Surah Al-Kahf 18:79
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 79 of 110
أَمَّا ٱلسَّفِينَةُ فَكَانَتْ لِمَسَٰكِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ فِى ٱلْبَحْرِ فَأَرَدتُّ أَنْ أَعِيبَهَا وَكَانَ وَرَآءَهُم مَّلِكٌۭ يَأْخُذُ كُلَّ سَفِينَةٍ غَصْبًۭا
Translation
the boat belonged to some needy people who made their living from the sea and I damaged it because I knew that coming after them was a king who was seizing every [serviceable] boat by force.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'As for the ship, it belonged to poor people working at sea. I intended to damage it, because there was after them a king seizing every [sound] ship by force.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the first revelation, the apparent harm was a rescue: a small, deliberate defect that made the boat look worthless, saving it from a tyrant's confiscation and preserving the poor owners' only livelihood. Ask yourself: the very thing Musa protested as destructive was the thing that saved what mattered most. The 'damage' was a disguise, a smaller loss preventing a total one. How many of the 'damages' in my own life, the setback, the closed door, the flaw introduced into my plans, might be exactly this: a small, painful defect God allows precisely to keep a marauding 'king' from seizing the whole? When something good in my life is dented or delayed, can I hold open the possibility that the dent is protecting it from a ruin I cannot see coming?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:79 is discussed in 11 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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