Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 109 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:109

قُل لَّوْ كَانَ ٱلْبَحْرُ مِدَادًا لِّكَلِمَـٰتِ رَبِّى لَنَفِدَ ٱلْبَحْرُ قَبْلَ أَن تَنفَدَ كَلِمَـٰتُ رَبِّى وَلَوْ جِئْنَا بِمِثْلِهِۦ مَدَدًا

“Say, "If the sea were ink for [writing] the words[804] of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if We brought the like of it in [continual] supplement."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The word for ink and the word for the supplement share one root, which the lexicons picture as ink that keeps a pen writing.

A reflection

A finite thing can never meet an infinite one

A long commentary states the argument of this verse in one line, and it is the plainest thing in the chapter.

The seas, however vast you imagine them in width and greatness, are finite. And what Allah knows is not finite. And the finite can never, at all, meet the not-finite.

That is not a poetic exaggeration. It is a statement about kinds.

The same commentary adds a line. If the words of Allah's knowledge and His wisdom were written, and the sea were ink for them, the sea would run out first.

And this is where a quiet, almost invisible pride goes. Not the pride that boasts about learning. The pride of a man who has reached the end of his reading.

Somebody who has worked through a library and now, when a subject comes up, has the settled feeling of having covered it. He is not arrogant in conversation. He is simply no longer expecting to be surprised.

A measuring jug used to empty a reservoir will fill and empty a great many times. The jug is accurate. The work is real. Every trip is a genuine quantity of water.

And the only error available to the man carrying it is forgetting what he is standing beside.

Notice also that the verse chooses a sea rather than a mountain or a desert. A sea is the thing nobody can see the end of. The lexicons give the root exactly that way: water so wide you cannot see its far shore.

So the verse takes the largest thing a human being can fail to measure and uses it as the small term in the comparison.

And then it goes further, with a clause most readers hurry past. Even if We brought the like of it as a supplement.

Not one sea. Seas, indefinitely. And the sentence does not change.

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.