The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
ALL PRAISE BE to God who has revealed to His votary the Book which is free of all obliquity, 1 A just Book, to warn of Allah’s severe punishment, and to give glad tidings to the believers who do good deeds, that for them is an excellent reward. 2 wherein they will remain [in a state of bliss] forever. 3 And that it may warn those who say: God hath taken 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 (O Muhammad), if they do not believe in this Message, you will perhaps torment yourself to death with grief, sorrowing over them. 6 We have indeed placed all that is on the earth as its adornment in order that We may test them, who among them has the best deeds. 7 We will surely reduce all that is on it to barren dust. 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 those young men took shelter in the cave, and prayed: "O Lord, grant us Your favour and dispose our affair aright," 10 We lulled them to sleep in that cave for a number of years 11 Afterwards. We raised them up again, that We might know which of the two parties would better calculate the while they had tarried. 12