SURAH AL-KAHF:
ARABIC TEXT - TRANSLATION
AND MODERN COMMENTARY
Imran N. Hosein
Preface
As the war
on Islam intensifies, and as the day approaches when the imposter Euro-Jewish
State of Israel would make its bid to become the ruling State in the world,
and the false Messiah (i.e., Dajjal) would rule the world from Jerusalem
and declare that he is the true Messiah, I fear that there would be many,
particularly governments which declare their friendship for USA and hence for
Israel, who would want to ban books on the Qur’an.
I therefore pray most humbly, and ask
my gentle readers to also kindly join in the prayer, that Allah Most High might
protect books (such as this humble quartet of books on Surah al-Kahf)
that use the blessed Qur’an to explain, to expose and to challenge those
in the godless modern age who are waging wicked war on Islam. Amin.
This first volume of four, containing ‘Text
Translation and Modern Commentary of Surah al-Kahf’, makes its appearance
just before our main work on the subject entitled ‘Surah al-Kahf and the
Modern Age’ is to be published, and is meant to function as a companion
volume to that main work.
We propose, Insha Allah, to
publish a third and fourth volume on this subject in which we would like to
offer to the reading public a comprehensive and credible modern interpretation
of the Ahadith and Qur’anic verses dealing (directly and indirectly)
with the critically important topics of Dajjal
the false Messiah or Anti-Christ, and of Gog and Magog. If any such books
have already been written and published, they must be very few indeed.
And so the four volumes would have the
following titles:
- Volume One: ‘Surah al-Kahf: Text Translation and Modern Commentary’;
- Volume Two: ‘Surah al-Kahf and the Modern Age’;
- Volume Three:‘Dajjal the False Messiah or Anti-Christ’;
- Volume Four: ‘Gog and Magog in the Qur’an and Hadith’
The writing of all four volumes on Surah
al-Kahf was kindly sponsored in the names of a number of people in different
parts of the world as follows: Rabia Aboobakar Hussein Jakhura and Aboobakar
Hussein Jakhura of Malawi in Africa, Abdul Majid Kader Sultan and Fatimah
Abdullah of Malaysia, and Hajjah Haniffa Bte Omar Khan Sourattee and
Allahyarhama Hajjah Mariam Bte Fakir Mohammed of Singapore.
May Allah Most Kind bless them, have
mercy on their souls and forgive them their sins. Amin!
Imran N. Hosein
In the island of Trinidad.
August 2006
Introduction
In the thirteenth year of his mission
as Allah’s last Prophet on earth, Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu
‘alaihi wa sallam) was
forced to leave his beloved city of Makkah and seek refuge in the distant
Northern Arabian city of Yathrib (later renamed Madinah). He had to leave
because pagan Arabia was waging unjust war on Islam. Today, once again, an ostensibly
Jewish-Christian but essentially pagan Euro-world-order is waging unjust war on
Islam with the same venom and fury with which it was waged by pagan
Arabia.
When the Prophet arrived in Madinah
his long-awaited tryst with the Jews began. And today’s stage of ‘their’ war on
Islam marks the final chapter of that tryst. Islam emerged victorious from that
first encounter, and it is as certain as the day follows the night that Islam
will again emerge victorious in this final encounter with which history will
end. We wrote the book entitled ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’ in order to
explain that subject and to refute all the false and devilish propaganda
against Islam with which those enemies have now inundated the world.
The Holy Qur’an itself
described the Jews as a people who believed that they were the “chosen
people of the LordGod to the exclusion of all the rest of mankind” with privileged access to truth and
that “heaven
was reserved for them.” Yet
their hearts were entirely wedded to this world and they longed “to live
for a thousand years.” Consider
the following verses of the Qur’an:
Say:
"If the last abode (i.e., heaven), with Allah, be for
you alone, and for no one else, then why do you not desire death, if you are sincere
(concerning this belief)."
“But
they will never desire death on account of the (sins) which they have committed,
and Allah well knows those who commit Dhulm (i.e., oppression, injustice, etc.).”
“You
will certainly find them, of all people, to be the most desirous for (long) life,
even more so than those who worship idols: each one of them wishes he could be given
a life-span of a thousand years: but the grant of such a life-span will not
save him from (due) punishment. For Allah sees well all
that they do.”
