Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 17 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:17

۞ وَتَرَى ٱلشَّمْسَ إِذَا طَلَعَت تَّزَٰوَرُ عَن كَهْفِهِمْ ذَاتَ ٱلْيَمِينِ وَإِذَا غَرَبَت تَّقْرِضُهُمْ ذَاتَ ٱلشِّمَالِ وَهُمْ فِى فَجْوَةٍ مِّنْهُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ ءَايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ مَن يَهْدِ ٱللَّهُ فَهُوَ ٱلْمُهْتَدِ ۖ وَمَن يُضْلِلْ فَلَن تَجِدَ لَهُۥ وَلِيًّا مُّرْشِدًا

“And [had you been present], you would see the sun when it rose, inclining away from their cave on the right, and when it set, passing away from them on the left, while they were [lying] within an open space thereof. That was from the signs of Allāh. He whom Allāh guides is the [rightly] guided, but he whom He sends astray - never will you find for him a protecting guide.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The sun's track and the guidance of a heart are named in one breath, as two things moved by the same hand.

A reflection

From the sun's path to your own, in one line

Watch the join in the middle of this ayah. It describes where the light fell for three centuries, then says: that is from the signs of Allah. And then, without pausing, it says that whoever Allah guides is the guided one. For whoever He leaves astray, you will find no guiding patron.

One subject becomes the other with no transition. The track of the sun, and the direction of a person. The ayah treats them as the same kind of fact.

One commentary spells the inference out. Their remaining alive all that time, kept from death and ruin, was from His arrangement and His kindness. So too, it says, was their turning from disbelief and their wanting to believe.

Stand in an old church at the right time of year and you can see what a builder once did about this. The chancel is set so that the light comes up the length of the building and strikes the east wall on a particular morning. Every measurement in that layout belongs to the mason. He did not choose when the sun rises, or where, or that it moves at all. His whole skill consisted of putting a wall where the light was going to be.

That is the ego's actual position, and pride is the refusal of it. We take credit for the orientation and quietly assume we supplied the light.

The sun turned aside from a cave for three hundred years and the men inside slept through all of it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.