Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 104 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:104

ٱلَّذِينَ ضَلَّ سَعْيُهُمْ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُحْسِنُونَ صُنْعًا

“[They are] those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The root behind doing well also gives the word for a polished outside kept up over a hollow inside.

A reflection

The same root gives the polished surface

The last two words of the verse carry the whole weight, and the second of them has a shadow inside its own root.

The lexicons give the root as making a thing, and then as doing a thing well. Work that is ordered and made firm on knowledge held beforehand. Their picture is a craftsman who already knows the door he means to make and every step that gets him there.

From the same letters come the skilled man and the skilled woman, and a trade a person earns a living by. Also a kindness done to somebody, and going to great lengths to put a thing right.

And then this, from the same root. Keeping up a good outside over a hollow inside.

One set of letters, carrying both the carpenter who knows his door and the veneer with nothing behind it.

A polished veneer over a carcass of soft wood is not a lie. The polish is real polish, applied by hand, and the man who did it worked. What is underneath will take a scratch and will not take a load.

And the Arabic puts both of those in one word, which is why this verse is more frightening than a verse about hypocrisy would be.

Hypocrisy is a decision. This is not. The verse says they thought they were doing well, and nothing in it suggests they were pretending.

So the question that follows is not am I sincere, which everybody answers yes to within a second.

It is the craftsman's question. Did I know, before I started, what I was making, and for whom. Or did I begin because the work was available and the polishing was satisfying.

The root says that the difference between a trade and a veneer is settled before the first stroke.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.