Tafseer of The Cave · Al-Kahf · 18:93
Until, when he reached [a pass] between two mountains, he found beside them a people who could hardly understand [his] speech.
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: حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ وَجَدَ مِنْ دُونِهِمَا قَوْمًا لَا يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ قَوْلًا (Until, when he reached the place between the two barriers, he found on this side of them a people who could scarcely understand any speech) (93).
Allah the Exalted says: Then he traveled along roads and stages, and he traversed paths, حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ (until he reached the place between the two barriers).
The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of this word. Most of the reciters of Medina and some of Kūfa read السَّدَّيْنِ with a ḍamma on the sīn, and likewise all the other places in the Qurʾān where this word occurs, with a ḍamma on the sīn. Some of the reciters of Mecca read all of them with a fatḥa. Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ read the sīn in this sūra with a fatḥa and in Sūrat Yāsīn with a ḍamma, and said: "Al-sadd" (with fatḥa) is the partition between you and something; "al-sudd" (with ḍamma) is the film that covers the eyesight. The Kūfan reciters generally read with a fatḥa throughout the entire Qurʾān, with the exception of the phrase حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ , which they read with a ḍamma.
Concerning this, the following has been related from ʿIkrima, as Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Hārūn, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of ʿIkrima — he said: What is the work of the descendants of Ādam is al-sadd (with fatḥa); what is the work of Allah is al-sudd (with ḍamma).
Al-Kisāʾī said: Both are dialectal forms with the same meaning.
The correct opinion on this question is, in my view: they are two readings spread throughout the recitation of the Qurʾān-cities, and two dialectal forms with the same meaning, not differing from one another. Whoever reads either of the two variants is correct; the distinction that Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ and ʿIkrima drew between al-sudd and al-sadd has no basis, for we have found no proof confirming the difference as it has been related from them. What demonstrates this is that none of the exegetes whose reports have reached us makes a distinction between the fatḥa-reading and the ḍamma-reading; had the two meanings really differed from one another, the difference would have been transmitted along with the explanation, if Allah wills. But the meaning, in their view, was not distinct, so that they explained the word without drawing a distinction between the two. As for what has been related from ʿIkrima about this: he who related it through Ayyūb and Hārūn is doubtful; we do not know this through the trustworthy disciples of Ayyūb. Al-sadd and al-sudd are both: the partition between two things; and here they are, as has been said, two mountains between which there was a space that Dhū l-Qarnayn filled as a barricade between Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj and those behind them, in order to curb their evil and their raids.
In accordance with what we have said the exegetes spoke.
* The relation of those who said this:
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 ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — with regard to حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ : he said: The two mountains; the rampart (al-radm) that stands between Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj — two peoples behind the rampart of Dhū l-Qarnayn. He said: The two mountains are Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda — with regard to حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ : they are two mountains.
It was related to me through al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His words بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ : he means between two mountains.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, with regard to بَيْنَ السَّدَّيْنِ — he said: They are two mountains.
His words وَجَدَ مِنْ دُونِهِمَا قَوْمًا لَا يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ قَوْلًا mean: He found on this side of the two barriers a people who could scarcely understand the speech of a speaker outside their own language.
The reciters differed over the reading of يَفْقَهُونَ . Most of the reciters of Medina and Basra and some of Kūfa read it as يَفْقَهُونَ قَوْلًا with a fatḥa on the qāf and the yāʾ, derived from "faqiha al-rajulu yafqahu fiqhan" (a man understands). Most of the Kūfan reciters read it as يُفْقِهُونَ قَوْلًا with a ḍamma on the yāʾ and a kasra on the qāf, derived from "afqahtu fulānan kadhā ufqihuhu ifqāhan" (I made someone understand something).
The correct opinion is, in my view, that both readings are spread throughout the recitation of the Qurʾān-cities, and the one does not refute the other. For it is possible that the people about whom Allah here reports could scarcely understand what others said to them; in that case the first reading is correct. And it is also possible that they, in addition to this incapacity, could also scarcely make others understand anything — whether through a peculiarity of their tongue or through their manner of speech — so that the second reading too is correct.
