18:21 Al-Kahf (The Cave)

يخبر الله تعالى، أنه أطلع الناس على حال أهل الكهف، وذلك -والله أعلم- بعدما استيقظوا، وبعثوا أحدهم يشتري لهم طعاما، وأمروه بالاستخفاء والإخفاء، فأراد الله أمرا فيه صلاح للناس، وزيادة أجر لهم، وهو أن الناس رأوا منهم آية من آيات الله، المشاهدة بالعيان، على أن وعد الله حق لا شك فيه ولا مرية ولا بعد، بعدما كانوا يتنازعون بينهم أمرهم، فمن مثبت للوعد والجزاء، ومن ناف لذلك، فجعل قصتهم زيادة بصيرة ويقين للمؤمنين، وحجة على الجاحدين، وصار لهم أجر هذه القضية، وشهر الله أمرهم، ورفع قدرهم حتى عظمهم الذين اطلعوا عليهم. و { فَقَالُوا ابْنُوا عَلَيْهِمْ بُنْيَانًا } الله أعلم بحالهم ومآلهم، وقال من غلب على أمرهم، وهم الذين لهم الأمر: { لَنَتَّخِذَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ مَسْجِدًا } أي: نعبد الله تعالى فيه، ونتذكر به أحوالهم، وما جرى لهم، وهذه الحالة محظورة، نهى عنها النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، وذم فاعليها، ولا يدل ذكرها هنا على عدم ذمها، فإن السياق في شأن تعظيم أهل الكهف والثناء عليهم، وأن هؤلاء وصلت بهم الحال إلى أن قالوا: ابنوا عليهم مسجدا، بعد خوف أهل الكهف الشديد من قومهم، وحذرهم من الاطلاع عليهم، فوصلت الحال إلى ما ترى. وفي هذه القصة، دليل على أن من فر بدينه من الفتن، سلمه الله منها. وأن من حرص على العافية عافاه الله ومن أوى إلى الله، آواه الله، وجعله هداية لغيره، ومن تحمل الذل في سبيله وابتغاء مرضاته، كان آخر أمره وعاقبته العز العظيم من حيث لا يحتسب { وما عند الله خير للأبرار }

يقول تعالى " وكذلك أعثرنا عليهم" أي اطلعنا عليهم الناس " ليعلموا أن وعد الله حق وأن الساعة لا ريب فيها" ذكر غير واحد من السلف أنه كان قد حصل لأهل ذلك الزمان شك في البعث وفي أمر القيامة وقال عكرمة: كان منهم طائفة قد قالوا تبعث الأرواح ولا تبعث الأجساد فبعث الله أهل الكهف حجة ودلالة وآية على ذلك وذكروا أنه لما أراد أحدهم الخروج ليذهب إلى المدينة في شراء شيء لهم ليأكلوه تنكر وخرج يمشي في غير الجادة حتى انتهى إلى المدينة وذكروا أن اسمها دقسوس وهو يظن أنه قريب العهد بها وكان الناس قد تبدلوا قرنًا بعد قرن وجيلا بعد جيل وأمة بعد أمة وتغيرت البلاد ومن عليها كما قال الشاعر: أما الديار فإنها كديارهم وأرى رجال الحي غير رجاله فجعل لا يرى شيئًا من معالم البلد التي يعرفها ولا يعرف أحدا من أهلها لا خواصها ولا عوامها فجعل يتحير في نفسه ويقول: لعل بي جنونًا أو مسًا أو أنا حالم ويقول: والله ما بي شيء من ذلك وإن عهدي بهذه البلدة عشية أمس على غير هذه الصفة ثم قال: إن تعجيل الخروج من ههنا لأولى لي ثم عمد إلى رجل ممن يبيع الطعام فدفع إليه ما معه من النفقة وسأله أن يبيعه بها طعامًا فلما رآها ذلك الرجل أنكرها وأنكر ضربها فدفعها إلى جاره وجعلوا يتداولونها بينهم ويقولون لعل هذا وجد كنزًا فسألوه عن أمره ومن أين له هذه النفقة لعله وجدها من كنز وممن أنت ؟ فجعل يقول أنا من أهل هذه البلدة وعهدي بها عشية أمس وفيها دقيانوس فنسبوه إلى الجنون فحملوه إلى ولي أمرهم فسأله عن شأنه وخبره حتى أخبرهم بأمره وهو متحير في حاله وما هو فيه فلما أعلمهم بذلك قاموا معه إلى الكهف - ملك البلد وأهلها - حتى انتهى بهم إلى الكهف فقال لهم: دعوني حتى أتقدمكم في الدخول لأعلم أصحابي فدخل فيقال إنهم لا يدرون كيف ذهب فيه وأخفى الله عليهم خبرهم ويقال بل دخلوا عليهم ورأوهم وسلم عليهم الملك واعتنقهم وكان مسلمًا فيما قيل واسمه يندوسيس ففرحوا به وآنسوه بـالكلام ثم ودعوه وسلموا عليه وعادوا إلى مضاجعهم وتوفاهم الله عز وجل فالله أعلم.قال قتادة: غزا ابن عباس مع حبيب بن مسلمة فمروا بكهف في بلاد الروم فرأوا فيه عظامًا فقال قائل: هذه عظام أهل الكهف فقال ابن عباس: لقد بليت عظامهم من أكثر من ثلثمائة سنة رواه ابن جرير وقوله " وكذلك أعثرنا عليهم " أي كما أرقدناهم وأيقظناهم بهيئاتهم أطلعنا عليهم أهل ذلك الزمان " ليعلموا أن وعد الله حق وأن الساعة لا ريب فيها إذ يتنازعون بينهم أمرهم " أي في أمر القيامة فمن مثبت لها ومن منكر فجعل الله ظهورهم على أصحاب الكهف حجة لهم وعليهم " فقالوا ابنوا عليهم بنيانا ربهم أعلم بهم" أي سدوا عليهم باب كهفهم وذروهم على حالهم " قال الذين غلبوا على أمرهم لنتخذن عليهم مسجدا " حكى ابن جرير في القائلين ذلك قولين "أحدهما" إنهم المسلمون منهم "والثاني" أهل الشرك منهم فالله أعلم والظاهر أن الذين قالوا ذلك هم أصحاب الكلمة والنفوذ ولكن هل هم محمودون أم لا ؟ فيه نظر لأن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال " لعن الله اليهود والنصارى اتخذوا قبور أنبيائهم وصالحيهم مساجد "يحذر ما فعلوا وقد روينا عن أمير المؤمنين عمر بن الخطاب رضي الله عنه أنه لما وجد قبر دانيال في زمانه بالعراق أمر أن يُخفى عن الناس وأن تدفن تلك الرقعة التي وجدوها عنده فيها شيء من الملاحم وغيرها.

