Tafseer of The Cave · Al-Kahf · 18:71
So they set out, until when they had embarked on the ship, al-Khidh r tore it open. [Moses] said, "Have you torn it open to drown its people? You have certainly done a grave thing."
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: فَانْطَلَقَا حَتَّى إِذَا رَكِبَا فِي السَّفِينَةِ خَرَقَهَا قَالَ أَخَرَقْتَهَا لِتُغْرِقَ أَهْلَهَا لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا (verse 71)
Allah the Exalted says: Mūsā and the learned man set off and sought a ship to sail in; when they found one, they boarded the ship. After they had boarded, the learned man made a hole in the ship. Mūsā said to him: "Have you made a hole in it after we had gone deep into the sea?" لِتُغْرِقَ أَهْلَهَا لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا — that is to say: "You have done something tremendous and committed a reprehensible deed."
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said concerning لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا: "That is to say: something astonishing — people who have gone out into the open sea in their ship, and you made a hole in it, at the very moment when we needed it most! But he knew, from all of this, what the Prophet of Allah Mūsā did not know — by means of the knowledge of Allah that had been given to him. And indeed he had said to the Prophet of Allah Mūsā ﷺ: فَإِنِ اتَّبَعْتَنِي فَلا تَسْأَلْنِي عَنْ شَيْءٍ حَتَّى أُحْدِثَ لَكَ مِنْهُ ذِكْرًا."
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said concerning لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا: "A reprehensible thing (nukran)."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us — and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said concerning لَقَدْ جِئْتَ شَيْئًا إِمْرًا: "Reprehensible (munkaran)."
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 Mujāhid — to the same effect. Al-imr in the language of the Arabs is: the calamity (al-dāhiya). To this refers the saying of the rajaz-poet:
"The adversaries experienced from me something reprehensible / a tremendous calamity, a grievous imr"
Some of the linguists of the Arabic language said: its root meaning is: everything that is severe and abundant. One says of a people: "they are amirū" when they have become numerous and their power has grown severe; its verbal noun is al-amar, and the noun is al-imr.
The reciters differed concerning the reading of لِتُغْرِقَ أَهْلَهَا. The general body of reciters of Medina, Basra, and some of Kufa read this as "li-tughriqa ahlahā" — with tāʾ in li-tughriq and naṣb on ahlahā — with the meaning: "so that you, O man, may drown the passengers of this ship through the hole you have made in it." The general body of reciters of Kufa read it as "li-yaghraqa ahluhā" — with yāʾ, and ahluhā in raf — so that it is the passengers themselves who drown.
The correct view, in my judgment, is to say: these are two well-known readings that are widespread among the readings of the regions, and that agree in their meaning even though their wordings differ. So whoever reads it in either of the two ways has read it correctly.
The reason we say that they agree in meaning is that it is clear that Mūsā's censure of the learned man over the hole in the ship lay in this: that, in his judgment, it was the cause of the drowning of the passengers, if such a thing happens in a ship. There is no ambiguity for anyone concerning its meaning, regardless of whether one reads with tāʾ and naṣb on ahl, or with yāʾ and raf on ahl.
