Al-Kahf • EN-KASHANI-TAFSIR
﴿ قَالَ أَرَءَيْتَ إِذْ أَوَيْنَآ إِلَى ٱلصَّخْرَةِ فَإِنِّى نَسِيتُ ٱلْحُوتَ وَمَآ أَنسَىٰنِيهُ إِلَّا ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ أَنْ أَذْكُرَهُۥ ۚ وَٱتَّخَذَ سَبِيلَهُۥ فِى ٱلْبَحْرِ عَجَبًۭا ﴾
“Said [the servant]: "Wouldst thou believe it? When we betook ourselves to that rock for a rest, behold, I forgot about the fish-and none but Satan made me thus forget it - and it took its way into the sea! How strange!"”
He said, 'Do you seeḍ, what is it that has left me nude [as a child], when we sheltered at the rock, at the chest to suckle; indeed I forgot the fish, when we had no need for it - and none but Satan made me forget to mention it, that is to say, it was Satan that made me forget to remember it, substituting an adhkurahu for the [suffixed] pronoun [hu in ansānī-hu]. Moses had been asleep when the fish made its way into the sea in the way related, while the lad-the-Soul had been awake, and so Satan-the-Estimation, the one who had adorned the tree for Adam [cf. Q. 2:35-6], made Moses forget to remember the soul-the-Fish, since the state was one of distraction (dhuhūl). The 'way' that caused amazement was the aforementioned burrowing [made by the fish].