Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 110 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:110

قُلْ إِنَّمَآ أَنَا۠ بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَىَّ أَنَّمَآ إِلَـٰهُكُمْ إِلَـٰهٌ وَٰحِدٌ ۖ فَمَن كَانَ يَرْجُوا۟ لِقَآءَ رَبِّهِۦ فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلًا صَـٰلِحًا وَلَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِۦٓ أَحَدًۢا

“Say, "I am only a man like you, to whom has been revealed that your god is one God. So whoever would hope for the meeting with his Lord - let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone."”

Saheeh International

Essence

A verse about the infinity of His words is followed immediately by a man instructed to say that he is only a man.

A reflection

After the sea, a man like you

A long commentary notices the order of these two verses, and the order is the teaching.

When Allah had made clear the perfection of His speech, it says, He commanded Muhammad to take the road of humility. Say: I am only a man like you.

The commentary then draws out the meaning. There is no distinction between me and you in any attribute. Allah has revealed to me that there is no god but the One.

So the verse immediately after the sea runs out of ink is a man saying he is ordinary.

A linguistic commentary adds a further line to it: I do not claim to encompass His words.

And both of the restrictive particles in the sentence do the same work. Only a man. Only one God. The commentary notes the exclusivity in both places.

The word for one has its own picture in the lexicons. A precious cloth woven alone on the loom, nothing else on its warp. Single, without equal, and not to be divided.

So the one thing the speaker claims to have is a message about a thing that cannot be shared.

And this closes the ego's last escape route. Through the whole chapter, pride has been shown to four men. One with a cave, one with gardens, one with knowledge, one with power. Every one of them was corrected.

Here the correction reaches the one person who had something nobody could dispute. And he is told to say he is like everybody else.

Which leaves nothing for anybody else to stand on.

A man who has read everything in one library and thinks he has read enough has, at least, read. The man carrying the revelation is told to begin with a disclaimer.

If he says it, nobody after him has a sentence available.

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.