Tafseer of The Cave · Al-Kahf · 18:103
Say, [O Muhammad], "Shall we [believers] inform you of the greatest losers as to [their] deeds?
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The exposition of the meaning of the words of Allah, the Exalted: قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا (Say: Shall We inform you who are the greatest losers in their works?) (103)
Allah, the Exalted, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: قُلْ — say, O Muḥammad, to those who seek to harm you, who dispute with you on mendacious grounds, and who interrogate you with the questions of the two Peoples of the Book — the Jews and the Christians: هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ — O people بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا — that is to say: those who have wearied themselves in a work by which they sought gain and profit, but thereby attained corruption and ruin and did not attain their aim — like one who buys a commodity in the hope of gain and profit, but his hope is disappointed, his trade is loss-making, and he has suffered loss in that which he expected to bring him benefit.
The masters of interpretation differed concerning who is intended by this. Some said: what is intended are the monks (al-ruhbān) and the priest-deacons (al-qissīs).
* Mention of those who said this: Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: al-Maqburī related to us, saying: Ḥaywa ibn Shuraḥ related to us, saying: al-Sakan ibn Abī Karīma informed me that his mother told him that she heard Abū Khumaysa ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays say: I heard ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib say concerning this verse قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا: they are the monks who have shut themselves up in the monasteries.
Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: I heard Ḥaywa say: al-Sakan ibn Abī Karīma related to me, on the authority of his mother who told him that she heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays say: I heard ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib say — and he mentioned it accordingly.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Yasāf, on the authority of Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd: he said: I asked my father about وَهُمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُحْسِنُونَ صُنْعًا: are these the Ḥarūriyya? He said: they are the dwellers of the monasteries.
Faḍāla ibn al-Faḍl related to us, saying: Bazīʿ said: a man asked al-Ḍaḥḥāk about this verse قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا: he said: they are the priest-deacons (al-qissīsūn) and the monks.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Basāf, on the authority of Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd: he said: Saʿd said: they are the dwellers of the monasteries.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibn Saʿd: he said: I said to Saʿd: "O father, هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا — are these the Ḥarūriyya?" He said: "No, but they are the dwellers of the monasteries. The Ḥarūriyya, however, are a people who deviated, and Allah caused their hearts to deviate."
Others said: rather they are all the people of the two Books.
* Mention of those who said this: Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Murra, on the authority of Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd: he said — I asked my father about this verse قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا الَّذِينَ ضَلَّ سَعْيُهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا: are these the Ḥarūriyya? He said: "No, they are the People of the Book — the Jews and the Christians. The Jews rejected Muḥammad. The Christians denied the Garden (janna) and said: there is therein neither food nor drink. But the Ḥarūriyya are those who يَنْقُضُونَ عَهْدَ اللَّهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مِيثَاقِهِ وَيَقْطَعُونَ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ أَنْ يُوصَلَ وَيُفْسِدُونَ فِي الأَرْضِ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ." Saʿd called them the transgressors (al-fāsiqūn).
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ḥurra, on the authority of Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, on the authority of his father, concerning his words قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا: he said — they are the Jews and the Christians.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Abū Ḥarb ibn Abī al-Aswad, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: that he was asked about his words قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا. He said: they are the unbelieving People of the Book — their first ones were upon the truth, but they associated partners with their Lord (ashrakū bi-rabbihim) and innovated extraneous matters (ibtadaʿū) in their religion. These are the ones who diligently pursue falsehood and think that they are upon the truth, who obstinately follow misguidance and think that they are upon the right way. Their striving in the worldly life has gone astray while they think that they are doing good. Then he raised his voice and said: "The Fire is not far from them."
Others said: they are the Khārijites.
* Mention of those who said this: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Abū al-Ṭufayl: he said — ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Kawwāʾ asked ʿAlī about his words قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا. He said: "It is you and your companions, O people of Ḥarūrāʾ."
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb related to us, on the authority of Abū Ṣakhr, on the authority of Abū Muʿāwiya al-Bajalī, on the authority of Abū al-Ṣahbāʾ al-Bakrī, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: that Ibn al-Kawwāʾ asked him about the word of Allah, the Almighty, هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا. ʿAlī said: "You and your companions."
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Abū al-Ṭufayl: he said — Ibn al-Kawwāʾ stood up toward ʿAlī and said: "Who are the greatest losers in their works, those whose striving in the worldly life has gone astray while they think that they are doing good?" He said: "Woe to you! The people of Ḥarūrāʾ are among them."
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Khālid ibn ʿAshma related to us, saying: Mūsā ibn Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Abū al-Ḥuwārith related to me, on the authority of Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim: he said — Ibn al-Kawwāʾ said to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: "Who are the greatest losers in their works, those whose striving in the worldly life has gone astray?" He said: "You and your companions."
The most correct view in our estimation is that it be said: Allah, the Almighty, intended by His words هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِالأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالا every worker who performs a work which he thinks he is correct in, and that by it he obeys Allah and pleases Him — while by it he provokes Allah's wrath and deviates from the way of the believers (ahl al-īmān) — like the monks and the archdeacons and their like who are diligent in their misguidance, while in it and in their diligence they are also unbelievers (kuffār) toward Allah — of whatever religion they may be.
The Arabic grammarians differed concerning the reason for the accusative of the word أَعْمَالا. Some of the Baṣran grammarians said: it is in the accusative because, when the article and the nūn are added to "the greatest losers" (al-akhsarīn), the construct (iḍāfa) is no longer possible — while the works (al-aʿmāl) belong to the greatest losers, and therefore it is in the accusative. Another said: this falls under the pair "afʿal" (comparative) and "fuʿlā" (feminine comparative) — like "the best" (al-afḍal) and "the best feminine" (al-fuḍlā), and "the greatest loser" (al-akhsar) and "the greatest loser feminine" (al-khusrā). In them no conjunctions occur, and no specifier (mufassir) is possible, because it is already separated by its "min" — like "the best" and "the best feminine." When, however, a specifier accompanies it, that applies to the first and the second member. He said: do you not see that you may say: "I passed by a man, handsome of face" — where "handsome" belongs to the man and "face" also belongs to it? Likewise "great of intellect" and the like. He said: it is permissible in "the greatest losers" because it is brought back to the pattern "afʿal" and "afʿila." He said: I heard the Arabs say: "the first ones upon entering and the last ones upon exiting" — and so it was ascribed to the first and the second, as in the rest of the category. He said: on that basis it was treated by analogy.
