Surah Al-Kahf 18:5
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 5 of 110
مَّا لَهُم بِهِۦ مِنْ عِلْمٍۢ وَلَا لِءَابَآئِهِمْ ۚ كَبُرَتْ كَلِمَةًۭ تَخْرُجُ مِنْ أَفْوَٰهِهِمْ ۚ إِن يَقُولُونَ إِلَّا كَذِبًۭا
Translation
They have no knowledge about this, nor did their forefathers––it is a monstrous assertion that comes out of their mouths: what they say is nothing but lies.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'They have no knowledge of it, nor did their forefathers. Monstrous is the word that comes from their mouths; they speak nothing but a lie.' al-Saadi and Ibn Kathir note the claim rests on nothing, no knowledge, only inherited assertion, yet 'kaburat kalima', it is a grave word, weighty in its falsehood. Ask yourself: how many of my own convictions rest on exactly this, 'no knowledge', only what I inherited, absorbed, or never examined, repeated with confidence? The verse warns that a word can be spoken casually and yet be monstrous in weight. It presses me to trace my strongest claims about God and reality back to their source: are they built on real knowledge, or am I, too, confidently repeating what I never actually verified?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur.
Topics that discuss this verse
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