The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 627
Such is the close connection that exists between the present Surah and the preceding one, particularly the connection between the opening verses of this Surah and the closing verses of the previous Sūrah. The preceding Surah ended with the words, All praise belongs to Allah Who has taken unto Himself no son and who has no partner in His Kingdom and this Surah opens with the warning that destruction shall overtake a people who propose a son for God. Similarly, the previous Sūrah commended as men of knowledge those who worship and glorify God and have firm faith in His promises and denounced as ignorant and deprived of all true knowledge those who assign a son to God. Moreover, while in the previous Surah true knowledge was defined and explained, the present Surah defines and explains what constitutes ignorance and lack of true knowledge. Another connection between the closing verses of the last Surah and the opening verses of the present Surah is that whereas the closing verses of the preceding chapter categorically denied the existence of any partner in God's Kingdom, in the opening verses of this Surah the Holy Prophet is commanded to warn those who, in the pride of their power, wealth, and means, think that these things are everlasting and that they are immune from Divine punishment. The fourth connection between these two chapters consists in the fact that while the former chapter closed with the words, And extol His glory with all glorification, the Surah under comment opens with severe condemnation and castigation of those who assign a son to God. The Prophet is reported to have said that whosoever reads the first and the last ten verses of Surah Al-Kahf would be protected against the evil influence of the Dajjal or Antichrist (Musnad). This ḥadīth shows that the Prophet understood that this Surah was a special antidote against the mischief of the Dajjal who, however, has not been mentioned in it by name. The first ten verses, the recital of which is recommended as a safeguard against the mischief of the Dajjal, speak of a people "who assign a son to God", and they are no other than the present-day Christians. The last ten verses of the Surah speak of a people who have devoted their entire time, energy and effort to the acquisition of material wealth and who are so engrossed in their mechanistic inventions and discoveries as to think that they can fathom even the very secret of creation. But the greater their inventions and discoveries the more mortifying is their realization that there is no limit to the secrets of nature and no end to God's great and wonderful works. This description also applies to Christian nations of the west today. The Surah thus constitutes a sort of commentary on the ideas, beliefs, ambitions and doings of these nations. So when the chapters immediately preceding and following this Sūrah deal primarily with the Christian Faith and the great material progress and prosperity of its followers, it clearly follows that when the Holy Prophet declared the recitation of the first and last ten verses of this Surah as an infallible safeguard against the 1835