Surah Al-Kahf 18:4
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 4 of 110
وَيُنذِرَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوا۟ ٱتَّخَذَ ٱللَّهُ وَلَدًۭا
Translation
It warns those people who assert, ‘God has offspring.’
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And to warn those who say God has taken a son.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the Book's straightness confronts the gravest crookedness of all, the claim that God has offspring, attributing to the Absolute a need, a lineage, a limit. Ask yourself: I may not literally say God has a son, but I have my own subtler ways of dragging Him down to my scale, imagining Him as needing my worship, moved by the same pettiness I feel, bound by the logic I understand. This verse defends His utter transcendence. It presses me to examine the small, false 'sons' I attach to Him, the ways I quietly shrink the Infinite into something manageable and human-sized, so I don't have to reckon with One who is truly beyond me.
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:4 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
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