Essence of the Holy Qur’an — Page 41
Al-Kahf 41 on their guard, particularly against being remiss in Divine worship, against excessive love of wealth and worldly possessions, and against a life of ease and luxury. The glory and power of Christian nations as compared with the degradation and poverty of Muslims are then graphically depicted in 'the parable of two men', one rich and the other poor. The rich man—Christian nations—would be proud of his riches while the poor man would turn to God. Pride and conceit would come to grief in the long run and circumstances beyond human control would bring about the rich man’s decline and fall. The S u rah proceeds to give some details of those great changes which were revealed to Moses in his Vision in which he was told that the development and progress of his Dispensation would fall far short of the great heights which another and a later Dispensation would attain. This later Dispensation—Islam—would bring to perfection and completion the teaching which the Mosaic Dispensation had left incomplete, and would emerge triumphant from the ashes of a declining and decadent Christendom. After having dealt with the decline and fall of Christian nations and with the rise of Islam, the S u rah describes the conditions which would follow the triumph of Islam. It is stated that a time would come when Muslims would also turn their backs upon religion and would become entirely engrossed in the pursuit of material wealth and power. To punish them for their sins God would once again grant success and prosperity to Christian nations which for a time had been restrained from advancing into Southern and Eastern regions. Then would come great destruction upon the world and nations of the world would become divided into two hostile camps, wedded to two opposite ideologies. Sin and iniquity would prevail in the world and injustice and tyranny would become rampant. When things would come to such a pass God would create circumstances which would finally check the seemingly irresistible onrush of the flood threatening to engulf the entire world. While dealing with this subject the S u rah clearly hints that the same people would play an important part in arresting and stopping this flood who had once before broken the political power of Gog and Magog—true followers of the Holy Prophet. See also "The Larger Edition of the Commentary," pp. 1474-1480.