Tafseer of The Cave · Al-Kahf · 18:54
And We have certainly diversified in this Qur'an for the people from every [kind of] example; but man has ever been, most of anything, [prone to] dispute.
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 explanation of the words of Allah the Exalted: وَلَقَدْ صَرَّفْنَا فِي هَذَا الْقُرْآنِ لِلنَّاسِ مِنْ كُلِّ مَثَلٍ وَكَانَ الإِنْسَانُ أَكْثَرَ شَيْءٍ جَدَلاً (18:54)
Allah, exalted be His mention, says: We have set forth in this Qurʾān for the people every kind of similitude, warned them therein with every admonition, and established the proof against them with every demonstrative argument, so that they might remember and turn in repentance, and so that they might take a lesson and be admonished, and so that they might desist from what they persist in doing: the attributing of associates to Allah (shirk) and the worship of idols.
وَكَانَ الإنْسَانُ أَكْثَرَ شَيْءٍ جَدَلاً — Allah says: and man was, of all things, the most contentious and most disputatious; he does not yield to the truth and is restrained by no admonition.
Thus Yūnus related to me; he said: Ibn Wahb informed us; he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning وَكَانَ الإنْسَانُ أَكْثَرَ شَيْءٍ جَدَلاً : "Al-jadal is the dispute of words — people's contending with their prophets and their rejection of what the prophets had brought them." He recited: مَا هَذَا إِلا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ يَأْكُلُ مِمَّا تَأْكُلُونَ مِنْهُ وَيَشْرَبُ مِمَّا تَشْرَبُونَ (This is only a man like yourselves; he eats of what you eat and drinks of what you drink), and he recited: يُرِيدُ أَنْ يَتَفَضَّلَ عَلَيْكُمْ (he wishes to exalt himself above you), and he recited to the end of the verse وَلَوْ نَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ كِتَابًا فِي قِرْطَاسٍ (And if We had sent down to you a Book on paper), and he recited: وَلَوْ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ بَابًا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فَظَلُّوا فِيهِ يَعْرُجُونَ (And if We had opened for them a gate in the heaven and they were to ascend through it). He said: they — not you — would say: لَقَالُوا إِنَّمَا سُكِّرَتْ أَبْصَارُنَا بَلْ نَحْنُ قَوْمٌ مَسْحُورُونَ (Our eyes have only been dazzled; rather, we are a bewitched people).