How the People of the City came to know about Them; building a Memorial over the Cave

وَكَذلِكَ أَعْثَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ

(And thus We made their case known,) means, `We caused the people to find them.'

لِيَعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ وَأَنَّ السَّاعَةَ لاَ رَيْبَ فِيهَا

(that they might know that the promise of Allah is true, and that there can be no doubt about the Hour.) Several scholars of the Salaf mentioned that the people of that time were skeptical about the Resurrection. `Ikrimah said: "There was a group of them who said that the souls would be resurrected but not the bodies, so Allah resurrected the people of the Cave as a sign and proof of resurrection." They mentioned that when they wanted to send one of their members out to the city to buy them something to eat, he disguised himself and set out walking by a different route, until he reached the city, which they said was called Daqsus. He thought that it was not long since he left it, but in fact century after century, generation after generation, nation after nation had passed, and the country and its people had changed. He saw no local landmarks that he recognized, and he did not recognize any of the people, elite or commoners. He began to feel confused and said to himself, "Maybe I am crazy or deluded, maybe I am dreaming." Then he said, "By Allah, I am nothing of the sort, what I know I saw last night was different from this." Then he said, "I had better get out of here." Then he went to one of the men selling food, gave him the money he had and asked him to sell him some food. When the man saw the money he did not recognize it or its imprint, so he passed it to his neighbor and they all began to pass it around, saying, "Maybe this man found some treasure." They asked him who he was and where he got this money. Had he found a treasure Who was he He said, "I am from this land, I was living here yesterday and Decianus was the ruler." They accused him of being crazy and took him to the governor who questioned him about his circumstances, and he told him. He was confused about his situation. When he told them about it, they -- the king and the people of the city -- went with him to the cave, where he told them, "Let me go in first and let my companions know." It was said that the people did not know how he entered it, and that the people did not know about their story. It was also said that they did enter the cave and see them, and the king greeted them and embraced them. Apparently he was a Muslim, and his name was Tedosis. They rejoiced at meeting him and spoke with him, then they bid farewell to him and went back to sleep, then Allah caused them to die. And Allah knows best. A

وَكَذلِكَ أَعْثَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ

(And thus We made their case known,) meaning, `just as We caused them to sleep then woke them up physically intact, We made their story known to the people of that time.'

لِيَعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ وَأَنَّ السَّاعَةَ لاَ رَيْبَ فِيهَا إِذْ يَتَنَـزَعُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ أَمْرَهُمْ

(that they might know that the promise of Allah is true, and that there can be no doubt about the Hour. (Remember) when they (the people) disputed among themselves about their case, ) meaning, about Resurrection. Some believed in it and some denied it, so Allah made their discovery of the people of the cave evidence either in their favor or against them.

فَقَالُواْ ابْنُواْ عَلَيْهِمْ بُنْيَـنًا رَّبُّهُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِهِمْ

(they said: "Construct a building over them; their Lord knows best about them,") meaning, seal the door of their cave over them, and leave them as they are.

قَالَ الَّذِينَ غَلَبُواْ عَلَى أَمْرِهِمْ لَنَتَّخِذَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ مَّسْجِدًا

(those who won their point said: "We verily, shall build a place of worship over them.") Those who said this were the people of power and influence, but were they good people or not There is some debate on this point, because the Prophet said:

«لَعَنَ اللهُ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى اتَّخَذُوا قُبُورَ أَنْبِيَائِهِمْ وَصَالِحِيهِمْ مَسَاجِد»

(Allah has cursed the Jews and the Christians who took the graves of their Prophets and righteous people as places of worship) Warning against what they did. We have reported about the Commander of the faithful `Umar bin Al-Khattab that when he found the grave of Danyal (Daniel) in Iraq during his period of rule, he gave orders that news of this grave should be withheld from the people, and that the inscription containing mention of battles etc., that they found there should be buried.

And so just as We aroused them it was that We disclosed them to their people and the believers that they that is their people might know that God’s promise of resurrection is true by virtue of the fact that One Who has the power to make them sleep for such a long period of time or sustain them in that state without nourishment also has the power to resurrect the dead; and that as for the Hour there is no doubt no uncertainty concerning it. Behold idh adverbially qualifies a‘tharnā ‘We disclosed’ they were disputing that is the believers and the disbelievers among themselves their affair the affair of the youths with regard to building something around them as a monument; so they the disbelievers said ‘Build over them that is around them a building to cover them up; their Lord knows them best.’ Those who prevailed regarding their affair the affair of the youths namely the believers ‘We will verily set up over them around them a place of worship’ for prayers to be performed therein. And this indeed took place at the entrance of the cave.

Commentary

Described in this verse which opens with the words: وَكَذَٰلِكَ أَعْثَرْ‌نَا عَلَيْهِمْ (And in this way We made them known) is the disclosure of the secret of the People of Kahf before the residents of the city. Along with it given there is a view of His wisdom, and of the belief in the Hereafter and the Last Day when the dead will rise again, and that they will ultimately be-lieve in it. How this came about has been mentioned briefly in Tafsir al-Qurtubi as follows:

The secret of the People of Kahf:

How did the people of the city learn about it?

When the People of Kahf went out, the Mushrik king Daqyanus, the oppressive ruler of that city died. Centuries went by. Then, it was taken over by people who were pure monotheists. Their king was a righteous man (whose name has been given as Baidusis in Tafsir Mazhari with references to historical narratives). During his time, it so happened that differences became rampant on the issue of the dead rising again on the day of Qiyamah. One sect rejected the possibility of human bodies rising again after the process of decomposition, disintegration and dispersal as scattered particles all over the world. Baidusis, the king of the time, started worrying about ways to dispel these doubts. When nothing worked, he got into ragged clothes, sat down on a heap of ash and prayed to Allah. Lamenting and pleading earnestly, he said, '0 Allah, now it is up to Thee to make things work out in a way that the belief of my people gets corrected and they take to the right path.' On one side was this king engaged in his plaint and prayer while, on the other side, Allah Ta` ala arranged to have his supplication answered in His own way. The People of Kahf woke up. They sent one of their men (reportedly named Tamlikha) to the city bazaar to buy food. He went to a shop and paid for the food he bought in the form of a silver coin dating back to the time of king Daqyanus who reigned there three hundred years ago. The shopkeeper was taken aback. Where did this coin come from? What period does it belong to? He was confused. He showed it to other shopkeepers. Everyone said that the man had struck some treasure and was there with a coin from it. This man told them that nothing of that kind had happened to him and the coin was his own.

The shopkeepers detained him and produced him before the king. As said earlier, this king was a righteous man of Allah. It is said that he was aware of the old state treasure house and in its archaeological section he had also seen the tablet inscribed on which there was a list of the names of the People of Kahf along with the description of the incident of their escape. According to some, the cruel king Daqyanus was the one who had ordered that such a tablet should be inscribed to declare them as proclaimed offenders, to preserve their names and addresses and to have them arrested on sight. Some other reports say that there were people in the royal court who disapproved of idol-worship by heart and took the People of Kahf as votaries of truth. But, they did not have the courage to declare it openly. What they did was to have this tablet inscribed to be kept as memorabilia. The name of this tablet was Raqim because of which the People of Kahf were also called the People of Raqim.

