن

He had fruit

Could be the way of saying, ‘the one who had fruit happened to be there’

Or another way of looking at it could be, ‘he had fruit’ so it was one of those seasons where his trucks were

loaded with fruit from his gardens

ل and he says to his companion

ل – it is someone you’ve spent a long time with, and someone you’ve accompanied for a long periodof time and you’ve known really well. It could be a direct neighbor or a friend

ه

ه – خ riginally comes from the wordور which meansر – to go back and to come back toرجع

ة

also means reduction in something

The idea behind is that you speak to someone and they have to return back to you somethingور

o i.e. they pose a question and they have to respond back to you

So they were both asking each other questions that required the other to answer and they were going back and

forth

And he in fact was the one that was going back and forth in conversation with him


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It is a – so he had fruit and then he said to his friend while he was engaged in conversation

o The idea is that now that he has his truck loaded and things are looking good and he’s on his way to sell

and he sees his friend, then he spoke to his friend. So he picked the time to speak to his friend when he

was out in full glory and was in a position where he expected people to praise him

o That’s why the inف . So he picked the opportune timeل

o

The other thing is that the people that have this kind of bling and things that they want to show off,they’re usually for someone to ask or from some comment from someone. And it seems that this guy

did not get a comment or a praise. So he didn’t get what he wanted.

o So he decides that he is going to be the one to initiate conversation

vsور ور

o is for 2 people to converse with each otherور

o But if you say then it isور – you would have to put it in the present tenseي

you could then say which would mean they are both talking to each otherوران

or you could say which would mean that he is talking to him; so he is the one initiatingوره

conversation with the other even though the wordرو suggests that the other is responding,

but one is taking a primary role.

– he is the one posing questions and starting a conversation hoping it can lead to him getting aو ورهchance that could lead to him to talk about the fruits. But he is still not getting it! He is not getting out of his

friend what should be a compliment.

o The idea of is to ask a question. So he’s hoping to be asking a question that he can answer, but heور

isn’t getting it so he just comes out and says what’s on his mind anyway.

This was the point he wanted to get across and the thing he had been wanting to say

In other words, he stopped pretending

We see this psychological struggle of this person really badly wanting to show off in a subtle way that falls apart

and then his true colors come out and they are captured in the language here.

He says, ‘I am more than you when it comes to wealth.’

o The other subtlety is that while he was in the midst of conversation answering some other question, he

slipped in

It is pretty obviously the other farmer didn’t ask him, do you have more money than I do? No.

He was probably answering some other question about something else and he slipped the fact

that he has more money in.

Allah is not telling us the entire elaborate story in which this gardener embedded these hurtful

words. Allah just said in the midst of conversation.

Allah wanted to get the point across of this guy’s internal satisfaction that he wanted to feel tha

he is more than the other gardener.


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He could have even said it in other ways. But the way he did see it, was that‘I am more

when it comes to wealth.’ Not, ‘my money is more’. So to him, it’s the idea that he is

worth more and his value is perceived by what he owns.

This is a very fundamental psychological problem: being over materialistic. Deeming

your worth on what you possess. So the car you drive is an expression to what you are

worth to yourself (and possibly to others).

People have an allure of wanting to be associated with things that have a large worth

ا Authority and respect – so he has more authority in terms of more manpower (sons or employees) and he has a

lot of money so in his mind he has more prestige

o This is his defining characteriscs – and this is what he wanted to slip in

There is another psychological insight in this ayah. These kind of people don’t actually feel good about

themselves until they put someone else down.

Ayah 35

ا ه ن ظ ل م ظ ج

He entered his garden and he is already feeling good and superior about himself. And he is wronging only

himself.

How do you enter a garden while wronging yourself?

o – the guy who puts something where it doesn’t belong. So how did he enter his garden while beingظم

wrong to himself?

In this case it is not an act. It is an attitude and state of mind.

You could be to yourself having not done anything and it could all be an attitude in yourظم

head.

And so the way he wronged himself is by saying, ا ه

ن ظ ل ‘I don’t think at all that any of this

is going to die out, ever.’

o here doesn’t necessarily mean that he said it out loud. It could be that he was thinking it or it was inل

his mind.

o When things were going really really well, you start to think in your head that things will never change

and you forget that it is all from Allah swt and that is how he wronged himself

Ayah 36

ا نج تد ا ظ The next delusion he has, which is one of the scariest manifestations of materialism, was never around the time

of the Prophet (pbuh).

o In protestant thought, the more material you gain, the more God loves you and the more He blessed

you.


