Am hasibta anna ashaba alkahfi waalrraqeemi kanoo min ayatina AAajaban
English
Ahmed Ali
Do you think the men of the cave and Ar-Raqim were so strange among Our signs?
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (or deemest thou) o muhammad (that the people of the cave and the inscription) whereof the names of these youth and their story were inscribed; it is also said that the inscription refers to the valley where this cave was; and it is also said that it refers to a city (are a wonder among our portents) such as the sun, the moon, the sky, the earth, the stars, the oceans and even that which is more wonderous than this?
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : or did you think, did you suppose, that the companions of the cave, the cavern in the mountain, and the inscription, the tablet wherein their names and lineages had been inscribed — the prophet (s) had been asked about their tale — were, with regard to their tale, a [unique] marvel from among, the entirety [of], our signs? (‘ajaban, ‘a marvel’ is the predicate of [the defective verb] kāna [sc. kānū], the preceding [min āyātinā, ‘from among our signs’] being a circumstantial qualifier). in other words, [did you suppose] that they were a marvel exclusively from among all [our] other signs, or that they were the most marvellous among them? not so.
Sahl al-Tustari
تفسير : …the inscription (al-raqīm)…he said:al-raqīm is their leader who is called ‘the dog’ but they do not actually have a dog. god, exalted is he, said their dog [lay] stretching his two forelegs on the threshold [18:18]. that is, stretching his two forelegs in command and prohibition. ʿikrima said, ‘al-raqīm is the word for inkwell in the byzantine tongue.’ Ḥasan said, ‘al-raqīm is the valley in which the cave is situated’, while kaʿb said, ‘al-raqīm is a lead tablet on which is inscribed their names, their genealogies, their religion and from whom they fled.’ al-waṣīd, however, is the threshold.his words, exalted is he:
