Surah al-Kahf (The Cave ) 18 : 109

Overview (Verses 109 - 110)

Preparing for a Meeting with the Lord
 
The second concluding element shows the limits of human knowledge when compared with God’s infinite knowledge. As our imagination cannot reach the absolute, the Qur’ān gives us a simple analogy which we can easily comprehend, using its method of image drawing: “Say: If the sea were ink for my Lord’s words, the sea would surely dry up before my Lord’s words are exhausted, even though we were to add to it another sea to replenish it.” (Verse 109) The sea is the largest and richest thing known to mankind. People use ink to write down whatever they want to record. This is how they document their knowledge which they imagine to be great. Hence the Qur’ān puts forward the image of the sea with all its vast expanse, but which is now made of ink with which to write down God’s words that indicate His knowledge. Even though the whole sea is used, God’s words are not finished. At this point another sea of similar magnitude is brought forward, but it too is used in full while God’s words are far from finished.
 
It is with such a clear image and movement that the concept of the infinite is placed before the finite human intellect. A universal and abstract concept remains beyond human conception until it is described in specific terms. No matter how powerful a human being’s ability to understand the abstract is, he needs to relate an abstract concept to images and shapes, types and characteristics. This applies to abstract concepts of what is limited or tangible. How then can it fathom what is unlimited and intangible?
 
Hence, the Qur’ān gives analogies and draws on similarities in order to give people images and scenes that describe the great concepts it wants them to understand. It often uses what is tangible, and what has shape and definite characteristics and recognizable features in the same way as is employed here. In this example, the sea represents human knowledge which people imagine to be great. But huge and rich as the seas and the oceans may be, they remain limited. God’s words, on the other hand, represent His infinite knowledge for which people cannot set any limit. Indeed they cannot receive or record it all, let alone comprehend it.
 
Conceit may creep into the human soul as people are able to make new discoveries about themselves or about the universe. They are elated with these scientific discoveries feeling that they have achieved what there is to achieve, or at least are on the way to it. But when they look at the areas which remain unknown, they realize that they have only taken a few steps into the sea which remains so vast, stretching beyond the horizon. The fact remains that man’s ability to receive and record God’s knowledge is very limited indeed, because it represents a relationship of what is finite and what is infinite.
 
Man may gain as much knowledge as he can, and he may discover much of the secrets of the universe, but he must never arrogantly boast about his knowledge. For the utmost that he can achieve is to transform the seas and oceans into ink, yet all that ink is insufficient to record God’s words.
 
With such a comparison that shows man’s knowledge to be extremely limited in relation to God’s, the final touch in the sūrah paints the highest and noblest degree for man, which is that of recipient of God’s final message. This again is something close and finite in relation to the limitless horizon our sight cannot reach: Say: I am but a human being like yourselves. It has been revealed to me that your God is the One and only God. Hence, whoever expects to meet his Lord (on Judgement Day], let him do what is right, and in the worship due to his Lord admit no one as partner. (Verse 110) That is the ultimate horizon of Godhead. How does the horizon of prophethood compare with it, when it is, after all, a human horizon?
 
“Say: I am but a human being like yourselves. It has been revealed to me...” I am a human being who receives something from that highest level. I get my knowledge from that inexhaustible source. Yet I am a human being who does not go beyond the guidance which I receive from my Lord. I am a human being who is taught something, learns it and then teaches it to others. Whoever aspires to a position close to this height must first of all benefit by whatever he or she learns from God’s Messenger. They must also utilize the only means that leads there: “Whoever expects to meet his Lord [on Judgement Day], let him do what is right, and in the worship due to his Lord admit no one as a partner.” (Verse 110) This is the passport to that splendid meeting.
 
Thus ends the sūrah which began by mentioning revelation and the oneness of God, utilizing themes and tones that gradually grow more and more profound until they reach this final climax. It is a distinguished beat which generates all the tunes in the splendid music of faith.