The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
ALL PRAISE BE to God who has revealed to His votary the Book which is free of all obliquity, 1 [a divine writ] unerringly straight, meant to warn [the godless] of a severe punishment from Him, and to give unto the believers who do good works the glad tiding that theirs shall be a goodly reward 2 [a state of bliss] in which they shall dwell beyond the count of time. 3 And to warn those who say: Allah hath chosen 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 Thou wouldst only, perchance, fret thyself to death, following after them, in grief, if they believe not in this Message. 6 We have appointed all that is on the earth for an adornment for it, and that We may try which of them is fairest in works; 7 And verily! We shall make all that is on it (the earth) a bare dry soil (without any vegetation or trees, etc.). 8 Did you know that the People of the Cave and People close to the Woods, were Our exceptional signs? 9 When those youths took refuge in the cave, they prayed: "O our Sustainer! Bestow on us grace from Thyself, and endow us, whatever our [outward] condition, with consciousness of what is right!" 10 Wherefore We put a covering over their ears in the cave for a number of years. 11 Then We woke them up again so that We might see which of the two groups would better calculate the time they had stayed there. 12