The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
ALL PRAISE is due to God, who has bestowed this divine writ from on high upon His servant, and has not allowed any deviousness to obscure its meaning: 1 and which rightly directs, to give warning of stern punishment from Him, and to proclaim to the believers who do righteous deeds that they shall have an excellent recompense, 2 In which they will abide forever. 3 And that it may warn those who say: God hath taken a son. 4 They have no knowledge of it, nor had their fathers; a grievous word it is that comes out of their mouths; they speak nothing but a lie. 5 Yet perchance, if they believe not in this tiding, thou wilt consume thyself, following after them, of grief. 6 Indeed, We have made that which is on the earth adornment for it that We may test them [as to] which of them is best in deed. 7 In the ultimate, We shall reduce all that is on the earth to a barren plain. 8 Do you think the men of the cave and Ar-Raqim were so strange among Our signs? 9 When the young men took refuge in the Cave – then said, “Our Lord! Give us mercy from Yourself, and arrange guidance for us in our affair.” 10 Therefore We covered up their (sense of) hearing (causing them, to go in deep sleep) in the Cave for a number of years. 11 and then We awakened them: [and We did all this] so that We might mark out [to the world] which of the two points of view showed a better comprehension of the time-span during which they had remained in this state. 12