The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
(All) praise is due to Allah, Who revealed the Book to His servant and did not make in it any crookedness. 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 Wherein they shall remain for ever: 3 And warn those who say: Allah has taken a son. 4 They have no knowledge of this, as their fathers did not have. How terrible are the words they utter! They speak nothing but lies. 5 Yet perchance, if they believe not in this tiding, thou wilt consume thyself, following after them, of grief. 6 Verily We have made whatsoever is on the earth as an adornment thereof, that We may prove them - which of them is best in work. 7 In the ultimate, We shall reduce all that is on the earth to a barren plain. 8 Do you think that the people of the Cave and the Inscription (the news or the names of the people of the Cave) were a wonder among Our Signs? 9 When the youths took refuge in the Cave saying, 'Our lord, give us mercy from Thee, and furnish us with rectitude in our affair.' 10 We then thumped upon their ears in the Cave for a number of years. (* Put them to sleep.) 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