Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 39 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:39

وَلَوْلَآ إِذْ دَخَلْتَ جَنَّتَكَ قُلْتَ مَا شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِٱللَّهِ ۚ إِن تَرَنِ أَنَا۠ أَقَلَّ مِنكَ مَالًا وَوَلَدًا

“And why did you, when you entered your garden, not say, 'What Allāh willed [has occurred]; there is no power except in Allāh'? Although you see me less than you in wealth and children,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The repair was available at the gate and cost nothing: a word about whose will it is, and a word about where strength comes from.

A reflection

A rope is only its strands

The lexicons on the word for power give an image before they give a definition. The strands of a rope, twisted one upon another until the thing holds. From that comes strength of body, strength of heart and resolve, and strength of outside support, meaning men and money and arms. They add a further sense: capacity held in reserve, able to do a thing and more besides.

Then they mention a second, separate origin for the same letters. Empty desert. Being out in the wilderness without provisions.

One set of consonants for the rope that holds and the open country where there is nothing.

One commentary spells out what the man should have acknowledged. That whatever strength he was given to cultivate the land and manage it came by Allah's help and support. Nobody has strength in his body, or in what his hand owns, except by Allah.

A shearer in his thirties can do two hundred in a day and will tell you, accurately, how he does it. His back, his grip, where he stands. At fifty he cannot do it and he cannot say where it went. Nothing was taken from him by anybody. The strands simply stopped twisting.

That is where pride loses its footing, and it loses it quietly rather than dramatically. We say my strength and mean a possession. The word underneath means a bundle of threads, held together by something that was not us, for as long as it is held.

The arrogance is not in being strong. It is in filing the strength under assets rather than under weather.

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.