Surah Al-Kahf

Al-Kahf ("The Cave") is the 18th surah of the Quran. A Meccan surah of 110 verses, it is 69th in the traditional order of revelation, after Al-Ghashiya, and straddles the fifteenth and sixteenth juz'. It is named after the cave in which a group of young believers took refuge (18:9–26), the first of the four stories that give the surah its structure.

Name and context

Al-Kahf is one of five surahs that open with "Praise be to God", with Al-Fatiha, Al-An'am, Saba and Fatir. Ibn Ishaq relates that Quraysh, on the advice of Jewish scholars in Yathrib, tested the Prophet ﷺ with questions about the young men of the cave, a traveller who reached the ends of the earth and the spirit; the report is popular, but its chain is weak. The question of the spirit is answered in Al-Isra (17:85).

Main themes

• The People of the Cave (18:9–26): young men who fled with their faith and slept in the cave for "three hundred years, and nine more"; the passage teaches the believer to add "if God wills" to any plan (18:23–24).
• The owner of the two gardens (18:32–44): a rich man proud of his wealth, whose harvest is destroyed, set against a poor but grateful companion. The life of this world is likened to plants that flourish and then turn to chaff (18:45–46).
• Moses and the servant of God (18:60–82), named al-Khidr in the hadith: the boat holed, the boy killed and the wall rebuilt, whose hidden wisdom Moses learns only at the end.
• Dhu al-Qarnayn (18:83–98): a just ruler who travels west and east and builds a barrier against Gog and Magog.

Between these stories the surah urges the Prophet ﷺ to stay with those who call on their Lord morning and evening (18:28), recalls Iblis's refusal to bow (18:50), and describes those whose efforts are lost though they think they are doing good (18:103–104). It ends with the image of the sea as ink for the words of God (18:109) and a summary of the message: "I am only a man like you", worship one God and do good (18:110).

Virtues

According to Abu al-Darda', the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever memorises ten verses from the beginning of Al-Kahf will be protected from the Antichrist (Muslim), and he advised reciting its opening verses to anyone who meets him (Muslim). Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib reported that a man reciting Al-Kahf saw a cloud come over him; the Prophet ﷺ explained that it was the tranquillity (sakina) that descends with the Quran (al-Bukhari and Muslim). Reading it on Friday rests on a narration of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri promising light "between the two Fridays", recorded by al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi and graded sahih by al-Albani; some scholars consider it a saying of Abu Sa'id himself.