al-Kahf 18:60-70 — Moses and the servant given knowledge: the beginning of the journey

Wa idh qāla Mūsā li-fatāhu lā abraḥu ḥattā ablugha majmaʿa'l-baḥrayni aw amḍiya ḥuqubā

"And when Moses said to his young companion: 'I shall not stop until I reach the place where the two seas meet, or I shall go on for years.'"

حُقُب — root ح-ق-ب: a long stretch of time. The root was treated in al-Nabaʾ at 78/23 (lābithīna fīhā aḥqābā).

And the event begins with an act of forgetting: nasiyā ḥūtahumā.

I record this as my own reading, and its support is the twenty-fourth verse of the sūra: there the command wa'dhkur rabbaka idhā nasīt — "remember your Lord when you forget" had been given. And immediately after that command, the knot of the story is tied by an act of forgetting.

And the young companion's words confirm this (63): wa mā ansānīhu illa'sh-shayṭānu an adhkurah — "none but Satan made me forget to remember it."

سَرَبًا — root س-ر-ب: an underground passage, a tunnel, to flow away.

قَالَ ذَٰلِكَ مَا كُنَّا نَبْغِ فَٱرْتَدَّا عَلَىٰٓ ءَاثَارِهِمَا قَصَصًا (64) — "that is what we were seeking; and the two of them went back, following their own tracks."

قَصَص — root ق-ص-ص: to follow a track; and to narrate. The root was treated in al-Qaṣaṣ on the occasion of the sūra's name. I do not repeat it here.

And the word's being used here in the sense of tracking is worth recording: what is sought is found by going back. That is, the act of forgetting itself becomes the sign.

The person's name is not given. The only thing given is his description: ʿabdan min ʿibādinā.

I record this as an observation: throughout the sūra persons are not named — the People of the Cave are not counted, the owners of the gardens have no name, this servant is nameless. Only Moses and Dhū'l-Qarnayn are named. The name transmitted for this person in the classical commentaries is not certain knowledge; in this commentary the report is not passed on.

مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا — "a knowledge from Our presence."

The particle ladun reports a closer proximity than ʿind, and the lexicographers explain this as direct, without intermediary. The word has occurred twice more in the sūra: in verse 2 (baʾsan shadīdan min ladunh) and in verse 10 (ātinā min ladunka raḥma).

"'You will never be able to bear with me. And how will you bear with what you cannot encompass in knowledge?'"

The second sentence is the key that explains all the stories of the sūra, and I record this as my own reading.

The sentence takes patience out of being a matter of character and ties it to a matter of knowledge: wa kayfa taṣbiru ʿalā mā lam tuḥiṭ bihī khubrā.

إحاطة — root ح-و-ط: to surround, to encompass. The root was analysed in al-Baqara at 2/255 (wa lā yuḥīṭūna bi-shayʾin min ʿilmih) and it was recorded there: what is denied is not knowing but encompassing. I rely on that treatment.

And its bond with the four stories of the sūra must be recorded:

That is, the sūra shows the same thing in four separate scenes: judgement hurried where knowledge is lacking. This is a pattern that can be verified from the text.

سَتَجِدُنِىٓ إِن شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ صَابِرًا (69) — and the answer of Moses applies the rule of the twenty-third verse of the sūra: in shāʾa'llāh. The verse thereby places the correct use of the rule inside the story.