18. Al-Kahf
Rabbanaa aatinaa min ladunka raḥmatan wahayy’i lanaa min amrinaa rashadan (Quran 18:10)
Our Rabb (the Name composition comprising our essential reality), grant us a grace (a blessing with Your favor) from Yourself (with a special force manifesting from the absolute station of the Names, Your essence) and form within us a state of perfection in this matter.
Here, Allah is teaching us to pray to reach success in our affairs. He is also alerting us to seek success from His Self (‘Ind’; the forces that are revealed through dimensional emergence to consciousness from the Names of Allah that comprise one’s essence)… Thus, whenever we are praying for something regarding His essential qualities, such as Knowledge, Rahmah and Power, we should ask from His ‘Ind’.
By the one who is denoted by the name Allah (who created my being with His Names in accord with the meaning of the letter ‘B’), the Rahman, the Rahim.
1. Hamd (the evaluation of the corporeal worlds as He wills) belongs to Allah, who has disclosed to His servant the knowledge of the reality and sunnatullah (Book) in which there is no discrepancy.
2. It is (a) straight (Book)... from His ladun to warn against a severe suffering and to give the good news to the believers, who fulfill the requirements of their faith, that they will have a good reward.
3. Those (believers) will reside therein forever.
4. And to warn those who say, “Allah has taken a son.”
5. Neither they, nor their forefathers, have any knowledge of it! Grave is the word their mouths utter! They speak nothing but lies!
6. So, if they don’t believe in this warning, will you ruin yourself in grief over them?
7. We adorned everything on earth (or the bodily life) for it, so that it may become apparent who will display the best conduct!
8. We will certainly turn everything on earth (the body) into barren soil!
9. Or did you think that (only) the Ashab-al Kahf (companions of the cave) and the inscription (on stone) were among Our wondrous signs?
10. And when the youths retreated to the cave and said “Our Rabb (the Name composition comprising our essential reality), grant us a grace (a blessing with your favor) from Yourself (Your ladun) and form within us a state of perfection in this matter.”
11. So We cast (a veil) over their ears (closed their perception to the world; put them to sleep) in the cave for many years.
12. Then We revived them (with a new understanding of life) that We might know (‘Know’ here denotes ‘reveal’ so that they may know – Elmalili Tafsir, Vol 5, Pg 3226) which of the two factions were most precise in calculating the time they had remained there.
13. (My Rasul) We narrate their story to you in truth... Indeed, they were youths who believed in their Rabb (B-Rabbihim; as their essential reality in their consciousness)... Hence, We increased them in experiencing their essential reality.
14. We put a nexus in their hearts (fixed their consciousness upon a state of constant observation)! They (those youths) stood up and said, “Our Rabb (the dimension of Names comprising our essence) is the Rabb of the heavens and the earth (the One who forms everything in existence with His Names)! Never will we accept a god (an administrator in existence) besides Him (equivalent to Him)! For if we speak the contrary, we would have spoken an absurd thing that defies the mind and logic.”
15. These, our people (who have deified the results of their baseless assumptions) have taken gods besides Him... If only they can show a clear proof of the power of these gods! So, who is more unjust than one who lies and slanders against Allah?..