The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
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 [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 Furthermore, [this divine writ is meant] to warn all those who assert, "God has taken unto Himself a son." 4 (A thing) whereof they have no knowledge, nor (had) their fathers, Dreadful is the word that cometh out of their mouths. They speak naught but a lie. 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 but We shall reduce all this to barren waste. 8 Do you not think that the story of the Companions of the Cave and the Inscription was one of Our marvelous miracles? 9 Behold, the youths betook themselves to the Cave: they said, "Our Lord! bestow on us Mercy from Thyself, and dispose of our affair for us in the right way!" 10 We then thumped upon their ears in the Cave for a number of years. (* Put them to sleep.) 11 Thereafter We raised them up that We might know which of the two parties was best at reckoning the time that they had tarried. 12