Surah Al-Kahf 18:71
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 71 of 110
فَٱنطَلَقَا حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا رَكِبَا فِى ٱلسَّفِينَةِ خَرَقَهَا ۖ قَالَ أَخَرَقْتَهَا لِتُغْرِقَ أَهْلَهَا لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْـًٔا إِمْرًۭا
Translation
They travelled on. Later, when they got into a boat, and the man made a hole in it, Moses said, ‘How could you make a hole in it? Do you want to drown its passengers? What a strange thing to do!’
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'So they set out, until when they had embarked on the ship, he made a hole in it. Musa said: Have you made a hole in it to drown its people? You have done a grave thing.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the first test, an act that looks like pure, destructive wrongdoing (damaging the boat that carried them, endangering its people), provoking Musa's immediate, righteous protest. Ask yourself: Musa reacts exactly as I would, this looks harmful, unjust, senseless, so I object. And his objection is not wicked; it is moral, born of concern for the innocent. Yet it is premature, because he cannot see what the damage is really for. This is my constant position before God's decree: I see an apparent harm, a loss, a setback, a wound, and my good, moral instinct cries 'this is wrong!' The story is about to reveal that the very 'damage' I protested was a rescue in disguise. How often is my objection to what befalls me sincere, moral, and blind to the mercy hidden inside it?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:71 is discussed in 4 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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