PEOPLE OF THE GARDEN

Two Men ( Story of Two Gardens) 

Surah Kahf

PEOPLE OF GARDENS

18:32 Give them ˹O Prophet˺ an example of two men. To ˹the disbelieving˺ one We gave two gardens of grapevines, which We surrounded with palm trees and placed ˹various˺ crops in between.

18:33 Each garden yielded ˹all˺ its produce, never falling short. And We caused a river to flow between them.

18:34 Both gardens would yield fruits to their fullest capacity. Whatever was produced belonged to him. To his friend he exclaimed, "I have more wealth and greater man-power than you."

18:35 He unjustly entered his garden and said, "I do not think this (property) will ever perish

18:36. “And I think not the Hour will ever come, and if indeed I am brought back to my Lord, (on the Day of Resurrection), I surely shall find better than this when I return to Him.”

18:37. His companion said to him, during the talk with him: “Do you disbelieve in Him Who created you out of dust (i.e. your father Adam), then out of Nutfah (mixed semen drops of male and female discharge), then fashioned you into a man?

18:38. “But as for my part (I believe) that He is Allah, my Lord and none shall I associate as partner with my Lord.

18:39. It was better for you to say, when you entered your garden: ‘That which Allah wills (will come to pass)! There is no power but with Allah ‘. If you see me less than you in wealth, and children.

18:40. “It may be that my Lord will give me something better than your garden, and will send on it Husban (torment, bolt, etc.) from the sky, then it will be a slippery earth.

18:41. “Or the water thereof (of the gardens) becomes deep-sunken (underground) so that you will never be able to seek it.”

18:42. So his fruits were encircled (with ruin). And he remained clapping his hands with sorrow over what he had spent upon it, while it was all destroyed on its trellises, he could only say: “Would I had ascribed no partners to my Lord!” [Tafsir Ibn Kathir]

18:43. And he had no group of men to help him against Allah, nor could he defend or save himself.