Sleepers of the Cave References
Sleepers as described in Christian
literature: They were few youths. When the Emperor Decius heard of their change
of faith, he summoned them and questioned them about their new religion. In spite of knowing that the Emperor was
deadly against the followers of the Christ, they frankly admitted before him
that their Lord is the Lord of the earth of and heavens, and that they
recognized none else as Deity for if they did so, they would be committing a
grave sin. The Emperor became furious to
hear this, and warned that he would have them killed, but then considering
their tender age, he granted them three days in which they were counseled to
revert to their old faith, otherwise they would be put to death. The seven youths took advantage of the
situation and fled the city to conceal themselves in a cave in the
mountains. On the way a dog also
followed them: they did their best to scare it away, but it would not leave
them. At last they found a cave as a
suitable refuge and hid in it, and the dog sat at the entrance. Being tired they soon fell into a deep
slumber. This happened in about 250
A.D.
Controversy about Reality of the
Life-After-Death:
At this
time a fierce controversy was going on among the Romans regarding the reality
of the life-after-death and Resurrection, and the Emperor himself was anxious
to eradicate somehow the disbelief in the life-after-death from the minds of
his people. So much so that one day he
prayed that God in His mercy may show a sign which may help restore and correct
the people’s belief. In precisely
the same days these Sleepers awoke in the Cave.
Sleepers wake up:
After about
197 years, in 447 A.D., during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II, they awoke
suddenly when the whole
Sleepers send a companion to buy
food:
Then they
sent Jean, a companion, to the city with a few silver coins to buy food, and
warned him to be on his guard let the people should recognize him, for they
feared that if they were discovered the Ephesians would force them to bow
before Diana. But when Jean came to the
city he was astonished to see the world had changed: the whole population had
embraced Christianity, and there was no body in the city to worship Diana. He came to a shop and wanted to buy a few
loaves of bread. When he paid in a coin
bearing the image of Emperor Decius, the shopkeeper could not believe his eyes
and asked the stranger wherefrom he had obtained that coin. When the young man said that it was his own,
a dispute began between them and soon a crowd gathered around them, and the
matter reached the chief officer of the city.
The officer himself was puzzled and wanted to know the whereabouts of
the treasure-house from where the young man had taken the coin, but the latter
insisted that it belonged to him. The
officer did not believe him because he thought that a young man like him could
not possibly possess a centuries-old coin which had not even been seen by the
elders of the city.
Emperor Visits Sleepers in the Cave:
When Jean
came to know that the Emperor Decius had died, he was pleasantly
surprised. He told the crowd that he and
his other companions had fled the city only the other day and taken refuge in a
cave to escape Decius’ persecution.
The officer was greatly surprised and followed the young man to see the
cave where his companions lay in hiding.
And a great crowd followed behind them.
When they came to the cave, it was fully established that the youths
really belonged to the Emperor Decius’ period. Consequently, Emperor Theodosius was informed
and he also visited the cave to receive grace.
Then the seven youths went back into the cave and lay down and breathed
their last. Seeing this clear sign the
people’s belief in the life-after-death was restored, and a monument was
ordered to be built over the cave by the Emperor.
The story
of the Sleepers of the cave as narrated above, corresponds so closely that
mentioned in the Quran that the seven youths can easily be regarded as “Ashab-i-Kahf” (the Companions of
the Cave). The Quran means to impress
and warn the Arabs by relating stories concerning the various tribes who had
transgressed from the right path and with whom they were familiar, where they
lived and flourished inside
God exposed
the skeptical attitude of the disbelievers towards the "Sleepers of the
Cave". Some people thought that God
does not have the power to keep a few persons in a state of sleep for a couple
of hundred years and then raise them as hale and hearty as they were at the
time of going to sleep. God has created
the heaven and earth. If people had ever
pondered over the wonderful creation of the sun, moon, and the earth, they
would never have expressed any doubt that such a thing was any difficult for
Allah.
Quranic Description:
When they
believed sincerely, Allah increased their faith in the guidance and enabled
them to become firm and steadfast on the way of the Truth even at the risk of
their lives rather than surrender before falsehood. God strengthened their hearts, when they rose
and declared that their Lord is the One Who is the Lord of the heavens and the
earth. They would not invoke any other
deity than Him. That will be the most
improper thing if they did that way. They had mutual consultations and said
that those people had given up the Lord of the universe and adopted other
deities. The Sleepers of the Cave
questioned why did those people did not bring forward any clear argument in
support of their creed. Those people
were much wicked than the one who forges a lie against Allah.