(Qur’an,
al-Baqarah, 94-96)
Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an was revealed
immediately before the blessed Prophet arrived in Madinah, i.e., in the last
year of his residence in Makkah, and it delivered a majestic Divine response
(in both form and substance) to that false Jewish conception of religion.
Muhammad Asad comments, for example, that the Surah “is
almost entirely devoted to a series of parables or allegories built around the
theme of faith in Allah Most High versus an undue attachment to the life
of this world; and the key-phrase of the whole Surah is the statement in
verse 7, “We have willed that all beauty on earth be a means by which we put
men to a test.”
But the Surah also addressed
the Jewish problem in the context of the Last Age – an age that would witness Dajjal,
the False Messiah or Anti-Christ, as well as Gog & Magog launching
horrendous attacks on Islam, Muslims and mankind at large. The blessed Prophet (sallalahu
‘alaihi wa sallam)
disclosed amazing events that would occur at that time. Riba (usury),
for example, would take a grip on economic life around the world and the masses
would be reduced to biting poverty.
How should the poor respond to those
who unjustly amass wealth and then use that wealth to impose their messianic
rule over the world from Jerusalem? Surah al-Kahf responded to that
imprisonment of the poor in permanent poverty with the morale-boosting parable
of the rich man and the poor man (verses 32-44).
The war on Islam in the Last Age would
be so intense that Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam) prophesied that
“holding
on to Islam would be like holding on to hot coals”.
The story of the young men of the Cave (verses 13-20) - from which the Surah
takes its title – illustrates, according to Muhammad Asad, “the
principle of world-abandonment for the sake of faith.” But the story also functions as a
moral-booster since it ends with the triumph of Islam (i.e., in the decision to
build a Masjid to commemorate the miraculous event). But since only one
in a thousand would survive the evil storm of Gog and Magog with faith
intact (Cf. Sahih Bukhari) the implication is that the principle of
world abandonment for the sake of faith would be universally criticized,
condemned and rejected, even by many ignorant Muslims. And that is one of the
basic reasons why this quartet of books on this subject had to be written.
Asad is again astonishingly and
dazzlingly correct in his comment concerning the story of Moses (‘alaihi
al-Salam) and Khidr,
the sage (verses 60-82). He says, “the theme of spiritual
awakening undergoes a significant variation when it is shifted to the plane of
man's intellectual life and his search after ultimate truths. Appearance
and reality are shown to be intrinsically different - so different that only
mystic insight can reveal to us what is apparent and what is real.”
That amazing difference between
‘appearance’ and ‘reality’ would manifest itself in the world in the Last Age,
and it would be authored by Dajjal, the false Messiah. Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu
‘alaihi wa sallam)
informed his followers that Dajjal, who would be one-eyed, hence
internally blind, would come with a “fire” and a “river”. But his “river
would be a fire, and his fire would be the cool waters of a river.” Hence in all that concerns Dajjal
things would not be what they appear to be. And when judgment is based
solely on external observation, i.e. on an examination of that which appears,
the one who seeks to make a judgment would be deceived and his judgment would
always be wrong.
The implication of the story of Musa
and Khidr (‘alaihima al-Salam) in this Surah is that only
those servants of Allah Most High who see with two eyes, and who are therefore
blessed by Allah with internal intuitive spiritual insight, in addition to
external observation, would be able to penetrate the internal actual
reality of the world in the age of Dajjal.
The authentic Sufi Shaikhs of
Islam have always been distinguished in the history of Islam as a people who
were blessed with precisely that internal intuitive spiritual insight. Yet
there are many misguided one-eyed Islamic scholars and community leaders today
who wage unjust war on the authentic Sufi Shaikhs of Islam (such as our
teacher of blessed memory, Maulana Dr. Muhammad Fazlur Rahman Ansari rahimahullah, and his teacher of blessed memory,
Maulana ‘Abd al-‘Aleem Siddiqui rahimahullah). They also make every effort to
marginalize and silence those Islamic scholars who embrace the Sufi
epistemology and are consequently blessed with spiritual insight.
Such misguided Islamic scholars and
community leaders are themselves usually so devoid of spiritual insight that they
cannot recognize the Shirk of the modern secular State. Nor can they
recognize the use of today’s paper currency that passes as money to be Haram.
