Surah Al-Kahf 18:20
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 20 of 110
إِنَّهُمْ إِن يَظْهَرُوا۟ عَلَيْكُمْ يَرْجُمُوكُمْ أَوْ يُعِيدُوكُمْ فِى مِلَّتِهِمْ وَلَن تُفْلِحُوٓا۟ إِذًا أَبَدًۭا
Translation
if they found you out, they would stone you or force you to return to their religion, where you would never come to any good.’
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'For if they come to know of you, they will stone you or return you to their religion, and then you will never succeed.' al-Saadi and Ibn Kathir note the youths' clear-eyed sense of the stakes, the deepest danger they name is not death by stoning but being dragged back to the false religion they fled, for that is the ruin that lasts 'forever'. Ask yourself: notice which threat they rank as worse, not being killed, but being pulled back into disbelief. They feared losing their faith more than losing their lives. My instinct is the reverse: I guard my life, comfort, and reputation fiercely, while treating the slow erosion of my faith as tolerable. These youths knew that returning to falsehood was the only true failure. What am I most afraid of losing, and does the pull back toward what I once left frighten me as much as it frightened them?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:20 is discussed in 2 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Kahf 18:20 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.