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This theology came from the fact that you are already saved in heaven, because you accepted

Jesus as lord and savior. You don’t need God’s help in the afterlife. That’s been taken care of. So

you only need to work for this life. And therefore you need God’s help only in this life.

o In catholic Christianity, you shunned the world with geopolitical reasons for that. The only entity that

was making money was the church. You get salvation in the next life by shunning this world and this life

o This type of thinking came to the Muslims and hit us hard. We began to consider material gain a blessing

from Allah.

So yes it is a blessing, but it is also a test!o Allah is addressing that delusion in the mind of the believer.

o So you only see benefit or loss with whether Allah is happy with you or not

ا ظ I don’t think the hour will ever stand

o He means that the hour isn’t near. Doesn’t necessarily mean that he doesn’t believe it isn’t going to

happen

He thinks this perhaps because his friend is giving him warnings and that he has to fear

judgment day.

That statement in this surah is not an accident, ‘he doesn’t think the signs of judgment day is

here’.

This ayah talks about people that are so engrossed and absorbed in their material life that when you talk to

them about the afterlife or anything that has to do with the afterlife, it disturbs them and they’d rather not talk

about it.

تد And even if I was forced to go back to my Rabb

– is something that is returned but unacceptedرد

ا نج Even if I did go back to Allah, then I will absolutely most definitely find better than it a place much better than

this to turn back to

is a – a place to go back toظف So he’s basically saying, I don’t think its going to come. And even if it did come, then Allah will surely give me

better. Why would he give me Jannah in this dunya and not give it to me in the akhirah?

Ayah 37

ج اك س با ي ت ه ص ل Now the friend finds another time to make conversation with the gardener. This is another conversation taking

place

But this time his friend decides that he’s going to slip something in با ي ت

ج اك س


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o Keep in mind: What he said to his friend was ا

o What he said to himself: ا ه ن ظ and نج تد ا ظ

ا o So all that his friend knows from his neighbor is the statement,‘I am more than you in wealth and I have

more authority and respect than you in manpower.’

That is what the friend will respond to. This one is a response to ayah 34 because in the previou

ayah it sounds that it is tantamount to kufr. He had doubts about akhirah and he had his own

version of what would happen and didn’t care about what Allah would do.

The idea is that he used his material state as a gauge about where he would end up in

the akhirah

But this is not the blasphemy that is being highlighted. That which is being highlighted is

‘I am more than you in wealth and I have more authority and respect than you in

manpower.’

Did you disbelieve and are ungrateful of the one Who created you from dirt? Why do you think that you are so

much better? Did you forget that you are also from dirt?

o Is your dirt more expensive than mine? Or is the skin you are made of somehow more valuable?

ج اك س با And then He molded you out into a man. Forget about what your material possessions are. You yourself being a

man, you’ve forgotten.

He thinks a lot about his possessions but doesn’t think about himself. And so this friend is trying to remind him

about himself and who he is for the sake of Allah

So this friend is upset too. It comes through the ayahs. He felt insulted by what the man said to him. He isn’t

there necessarily just for da’awah. He was hurt and it doesn’t make him less of a person because of it.

o So even the statement of him being ungrateful of the One who made him from dirt – this is an offensive

statement no matter how you look at it

Ayah 38

ا ك ا

Then you have this statement

This is a fusion between

and

as opposed to

From a rhetorical perspective the idea is that he is speaking about himself but because the sentence is about

Allah, he’s reduced himself so he doesn’t use a stronger version of .

is a reduced form and he hasreduced himself before Allah

o This is a contrast between arrogance in the previous ayahs and humility here

ا ك ا


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He is Allah my Rabb and as far as I am concerned I don’t do shirk with my Rabb with anybody.

The question comes up that the owner of the 2 gardens didn’t say that he worships idols. He just said that he is

worth more because of money and has more respect because of authority. So his friend has accused him of kufr

in one ayah and of shirk in the next ayah.

