The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
Praise be to Allah Who hath revealed the Scripture unto His slave, and hath not placed therein any crookedness, 1 right, to warn of great violence from Him, and to give good tidings unto the believers, who do righteous deeds, that theirs shall be a goodly wage 2 They shall abide therein forever. 3 Furthermore, [this divine writ is meant] to warn all those who assert, "God has taken unto Himself a son." 4 They have no knowledge of this, nor did their forefathers have any either. What they say is monstrous: they are merely uttering falsehoods! 5 Haply thou art going to kill thyself over their footsteps, if they believe not in this discourse, out of sorrow. 6 We have adorned the earth with attractive things, so that We may test mankind as to which one is best in conduct, 7 but We shall reduce all this to barren waste. 8 [AND SINCE the life of this world is but a test, dost thou [really] think that [the parable of] the Men of the Cave and of [their devotion to] the scriptures could be deemed more wondrous than any [other] of Our messages? 9 When the youths sought refuge in the cave, they said: Our Lord! grant us mercy from Thee, and provide for us a right course in our affair. 10 We lulled them to sleep in that cave for a number of years 11 and thereafter We revived them to find out which of the two parties could best calculate the length of their stay. 12