Surah Al-Kahf 18:37
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 37 of 110
قَالَ لَهُۥ صَاحِبُهُۥ وَهُوَ يُحَاوِرُهُۥٓ أَكَفَرْتَ بِٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكَ مِن تُرَابٍۢ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍۢ ثُمَّ سَوَّىٰكَ رَجُلًۭا
Translation
His companion retorted, ‘Have you no faith in Him who created you from dust, from a small drop of fluid, then shaped you into a man?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'His companion said to him, while conversing: Do you disbelieve in the One who created you from dust, then from a drop, then fashioned you into a man?' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the poor believer's answer cuts straight to origins, you, so proud of your garden, were made from dust, then a drop: how does one so humbly originated forget his Maker? Ask yourself: the antidote to the pride of success is the memory of my beginning. Everything I boast of rests on a self that started as dust and a droplet, formed by Another. This companion does not envy the rich man's garden; he pities his forgetfulness. When success inflates me, the fastest cure is this verse's move, to remember what I was made from. Does the memory of my origin (dust, a drop) still have the power to deflate my pride when a 'garden' tempts me to forget?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:37 is discussed in 13 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
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