Surah Al-Kahf 18:59
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 59 of 110
وَتِلْكَ ٱلْقُرَىٰٓ أَهْلَكْنَٰهُمْ لَمَّا ظَلَمُوا۟ وَجَعَلْنَا لِمَهْلِكِهِم مَّوْعِدًۭا
Translation
[just like] the former communities We destroyed for doing wrong: We set an appointed time for their destruction.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'And those towns, We destroyed them when they did wrong, and We set for their destruction an appointed time.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the historical evidence for the previous verse's principle, whole civilisations were given their span, persisted in wrongdoing, and met a fixed appointment of ruin: mercy delayed the reckoning, but did not cancel it. Ask yourself: the ruins of past peoples are laid out as a warning precisely because I am prone to think my own situation is the exception. They too had their long delay, their sense of permanence, their 'nothing has happened yet'. And they too had an 'appointed time' that came. History is God's exhibit that patience is not the same as impunity. Do I study the fallen, the civilisations, the individuals, the cautionary tales, as a mirror, or do I assume, as they did, that the delay in my own case means the rules have been suspended just for me?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:59 is discussed in 8 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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