Tafsir of Al-Kahf 18:94

"They said" (meaning: through their interpreter; attributing the speech to them is figurative. Perhaps this interpreter was from a tribe near their land. This is supported by what is found in the codex of Ibn Mas'ud: "those who are beneath them." Or, it may be understood literally, implying that Dhu al-Qarnayn’s understanding of their speech and his making them understand him was among the means that Allah the Exalted had granted him.

Some have said: It is not unlikely that those who spoke were a different group than those who do not understand speech, and they did not speak as translators for them. This is supported by what is in the codex of Ibn Mas'ud. Be that as it may, there is no contradiction between "they hardly understand speech" and "they said: O Dhu al-Qarnayn."

"Indeed, Gog and Magog": Two tribes from the progeny of Japheth, son of Noah, peace be upon him. Wahb ibn Munabbih and others confirmed this, and many of the later scholars relied upon it. Al-Kisa'i said in al-A'rais: "Japheth traveled to the East and had five sons there: Gomer, Binarsh, Ashar, Asquwil, and Mayashih. From Gomer came all the Slavs, the Romans, and their races; from Mayashih came all the classes of non-Arabs (Ajam); from Ashar came Gog and Magog and their races; from Asquwil came all the Turks; and from Binarsh came the Fuqjuq and the Greeks."

It is said: Both are from the Turks. This is narrated from al-Dahhak. In the words of some, the Turks are from them, based on what Ibn Jarir and Ibn Marduyah extracted via the chain of al-Suddi, from a strong narration: "The Turks are a company of the companies of Gog and Magog that went out. Then Dhu al-Qarnayn came and built the dam, so they remained outside of it." In a narration by Abd al-Razzaq from Qatadah: "Gog and Magog are twenty-two tribes. Dhu al-Qarnayn built the dam against twenty-one, and one tribe was out on a raid, so it remained outside, and the Turks were named for that reason." It is said: Gog is from the Turks and Magog is from the Daylam. It is also said: from the Jil.

From Ka'b al-Ahbar: Gog and Magog are from the progeny of Adam, peace be upon him, but not from Eve. This is because he, peace be upon him, slept and had a wet dream, so his seed mixed with the soil, and from it, Gog and Magog were created. Al-Nawawi reported in his Fatawa the statement that they are children of Adam, peace be upon him, without Eve, on the authority of the majority of scholars. The claim of the wet dream is refuted by the fact that the prophets, peace be upon them, do not have wet dreams. It was answered that what is negated is dreaming of those who are unlawful to them, so it is possible for them to dream of their wives. Perhaps the dream of Adam, peace be upon him, was of the permissible category. It is also possible that it was a discharge without him seeing himself engaging in intercourse, as frequently happens to his descendants.

It was also objected that this implies they were present before the Flood and were not destroyed by it. It was answered that the universality of the Flood is not unanimously agreed upon, so perhaps those who say this are among those who do not hold to its universality. I, however, consider this statement to be a superstitious myth. The Hafiz Ibn Hajar said: "This has not been reported from any of the predecessors except from Ka'b al-Ahbar, and it is refuted by the marfu' (elevated) hadith: 'They are from the descendants of Noah, peace be upon him,' and Noah is definitely from the descendants of Eve." It seems he meant by this hadith something other than what was narrated from Abu Hurayrah as marfu': "Noah had Sam, Ham, and Japheth. From Sam came the Arabs, Persians, and Romans; from Ham came the Copts, Berbers, and the Sudanese; and from Japheth came Gog and Magog, the Turks, and the Slavs," for he clarified that it is weak.

In the Torah, in the first book, chapter ten, it is explicitly stated that Gog is from the sons of Japheth. Some Jews claimed that Magog is the name of the land where Gog lived, not the name of a tribe, but this is invalidated by the text. It is apparent that they are two foreign names, so they are diptote (non-declinable) due to being proper nouns and foreign. It is said they are Arabic, derived from ajja al-zalim (the ostrich moved quickly). Their root is the hamzah (glottal stop), as read by 'Asim, al-A'mash, and Ya'qub in one transmission, which is the dialect of Banu Asad. Their scale is maf'ul.

"Corruptors in the earth": That is, in our land, through killing, sabotage, and all other forms of corruption known from humans. It is said: by seizing provisions and consuming them. It is narrated that they would emerge in the spring and leave nothing green but that they ate it, and nothing dry but that they carried it off. Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abi Hatim extracted from Habib al-Awsafi that he said: "Their corruption was that they used to eat people." The fact that "corruptors" is attributed to Gog and Magog is used as evidence that the minimum plural is two, but this is absolutely baseless.

"Shall we pay you a tribute": That is, a payment from our wealth. The fa (so) is for deriving the offer from their corruption in the earth. Al-Hasan, al-A'mash, Talhah, Khalaf, Ibn Sa'dan, Ibn 'Isa al-Asbahani, Ibn Jubayr al-Antaki, Hamzah, and al-Kisa'i read it as kharajan with an alif after the ra'; both have the same meaning, like nawl and nawal. It is said kharj is the verbal noun, applied to kharaj, and kharaj is the noun for what is paid. Ibn al-A'rabi said: Kharj is per capita; it is said, "Pay the kharaj of your land." Tha'lab said: Kharj is more specific than kharaj. It is said that kharj is wealth paid once, and kharaj is repeated kharj. It is also said that kharj is what you volunteer, and kharaj is what is incumbent upon you to pay.

"On condition that you build a barrier between us and them": A partition preventing them from reaching us. Nafi', Ibn 'Amir, and Abu Bakr read it as suddan with a damma on the sin."