Tafsir of Al-Kahf 18:40

His saying: "Perhaps my Lord will give me [something] better than your garden" stands in the place of the response to the conditional clause. That is: If you see me as such, then there is no harm, [for] perhaps my Lord... Many have said: It is the response to the conditional clause. The meaning is: If you see me as poorer than you, I expect from the doing of Allah Almighty that He will invert the poverty and wealth that are with me and with you, so He will grant me, due to my faith, a garden better than your garden, and He will strip you, due to your disbelief, of His blessings and destroy your garden.

Some have restricted this granting by saying: "In the Hereafter." Another said: "In the world or in the Hereafter." The apparent sense of what is mentioned is in the world, like the sending in His saying: "And He sends upon it a husban from the heaven," meaning a punishment, as Ibn Jarir recorded from Ibn Abbas. Al-Tabari recorded from him that Nafi' ibn al-Azraq asked him: "Inform me of the saying of the Exalted, 'a husban,'" and he said: "Fire." And he recited to him the words of Hassan: "The remnant of a group upon whom poured showers of husban [that are] flame-colored." Ibn Abi Shaybah and Ibn Abi Hatim also recorded this from al-Dahhak.

Al-Zamakhshari said: It is a verbal noun like al-butlan (falsity) and al-ghufran (forgiveness), meaning al-hisab (reckoning). The intended meaning is that which is calculated and measured, i.e., measured by that which Allah Almighty has decreed and calculated; it is the decree of destroying it. It is apparent that applying it to the aforementioned decree is metaphorical. Al-Zajjaj also made al-husban mean al-hisab (reckoning), but he assumed an added word, meaning: a punishment of reckoning—that is, the reckoning of what his hands have earned. It is not hidden that it is permissible for al-husban to mean punishment metaphorically in this sense, so there is no need for assuming an added word.

The apparent wording of the Qamus, as well as what was narrated first from Ibn Abbas, is that the application of husban to punishment is literal. It is possible, according to what has been said, that its application to fire is by virtue of it being from the punishment or from that which is decreed. Al-Zamakhshari reported that husbanan is the plural of husbanah, which is that which is thrown, like an arrow or a thunderbolt; and what is meant here is thunderbolts. It has been said that it is more general than that—i.e., He sends upon it projectiles of His punishment, whether it be hail, stones, or anything else He wills.

"So it becomes"—due to that—"a sa'idan"—meaning, land—"zalaqan," meaning, having no vegetation in it. This was said by al-Hasan, and Ibn Abi Hatim recorded it from al-Suddi. It is also said that the root meaning of zalaq is slipping in walking due to mud and the like; however, since that happens in [land] where there is no vegetation or the like to prevent it, it is used metaphorically or metonymically. The verbal noun is used to refer to that which causes slipping as an intensification. It is also said that zalaq is from the zalaq of the head, meaning shaving it, and the speech is based on analogy: that it becomes smooth land with no trees or vegetation, like a head that has been shaved—though this is far-fetched.

It is also said that the intended meaning of zalaq is that which causes slipping in the literal, apparent sense; the meaning is: it becomes land in which there is no vegetation and upon which a foot cannot remain firm. The outcome is: it becomes stripped of benefits, even the benefit of walking upon it, so it becomes mud that does not grow [vegetation] and upon which no foot stands. The course taken by Abu Hayyan indicates his preference [for this]. Mujahid said: "Meaning, it becomes shifting sand."