Al-Kahf · Makki · ayah 98 of 110

Al-Kahf 18:98

قَالَ هَـٰذَا رَحْمَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّى ۖ فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ رَبِّى جَعَلَهُۥ دَكَّآءَ ۖ وَكَانَ وَعْدُ رَبِّى حَقًّا

“[Dhul-Qarnayn] said, "This is a mercy from my Lord; but when the promise of my Lord[799] comes [i.e., approaches], He will make it level, and ever is the promise of my Lord true."”

Saheeh International

Essence

On the day his greatest work was finished he said my Lord three times and announced that the work would be levelled.

A reflection

My Lord, three times, on the best day of his life

This is the last thing the man says in the Qur'an, and it contains the words my Lord three times in one breath.

This is a mercy from my Lord. When the promise of my Lord comes, He will make it level. And the promise of my Lord is ever true.

A long commentary notes that the account of Dhul-Qarnayn ends here. So these are his closing words, spoken standing in front of the largest thing any human being builds in this Book.

He does not call it a work. He calls it a mercy.

A narration-based commentary reads it as mercy to the people, in that a barrier was placed between them and what would have ruined them. A long commentary adds a second possibility: that this refers to the capability he was given to level the gap in the first place.

On either reading, the subject of the sentence is not the builder.

And the root of the word he chooses is the one that should stop any reader. The lexicons tie mercy to the womb. Shelter, food and warmth that reach you before you can ask, from the One whose name the womb carries.

So he describes a wall of iron and copper, in a mountain pass, in the language of being carried before you could ask for anything.

A builder who calls the work a loan on the day it is finished is doing the one thing that nobody present will understand. The scaffolding is down. The village is grateful. The moment is his.

And this is exactly where pride has its only real opportunity. Not in failure, where a man is too busy. In completion.

Every vanity a person has is waiting at the end of a successful piece of work, and it does not need to be invited. It simply arrives with the congratulations.

He got there first with three words, repeated, and left nothing for it to stand on.

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.