The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 662
CH. 18 AL-KAHF PT. 15 اَوْ يُصْبحَ مَاؤُهَا غَوْرًا فَلَنْ تَسْتَطِيعَ لَهُ Or its water will become. 42 طلبان sunk in the ground so that thou wilt not be able to find it. "2082 وَأُحِيْطَ بِثَمَرِهِ فَأَصْبَحَ يُقَلِّبُ كَفَّيْهِ And his fruit was actually. 43 destroyed, and he began to عَلَى مَا انْفَقَ فِيْهَا وَهِيَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلَى wring his hands for what he had spent on it and it had all fallen عُرُوشِهَا وَيَقُوْلُ لَيْتَنِى لَمْ أُشْرِكْ down on its trellises. And he بِرَبِّي أَحَدًا said, "Would that I had not associated any one with my Lord! '2083 "68:20. "68:32. attribute a son to God. This shows that the present verse also speaks of Christians. 2082. Commentary: The words, Or its water will become sunk in the ground, mean that the springs of their great talents and intellectual attainments on which their material progress mainly depended or which, in the words of the Quran, kept their garden fresh and green, will become dried up, resulting in the complete desolation of their garden. 2083. Important Words: (began to wring his hands). ✓✓ is formed from (qallaba) which is derived from (qalaba). means, he turned it over or upside down. means, And he began to turn his hands upside-down or to do so repeatedly in grief or regret; or he became in a state or condition of repenting or grieving, for is the action of a man who is repenting or grieving, and therefore metonymically denotes repentance or grief (Lane). See also 2:145 & 9:48. Commentary: The verse means to say that all the efforts and endeavours of Christian peoples to add to their material wealth and power will fail to produce any wholesome results. These efforts will end in smoke and their power and prestige will speedily decline. In the hour of their misery and desolation 1870 the western Christian nations will lament that they had expended so much labour and money on the illusory things of this life. The words, it had all fallen down on its trellises, show that these people will be given to erecting lofty and imposing buildings and that the calamities which will befall them in quick succession will raze their prosperous and rich cities to the ground and their eleventh-hour repentance will avail them nothing. The verse incidentally shows that the word 'garden' used in these verses is not used literally because gardens do