Sūrat al-Kahf (Part 9)
Part 9 of observations on the organization and structure of Sūrat al-Kahf
See Part 8 in last week’s post.
Āyāt 50-51 contain a summary of the story of Iblīs (Satan) and his enmity towards Adam, followed by a small ring. The passage as a whole provides four reasons mankind should not take Iblīs and his offspring as helpers.
CONNECTIONS
[V]/[V’] – Allah ﷻ commanded Iblīs to bow down to Adam, and Iblīs, a jinn who was envious of Adam, refused to bow. From this it should be obvious that Iblīs is an enemy to humanity, while it is Allah ﷻ—who honored Adam with this command to the angels and Iblīs—who humans should take their ally. They (Satan and his descendants) are only enemies for you and leaders astray—the outcome of their ‘support’ being described with, “Wretched it is for the wrongdoers as an exchange.” Moreover, Allah ﷻ does not take them as supporters ([V’]) so neither should you ([V]).
[W] – The worshiped entities (Satan and his descendants) did not even exist during the creation of the heavens and the earth, and they had no role to play in their own creation. By implication, it is Allah ﷻ, who actually created the heavens and the earth and who created them, who should be worshiped. This rationale ties [V] and [V’] together.
We find a couple of relatively long parallel passages in the telling of Prophet Mūsā’s story in āyāt 60-64 and 65-82.1
CONNECTIONS
[X]/[X’] – Both sections begin with Prophet Mūsā addressing “fatā-hu (his young servant).” In the first instance, Mūsā commits to traveling for as long as it takes, and the connected section shows the hunger and fatigue that came from the exhaustive journey.
[Y]/[Y’] – They forget their fish and later the servant realizes their mistake and offers his excuse.
[Z]/[Z’] – Allah ﷻ tells us that the fish “ittakhadha sabīla-hu fī al-bahri (took its course into the sea), slipping away,” but it is only later that Mūsā and his servant realize the same thing and remark, “ittakhadha sabīla-hu fī al-bahri (took its course into the sea) amazingly.”
[AA]/[AA’] – They accidentally pass their intended destination, and the passage ends with them realizing their mistake and backtracking to what they were seeking.
Summarizing these sections:
And Allah ﷻ knows best.
Next week we’ll continue to look at some micro-structuring found throughout the sūrah in Part 10.
These two parallels are my contributions to the microstructures study of this sūrah.