Posted Dec 17, 2009 by Aboo Thaabit with 10 Comments
Friday approaches once again many of us might read surah Kahf, yet how much of its wisdom escapes us?
The story of Muusa and Khidr shows the importance of seeking knowledge and even the etiquttes that should be present in the student. A very beautiful point that might not be clear to many of us is the following I read in the book Taqyeed al-’Ilm by Imaam al-Khateeb al-Baghdaadee
On the authority of Sa’eed bin Jubayr that Ibn ‘Abbas said concering the verse:
وَكَانَ تَحْتَهُ كَنزٌ لَّهُمَا
And underneath it [ie the wall] was a treasure belonging to them [the orphans]
[This treasure] was neither gold nor silver, rather it was scrolls of knowledge.
Al-Hasan ibn Saalih said:
And what treasure could be better then knowledge!
Assalaamu Alaikum,
Jazak Allahu Khair for a great blog. Is there any way to get updates by e-mail on new entries?
Wa Alaikum Assalam
BaarakaAllah feek, feel free to share with friends and family so that they too may benefit inshAllah.
I sorted out the issue, you can now recieve emails inshAllah
Assalamu alaikum
I remember visiting this blog when it was in it’s first initial stages. It’s lovely to see how much it has grown mashAllah. I pray that Allah continues to make it successful and a source of guidance of knowledge for all!
Ameen
Sister Anonymous
akhi, salamualaikum, i just dont get how they would know it is knowledge, i mean i agree with what they say, but in the text it says treasures, but how could you find out that it really means knowledge!
wa alaikum assalam
that is a good question brother, but you have to remember that when something like this is said, even if it might be said by a companion they can not just make something up because it is beyond their knowledge. When Ibn ‘Abbas or any other companion interprets the Qur’aan its not based on their own knowledge it is from what they heard from the Prophet when he explained it. Ibn ‘Abbas himself spent all his life studying underneath ‘Umar, Abu Bakr, Abdullah bin Mas’uud and all the other bigger companions, so when any of them say this verse means this, they say that because they heared it from the Prophet himself, they would never say something about the Qur’aan that they did not know.
JazakAllah khair!
Assalamu 3alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,
Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem.
I was looking in Tafsir ibn Kathir on this particular ayah and there are several interpretations on this “treasure.”
I apologize in advance that I don’t use exact quotes from Tafsir ibn Kathir, because I don’t have it in English and my translations wouldn’t do justice.
There is the first interpretation of ‘Ikrimah (ra) and Qutadah (ra) where they took the obvious from the ayah, and said, “There was a treasure of gold buried for the orphans.”
There is also the second interpretation of ibn Abbas (ra) that brother Khaldun has mentioned above, and Mujahid (ra) agrees with this interpretation.
And there is also this third interpretation by Imam Hasan al Basri (ra) taken from other interpretations by Abu Dharr (ra), “The treasure mention in His book is a solid palette of gold written in it [words of knowledge.]”
The last interpretation fits both interpretations that the treasure IS gold, but is also scrolls of knowledge. Wa Allahu a3lam.
Assalamu Alaikum
May Allah reward you for your input. However it is more likely that the treasure refered to in the verse is not the gold (the least that can be said is it is both) but what it looks like more is the fact that it indeed is what Ibn ‘Abbas said ie scrolls of knowledge. The evidence for this is the fact that the father of the orphans mentioned in the verse is refered to as Saalih and this is then linked to the scrolls of knowledge and not stacks of gold.
Wa3alaikum Assalam Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,
I also like to believe that the interpretation by Ibn Abbas (ra) is the more correct one, because it proves how much more valuable knowledge is than gold.
Wallahu a3lam.