The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
All praise unto Allah who hath sent down unto His bondman the Book, and hath not placed therein 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 In which they will remain forever 3 And that it may warn those who say: God hath taken a son. 4 Neither they nor their fathers had any knowledge of such utterance (that God has begotten a son). Whatever they say about (this matter) is vicious blasphemy and plain lies. 5 Then perhaps you would kill yourself through grief over them, [O Muhammad], if they do not believe in this message, [and] out of sorrow. 6 We have appointed all that is on the earth an adornment for it, in order that We try which of them is finest in works. 7 For We shall certainly turn 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 the young men took refuge in the Cave – then said, “Our Lord! Give us mercy from Yourself, and arrange guidance for us in our affair.” 10 So We prevented them from hearing in the cave for a number of years. 11 Then We roused them, in order to test which of the two parties was best at calculating the term of years they had tarried! 12