Surah Al-Kahf 18:3
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 3 of 110
مَّٰكِثِينَ فِيهِ أَبَدًۭا
Translation
that they will always enjoy.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'In which they will remain forever.' al-Saadi and Ibn Kathir note 'makithina fihi abada', the reward of the believers is not temporary but unending, an abode with no expiry, no decline, no fear of loss. Ask yourself: every good thing I have here is haunted by its ending, I enjoy it while bracing for the day it stops. The dread of loss is woven into all my happiness. This verse names a reward defined precisely by permanence: 'forever'. It answers the deepest anxiety beneath my pleasures, that they will be taken. If the good I'm truly built for is the kind that never ends, am I investing my life in the lasting reward, or exhausting it on pleasures I already know are on the clock?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur.
Topics that discuss this verse
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