Tafseer of The Cave · Al-Kahf · 18:68
And how can you have patience for what you do not encompass in knowledge?"
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 meaning of the words of Allah the Exalted: وَكَيْفَ تَصْبِرُ عَلَى مَا لَمْ تُحِطْ بِهِ خُبْرًا (verse 68)
Allah the Exalted informs about the words of the learned one to Mūsā: "And how can you, O Mūsā, exercise patience with what you will see of my actions — actions of whose grounds for their correctness you have no knowledge — and how can you remain with me while you see this? For you indeed judge the correctness of the one who acts correctly and the error of the one who acts wrongly on the basis of the outward appearance that you have before your eyes and on the basis of the extent of your knowledge. My actions, however, take place without an outwardly identifiable proof of their correctness before your own eyes, for they begin from causes that will become reality in the future and not now — causes of which you have no knowledge because they are matters of the unseen, and you do not encompass the knowledge of the unseen — that is to say: as conscious knowledge."
