Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 20 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:20

إِنَّهُمْ إِن يَظْهَرُوا۟ عَلَيْكُمْ يَرْجُمُوكُمْ أَوْ يُعِيدُوكُمْ فِى مِلَّتِهِمْ وَلَن تُفْلِحُوٓا۟ إِذًا أَبَدًا

“Indeed, if they come to know of you, they will stone you or return you to their religion. And never would you succeed, then - ever."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Two threats are named, and the sentence about never succeeding is attached to the second one, not the stones.

A reflection

Both words for the threat are roads

The two words in this clause are both, in the lexicons, words about paths.

The verb means doing a thing a second time. An old camel worn by journey after journey takes the name. So does an old road. The lexicons quote a line saying such a road dies when it is left alone and lives when it is travelled. A festival takes the word because it comes round again.

The noun is stronger still. An early grammarian says it means a people's custom and their road. He links it to the hot ashes in which bread is baked, because those leave a mark on the ground as a road does. Another lexicologist supports him with a word for a track walked until it is well known.

So the threat is not simply that they would be made to believe something. It is that they would be put back on the path. The worn line that other feet keep open.

On a fell, once stock have made a trod they will use it for generations. Move the gate and they still walk the old line to where the gate used to be. The trod deepens, and the grass never comes back. A farmer who wants them somewhere else does not persuade them. He fences the old route off, because nothing else works.

That is what they were afraid of. Not an argument. A trod.

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.