So where is the kufr and where is the shirk? They are 2 distinct things

A kaafir is someone who is ungrateful and rejects the truth

A mushrik is someone that associates someone else with Allah

o

He is ungrateful because he is thinking all of it is entitled to himself. He is also in denial of his own originThese are kufr when you don’t give Allah His due

o His shirk is because he gave credit to himself and did not give credit to Allah. He used when

describing himself. There’s a difference between that and between, Allah gave me and made me

wealthy

This susggests that the owner of the 2 gardens has associated someone with Allah. Himself. And his universe is

centered around him and his doings

Ayah 39

ا ن ن ا ج ذ

How come it wasn’t the case that the very moment you entered your garden you said, whatever Allah has

willed.

o Him saying this would have meant that none of this was the product of his work or labor. But success in

the material or immaterial sense is a product of the will of Allah. This is a fundamental principle that is

easily forgotten. Allah results and all successes and all failure at the end of the day is a combination of 2

things: human effort and Divine Will. Our effort is not enough to get results.

o If you go back to what his garden looked like and what it was, you’ll notice that every verb was taken

back to Allah. All of it was the will of Allah. The rivers through them, the palm trees, the fruits, etc. It is

all the results of Allah’s will

There is no power whatsoever except by Allah’s disposal

o This is a negation of because all of his money is from Allah. It also negates all hisauthority from manpower. That it all is given by Allah and Allah has all the power

o His friend didn’t know what he was saying, but it is as if Allah inspired him to say this because it is what

the owner of the 2 gardens needed to hear.

ا ن ن

– this is an additional word. It means that he is crying and is hurt by what was said.

o Why didn’t you say those words if you see ME as less? He had to say me twice. It is not normal speech

but it is emotional speech

o Allah is not negating your self. We are allowed to feel pain. That is not pride and ego.


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ا goes back to the money. ا refers to the ا that he has manpower in sons that perhaps his

friend didn’t have

Ayah 40

ا ص

ح

ا

س

ج

ا

ن

ى

is used on the tongue of man for hopeى

o When it is used by Allah Himself then He is hinting at the fact that He might do this Himself.

Perhaps my Master might just give me a garden better than yours and He’ll send against it – this wordmeans calculation. But it also means something at a very precious and calculated time.

o The sun and the moon follow a very precise calendar. But they are also about to be destroyed exactly on

time.

So, Allah will send against your garden a timely destruction from the sky

ا ح ص And then it will become barren and slippery – it might overflood or it might just be that a huge hurricane will

come and the river will over flood and will destroy your entire garden and the trees will start falling and all that

you’ll be walking on will be mud and it will turn into swamp land overnight right on schedule

o When a believer talks like that, they must be angry. You don’t tell someone that hey Allah may burn

your house down

o The believer didn’t pray for this to happen but he said it MIGHT happen

Ayah 41

ع ا غ ح Or it could be that its water becomes absorbed and then you’re not going to be able to demand it. You’re notgoing to be able to seek it. You’re going to be digging and you’re not going to find water.

o The rivers now are automatically irrigating everything but you won’t be able to access it later

Ayah 42

ا ك م ل و ق ح ص ط

Allah then says this casually –

ه

ط

: his fruit then got surrounded

o ه – this is used throughout the Quran to refer to children, fruit, hard work

o So when his fruit got surrounded, the whole thing is surrounded. You don’t have to say the farm got

surrounded. Because if you surround the 2 gardens, what’s in between was a farm.

So it is all completely overrun. We don’t know how it got surrounded, but we do know that

there were palm trees on the periphery.

So now they are completely enveloped and it has come after the fruit of his labor (the thing that

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ا ك م ل و ق ح ص

And all of a sudden he started wrangling his hands not knowing what to do with it or himself and feeling

helpless.

o This is in contrast to him walking into it a few days before when he couldn’t get over how great he was

He was wrangling his hands over the investments he had made in it. He had put so much money into the garden

He had put so many mechanisms in place and so many trees to protect it from wind. This guy put the money in.

و

While it is turned over on top of its trellises

– means roof or ceiling and also means throneش

o It also means stick – the plant wraps around it, that is a trellis

o And the grapes grow on trellises they are delicate and you have to take care of them

The palm trees have now been destroyed and fell onto the trellises and became the reason his garden got

destroyed. The palm trees were supposed to be the security

His most valuable fruit was the grapes and he also had dates and now it is all just collapsed

ا ك م ل He says, ‘if only I hadn’t committed shirk of my Rabb with anybody.’

surah al-kahf ayah 34-42

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