Surah Al-Kahf 18:9
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 9 of 110
أَمْ حَسِبْتَ أَنَّ أَصْحَٰبَ ٱلْكَهْفِ وَٱلرَّقِيمِ كَانُوا۟ مِنْ ءَايَٰتِنَا عَجَبًا
Translation
[Prophet], do you find the Companions in the Cave and al-Raqim so wondrous, among all Our other signs?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Or did you think the People of the Cave and the Inscription were a wonder among Our signs?' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the framing question before the famous story: extraordinary as the sleepers' preservation is, it is only one sign among God's countless signs, the God who upholds the whole cosmos daily finds this no great feat. Ask yourself: I marvel at the dramatic miracle and overlook the constant one. The verse gently corrects my sense of scale: what strikes me as astonishing, a rescue, a preservation, an against-the-odds survival, is, for the One who runs the universe, unremarkable. It invites me to see the everyday sustaining of my own life as no less a 'sign' than the cave. Do I reserve my wonder for the rare and dramatic, while walking blind past the continuous miracle of simply being kept alive?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:9 is discussed in 6 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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