The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 647
PT. 15 AL-KAHF CH. 18 send one of you with these بِوَرِقِكُمْ هُذِةٍ إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ فَلْيَنْظُرُ time you have tarried. Now ايُّهَا از كى طَعَامًا فَلْيَأْتِكُمْ بِرِزْقٍ مِنْهُ :silver coins of yours to the city وَلْيَتَلَطَّفْ وَلَا يُشْعِرَنَّ بِكُمْ أَحَدًا ( inhabitants has the purest food and let him see which of its and let him bring you provisions thereof. And let him be courteous and let him not inform anyone about you. '2060 refers to the time when Christian nations will have acquired great political power. Till very recently the nationals of all western countries were treated with great respect and fear all over the East. It constitutes a proof positive of the Divine source of the Quran that it foretold this fact hundreds of years ago when Christian nations were yet sunk in a deep sleep of centuries and the wildest stretch of imagination could not have foreseen the power and glory to which they subsequently rose. 2060. Commentary: Like its predecessor this verse also speaks not of early Christians who took shelter in "the cave" but of the Christian nations of the west after they had spread all over the world. The words, "We raised them up", refer to the great progress which these nations were destined to make in future. It is a peculiarity of the Quranic style that it uses the past tense for events which are to take place in future in order to emphasize the inevitability and certainty of their occurrence. The words mean to say that the day is sure to come when God will bring about an awakening among these people who are now asleep. The words, one of them said; How long have you tarried, signify that Christian nations would begin to feel that it was now time for them to bestir themselves and shake off their lethargy. This awakening took place in the time of the Crusades when the Monarchs of England, France and Germany made common cause and the whole of Europe combined to make a concerted attack upon Muslims to wrest the Holy Land from their hands. a day. . يوما او بعض يوم ,The expression or part of a day, does not mean that the Dwellers of the Cave were not certain as to how long they remained asleep. According to Arabic idiom the expression denotes an indefinite period of time. Elsewhere the Quran has specified as one thousand years the period for which Christian nations of the west remained in a state of sleep or inactivity. In vv. 20:103,104 we have, The day when the trumpet will be blown. And on that day We shall gather the sinful together blue- eyed. They will talk to one another in a low tone: You tarried only ten days, The words "ten days" here stand for ten centuries and the word (blue- eyed) clearly refers to the peoples of the west who generally have blue 1855