So, this king knew something about this event and at that time he was busy praying to Allah that He would somehow make his people believe that making dead bodies rise again was not beyond His most perfect power.

Therefore, when he inquired into the background of Tamlikha, he was convinced that the man was one of the People of Kahf. He said that he used to pray to Allah in the hope that He would somehow make him fortunate enough to meet the people who had run away from Daqyanus for the sake of their faith. Now that Allah had perhaps heard his prayer, he was grateful. May be there is, in this event, some decisive proof that makes people believe in the rising of the dead. After saying this, he asked this man to take him to the Cave from where he had come.

The king arrived there with a retinue of people from the city. When the Cave came close, Tamlikha asked the king to wait there for a while so that he could go in and inform his companions about the situation. He would tell them that the king was there to meet them along with his people and that the king was a believer, a monotheist and so were his people. If he failed to do that, and the king appeared there unannounced, it was likely that they might take him to be their enemy like the previous one. When Tamlikha went in the Cave, he related the whole story before his companions. They were pleased. They greeted the king showing due respect for him. Then they returned to their Cave. And as most narratives have it, when Tamlikha related the whole story before his companions, they died and could not meet the king. At this stage, Abu Hayyan has reported a narrative in al-Bahr al-Muhit which says that after the meeting, the People of the Cave took leave of the king and the visiting citizens and went into the Cave. It was at that time that Allah Ta` ala sent death to them. Allah knows best the reality as it is.

However, the people of the city now had before them a marvel of Divine power manifested so decisively and clearly. They came to believe in the working of that power. They saw living human beings kept alive for three hundred years without food and things essential in life. And then, they also saw them raised intact, healthy and fit after having been kept asleep for such a long time. With all this in view, why should it be at all difficult for that power to make these bodies come alive after having met their death? Through this event, their perception that the resurrection of bodies was a far out proposition stood refuted. They now realized that taking the Power of the master of the universes on the analogy of the power of human beings was an act of ignorance by itself.

A hint was made towards this very aspect in the words: لِیَعلَمُوآ اَنَّ وَعدَ اللہِ حَقُّ وَأَنَّ السَّاعَةَ آتِيَةٌ لَّا رَ‌يْبَ فِيهَا (so that they realize that Allah's promise is true and that there is no doubt about the Hour). It means, 'Allah raised the

People of Kahf after having kept them asleep for a long time so that others realized that His promise to raise the dead on the Last Day of Qiyamah was true, and that there was no doubt about the coming of the Qiyamah.'

People differed after the death of Ashab al-Kahf

As for the holiness of the People of Kahf, everyone agreed about that and thought of making a memorial for them close to the Cave. However, there was a difference of opinion on the nature of the building. Some reports tell us that idol-worshippers, still left in the city, also used to visit the site. They proposed that it should be a public welfare building. But, the king and the official in his government were believers who played a dominant role in public affairs. They proposed that they should make a mosque over there so that it serves as a memorial to them and also becomes the cause of saving people from idol-worship in the future. At this place in the Qur'an, the reference to this difference of opinion is hemmed in by the sentence: رَّ‌بُّهُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِهِمْ (Their Lord knows them best).

Regarding the meaning of this sentence, Tafsir al-Bahr al-Muhit has mentioned two probabilities. (1) This was said by the same people from the city present there, because when a memorial was proposed after their death, people thought of inscribing a tablet mentioning the names and the details about the people of the Cave for the memory of whom the building was to be dedicated. And so they started talking variously about the background details concerning the People of Kahf. In the end, when their differences remained unresolved, they said: رَّ‌بُّهُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِهِمْ (their Lord knows them best). After saying that, they turned to the main job at hand which was raising a building in their memory. Those who were dominant decided to make a mosque. (2) Then, the probability that this was said by Allah Ta` ala also exists here as it warns people who indulged in mutual disputations around baseless issues during that time. They are being told here that they do not know the reality and they do not have the sources to arrive at that knowledge. Why, then, would they waste their precious time in futile argumentation? Then, it is also possible that the warning was beamed at Jews and others who used the crutch of this event to indulge in baseless debates during the blessed time of the Holy Prophet ﷺ . Pure and High is Allah who knows best.

Ruling

This event tells us that making a masjid for Salah near the graves of men of Allah is no sin. As for the Hadith in which words of curse have appeared against those who make the graves of prophets a masjid, it means making the graves as such a place of sajdah or prostration - which is, by consensus, Shirk, and Haram. (Mazhari)