Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 53 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:53

وَرَءَا ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ ٱلنَّارَ فَظَنُّوٓا۟ أَنَّهُم مُّوَاقِعُوهَا وَلَمْ يَجِدُوا۟ عَنْهَا مَصْرِفًا

“And the criminals will see the Fire and will be certain that they are to fall therein. And they will not find from it a way elsewhere.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their certainty is named with the word the man in the garden used for his guess, taken to the other end of its range.

A reflection

The same word, at the other end

The verb here is the one we usually translate as supposing or thinking. The commentaries will not allow that reading and say so in a single word: it means they were certain.

And the word is the same one the man with the two gardens used eighteen verses earlier. I do not think this will ever perish.

The lexicons explain how one word does both jobs. The root runs the whole way from bare doubt to a certainty reached by reflection on signs. At the weak end they picture a well you cannot see down into, uncertain whether it holds water. At the strong end it is knowledge arrived at by thinking rather than by eyesight.

So the surah uses the two ends of one word on the same people. First for a guess dressed as a certainty. Now for a certainty that arrives without being chosen.

A sailmaker will call a sail full when it has a little too much cloth in it. He will also call a sail full when it is drawing perfectly. Same word, opposite verdicts, and only somebody who knows the trade can tell which is meant.

The difference, in both cases, is whether the thing has been tested.

That is the point worth carrying. The man in the garden had an impression and treated it as knowledge. The people here have knowledge and would give anything for it to be an impression.

One word. Whether it means guesswork or certainty is decided by something outside the word, and it is decided in time.

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.