And so when paper-money disappears tomorrow, and is totally replaced by electronic
money, they will welcome that cashless world with the same blindness with which
they have responded to today’s fraudulent paper-money. Indeed they insist, with
obstinate misguidance, on declaring so-called Murabaha transactions of
Islamic Banks to be Halal when they are also Haram and, in fact,
‘back-door Riba’ transactions! They are a people who deny women the
right to pray in the Masjid, or they allow them in the Masjid but
deny them the right to pray in the same space with the men (but behind them,
and with no obstacle obstructing them from praying with both eyes and ears)!
(Cf. Hadith of Sahih Muslim)
Our quartet of books on this subject
is written with the firm conviction that no one can possibly penetrate and
grasp the reality of the world today unless the Holy Qur’an is used as the
basic instrument of understanding. After all, did Allah Most High not declare
that the Qur’an explains all things:
“ .
. . And We have sent down to thee (O Muhammad) a Book (i.e., the Qur’an) which
explains all things, a Guide, a Mercy, and Glad Tidings to Muslims.”
(Qur’an, al-Nahl, 16:89)
Secondly, we are equally convinced
that Surah al-Kahf, more than any other Surah of the Qur’an,
is the key with which a believer can both unlock the strange modern age and
respond appropriately to its awesome challenges. The blessed Prophet (peace be
upon him) has advised believers to memorize the first ten verses of this Surah
for protection from Dajjal. And he has also advised that whoever recites
the entire Surah on a day of Juma’ah would receive light from
Allah which would stay with him until the next Juma’ah.
Finally we insist that only that
internal intuitive spiritual insight that is the fruit of the Sufi epistemology
can deliver this Surah’s explanation of, and response to, the strangely
unfolding Modern Age in this, the final chapter of the end of history.
The Surah ends with the
allegory of Dhul Qarnain, who possessed both faith and power, and who
established a world-order in which power was used to punish the oppressor, and
to assist and reward those who possessed faith in Allah Most High and whose
conduct was righteous. He also had the compassion and wisdom to allow the
primitive way of life to survive in history.
Surah al-Kahf described for mankind what kind of a heavenly
world there could have been at the end of history if mankind had accepted
Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) as Allah’s final Prophet and had followed him.
But they rejected him, and so history
now ends in exactly the opposite way, i.e., with a world in which hell
awaits those who rejected Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam), or who accepted him but went on to
betray him when they were tested. In this Last Age that ‘Hell’ is itself is now
spread out before the very eyes of such people, - eyes which are devoid of
internal spiritual insight and are hence oblivious of the signs of Allah Most
High constantly and ominously unfolding in the world:
“And
We shall present Hell that day for Unbelievers to see, all spread out,
(Unbelievers) whose eyes had been under a veil from Remembrance of Me, and who
had been unable even to hear.”
(Qur’an,
al-Kahf, 18:100-101)
Those created by Allah Most High as
the exact opposite to Dhul Qarnain were released into the world in the lifetime
of Nabi Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) shortly after it became clear that the
Jews had rejected him. Gog and Magog possess irresistible power with which to
rule the world, but their power rests on foundations which are godless,
decadent and corrupt. It is they who have established today’s world-order in
which power is used to oppress, to wage war on Islam and on the religious way
of life, and to exterminate and obliterate the primitive way of life.
History is also culminating with a
godless Gog and Magog world-order which has liberated the Holy Land for the
Jews (as divinely prophesied in the Qur’an). That godless world-order
has also brought the Jews back to the Holy Land to reclaim it as their own, and
has restored a State of Israel in the Holy Land. The Jews were deceived into embracing
an imposter State as the Holy Israel of Prophets David and Solomon (Allah’s
blessings be upon them both). That imposter Israel is taking most of the Jewish
people as well as all others who support Israel to their final destruction. Our
book entitled ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’ explains that very important
subject in quite some detail.
As readers embark on the study of this
Surah of the Holy Qur’an they would be well advised to raise
their hands in Du’ah (prayer) and to beseech Allah Most High for Nur
(i.e., a light) with which to penetrate and to understand the Surah as
it explains the strange modern age that is waging unjust war on Islam.
Here
now is the Arabic text of the Surah with our English translation and
commentary that links the Surah to the modern age. Sometimes the simple
English translation of a verse, which stays as close as possible to the Arabic
text, is difficult to understand without some minimal explanatory comments. And
so we also provide, from time to time, an additional explanatory translation of
a verse after having first given the simple translation of that same verse.
To Be Continued....
Surah Kahf Unveiling The End Time By Sheikh Imran Hosein
