The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
[All] praise is [due] to Allah, who has sent down upon His Servant the Book and has not made therein any deviance. 1 Straightforward, that it may warn of a severe violence from before Him, and bring glad tidings to the believers who work righteous works that theirs shall be a goodly hire. 2 and they will live for ever therein. 3 And that it may warn those who say: God hath taken a son. 4 they have no knowledge of it, they nor their fathers; a monstrous word it is, issuing out of their mouths; they say nothing but a lie. 5 Yet perchance, if they do not believe in this tiding, you will consume yourself with grief and follow after them. 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 but We shall reduce all this to barren waste. 8 Do you think that the people of the Cave and the Inscription were one of Our wondrous signs? 9 Recall what time the youths betook themselves to the cave, then said: our Lord! vouchsafe unto us mercy from before Thee, and prepare for us in our affair a right course. 10 We sealed their ears 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