Tafsir of Surah Al-Kahf - Verse 23

Saying "If Allah wills" when determining to do Something in the Future

Here Allah, may He be glorified, shows His Messenger the correct etiquette when determining to do something in the future; this should always be referred to the will of Allah, the Knower of the Unseen, Who knows what was and what is yet to be and what is not to be, and how it will be if it is to be. It was recorded in the Two Sahihs that Abu Hurayrah said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

«قَالَ سُلَيْمَانُ بْنُ دَاوُدَ عَلَيْهِمَا السَّلَامُ: لَأَطُوفَنَّ اللَّيْلَةَ عَلَى سَبْعِينَ امْرَأَةً وَفِي رِوَايَةٍ: تِسْعِينَ امْرَأَةً، وَفِي رِوَايَةٍ: مِائَةِ امْرَأَةٍ تَلِدُ كُلُّ امْرَأَةٍ مِنْهُنَّ غُلَامًا يُقَاتِلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ، فَقِيلَ لَهُ وَفِي رِوَايَةٍ قَالَ لَهُ الْمَلَكُ: قُلْ إِنْ شَاءَ اللهُ، فَلَمْ يَقُلْ، فَطَافَ بِهِنَّ فَلَمْ تَلِدْ مِنْهُنَّ إِلَّا امْرَأَةٌ وَاحِدَةٌ نِصْفَ إِنْسَانٍ، فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِصلى الله عليه وسلّم: وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ، لَوْ قَالَ إِنْ شَاءَ اللهُ لَمْ يَحْنَثْ، وَكَانَ دَرَكًا لِحَاجَتِه»

وَفِي رِوَايَةٍ:

«وَلَقَاتَلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ فُرْسَانًا أَجْمَعُون»

(Sulayman bin Dawud (peace be upon them both) said: "Tonight I will go around to seventy women according to some reports, it was ninety or one hundred women so that each one of them will give birth to a son who will fight for the sake of Allah." It was said to him, according to one report, the angel said to him "Say: `If Allah wills'", but he did not say it. He went around to the women but none of them gave birth except for one who gave birth to a half-formed child.) The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, (By the One in Whose hand is my soul, had he said, "If Allah wills," he would not have broken his oath, and that would have helped him to attain what he wanted. ) According to another report, (They would all have fought as horsemen in the cause of Allah.) At the beginning of this Surah we discussed the reason why this Ayah was revealed: when the Prophet was asked about the story of the people of the Cave, he said, "I will tell you tomorrow." Then the revelation was delayed for fifteen days. Since we discussed this at length at the beginning of the Surah, there is no need to repeat it here.

وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ إِذَا نَسِيتَ

(And remember your Lord when you forget) It was said that this means, if you forget to say "If Allah wills", then say it when you remember. This was the view of Abu Al-`Aliyah and Al-Hasan Al-Basri. Hushaym reported from Al-A`mash from Mujahid that concerning a man who swears an oath, Ibn `Abbas said "He may say `If Allah wills' even if it is a year later." Ibn `Abbas used to interpret this Ayah:

وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ إِذَا نَسِيتَ

(And remember your Lord when you forget) in this way. Al-A`mash was asked, "Did you hear this from Mujahid" He said, "Layth bin Abi Salim told it to me." The meaning of Ibn `Abbas' view, that a person may say "If Allah wills", even if it is a year later, is that if he forgets to say it when he makes the oath or when he speaks, and he remembers it later, even a year later, the Sunnah is that he should say it, so that he will still be following the Sunnah of saying "If Allah wills", even if that is after breaking his oath. This was also the view of Ibn Jarir, but he stated that this does not make up for breaking the oath or mean that one is no longer obliged to offer expiation. What Ibn Jarir said is correct, and it is more appropriate to understand the words of Ibn Abbas in this way. And Allah knows best.

وَلاَ تَقْولَنَّ لِشَىْءٍ إِنِّى فَاعِلٌ ذلِكَ غَداً إِلاَّ أَن يَشَآءَ اللَّهُ وَاذْكُر رَّبَّكَ إِذَا نَسِيتَ

(And never say of anything, "I shall do such and such thing tomorrow." Except (with the saying), "If Allah wills!" And remember your Lord when you forget) At-Tabarani recorded that Ibn `Abbas said that this meant saying, "If Allah wills."

وَقُلْ عَسَى أَن يَهْدِيَنِ رَبِّى لاًّقْرَبَ مِنْ هَـذَا رَشَدًا

(and say: "It may be that my Lord guides me to a nearer way of truth than this.") meaning, `if you (O Prophet) are asked about something you know nothing about, ask Allah about it, and turn to Him so that He may guide you to what is right.' And Allah knows best.

Commentary

The story of Ashab al-Kahf is due to end on the four verses cited above. In the first two of these, the Holy Prophet ﷺ and his Ummah has been taught to say ` Insha'Allah Ta’ ala along with the promise or affirmation of doing something in the future. Because, who knows if one does or does not live, and even if one does, will one be able to do or not to do that? Therefore, a believer should be confident about it in his or her heart, and confess to it verbally as well that in the event of making a commitment to do something next day, what will be said will be: If Allah Ta` ala wills, I shall do this thing tomorrow.' This is what the saying of Insha'Allah means.

In the third verse (25), a decision has been given on a controversy. This was a debate in which people had held different opinions during the time of the People of Kahf, and equally different were the sayings of the Jews and Christians of the contemporary period about it, that is, the period of time they kept sleeping in the Cave. It was stated in the verse that those were three hundred and nine years. This is, so to say, a clarification of the statement made briefly at the beginning of the story: فَضَرَ‌بْنَا عَلَىٰ آذَانِهِمْ فِي الْكَهْفِ سِنِينَ عَدَدًا (So We veiled their hearing [ putting them to sleep ] in the Cave for a number of years - 11).

After that, those who still differ with it have been warned once again that they are not the ones who know the reality of things as they are. The One who knows it all is none else but Allah with whom rests the knowledge of all that is unseen in the heavens and the earth. He is All Hearing. He is All Seeing. The time duration of three hundred nine years given by Him should be enough for their satisfaction.

The Quraysh of Makkah sent Nadar ibn Harith and ‘Uqbah ibn Mu‘it to Madinah to meet the Jewish scholars and ask for information about the Prophet Muhammad, because the Jews had knowledge about prophets. The Jews advised these emissaries to ask the Prophet Muhammad about three things, adding that if he could give information about these things, then he was the Prophet; otherwise he was merely a glib talker. Of these questions, one was about the young ‘Men of the Cave’, the second related to ‘Dhul Qarnayn’ and the third was about the spirit. Before the age of the press the common people did not know about the ‘Men of the Cave.’ This story was recorded in certain Syrian manuscripts, a fact known only to particular scholars. When this question was put to the Prophet Muhammad, he said that he would give the required information the next day, in the hope that Gabriel would appear the next day and give him the necessary information, which he would then pass on to the questioners. But, Gabriel’s arrival was delayed. He took fifteen days to bring the chapter entitled ‘The Cave’ (al-Kahf). Due to this delay in revelation, The Prophet Muhammad’s Makkan antagonists had a good opportunity to malign his name on this issue. God said, ‘On the pretext of a small, ordinary incident, you are trying to make people doubtful about the truthfulness of a person whose truthfulness is going to be vouchsafed by far better and much more convincing arguments.’ (Tafsir al-Mazhari, vol. 6, p. 27 ). Now that so many arguments have accumulated to substantiate the truthfulness of the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad, no sensible person could deny it. Today, his prophethood is a well established fact and not merely a claim.