Sleepers leave the city:
The
Sleepers of the Cave left those people and discarded those deities people
worshiped besides Allah, they decided to go to a cave for refuge. They left the city and went to a secret cave
in the mountains to escape either from death or forced apostasy.
If any one
had looked at them in the Cave, it would have appeared to him that when the sun
rose, it left the Cave to one side and inclined towards the right, and when it
set, it turned away from them and went to the left while they laid in the
spacious place inside the Cave. The
mouth of the Cave faced the north. That
was why the light of then sun could not enter inside the Cave and the One who
passed by it could not see who was inside that Cave.
If someone
could have peeped at those persons from outside and seen them turning from one
side to the other at intervals, he could have thought that they were not asleep
but were relaxing themselves. Allah had
so arranged their refuge that one dared go inside the Cave and know about them
for it was pitch dark in the cave and the dog was keeping watch at the
entrance. If someone ever peeped into
the cave and saw the Sleepers, he took them for some robbers and once turned on
his heels. This was the reasons why
their refuge remained a secret to the outer world for such a long time.
Sleepers are aroused from their
sleep:
They were
aroused from their sleep in the same miraculous way that was employed in
sending them to sleep and keeping them hidden from the outer world. They asked one another about their wonderful
experience. One of them asked how long
have they remained in that condition.
The others answered that they might have remained for a day or a part of
a day. Then they declared that their
Lord knows best how long have they remained in that condition.
Secret of their sleep revealed:
The secret
of their sleep was revealed when one of them went to
Sleepers disclose their identity:
On
questioning, it was discovered that he was one of those followers of the
Christ, who had fled the city 200 years ago to save his faith. As most of the population had embraced
Christianity, the news immediately spread throughout the city and a big crowd
of the people along with the Christian Roman Ruler, arrived at the Cave. It was then the Sleepers of the Cave came to
know that they had slept for about two hundred years. So after making salutations to their
Christian brothers they lay down and their sole left their bodies.
Issues about Resurrection and the
Hereafter:
According
to the Syriac tradition, at the time of this occurrence, hot discussions were
going on in
It was at
that time the Sleepers of the Cave were raised up and furnished an absolute
proof of the life-after-death and turned the scales in favor of the believers
in this dispute. Some of the righteous
people from among the Christians opined that a wall should be raised at the
entrance of the Cave in order to let the Sleepers remain in the same condition
in which they were, for they argued that their Lord alone knew best about their
rank and position and the reward they deserved.
The Roman rulers and priests of the Christian Church prevailed and
decided to build a place of worship as a memorial for them. This was because by the middle of the fifth
century, the common people, especially the orthodox among the Christians, had
become fully involved in shirk and
the worship of saints and tombs. They
used to visit the tombs of the saints and to worship them and kept the statues
of Jesus, Mary and the apostles in their churches. In fact these were the people who were the
upholder of shirk and who decided
that a mausoleum should be built over the Cave of the Sleepers to make it a
place of worship.
It is an
irony that some people among the Muslims have misconstrued Quran so as to make
it lawful for themselves to build mausoleums, monuments and mosques over the
tombs of the righteous persons and saints.
The Quran has, in fact, pointed out the deviation of the workers of
iniquity who prevailed upon others and built a place of worship over the Cave
of the Sleepers, who were indeed a Sign of Resurrection and of the
life-after-death. But they abused this
good opportunity and produced another means of practicing shirk.
About three
hundred years after this event, at the time of the revelation of the Quran,
different stories had become current among the Christians about the Sleepers of
the Cave, but generally these stories had no authentic source behind them. This was because that was not the age of the
press in which authentic books might have been published. Therefore naturally the stories of the events
were carried from place to place by means of oral traditions, and with the
passage of time many tales of fiction got mixed up with the real story.
The real
thing in this story is not the number of the Sleepers but the lesson it
teaches: (1) A true believer should not on any account turn away from the truth
and bow before falsehood. (2) A believer should not merely rely on the material
means but on Allah. He should trust in
God and follow the right way, even though the outward adverse circumstances
might appear to be unfavorable. (3) It
is wrong to suppose that Allah is bound by any so-called “Law of
Nature”, for He is able to do any thing He wills even though that might
seem to be against some common experience.
He has the power to change any so-called law of nature, whenever and
wherever He wills and bring about any extraordinary “supernatural”
thing. He can raise up anyone who might
have been asleep for two hundred years, as if he had slept only for a few
hours, without letting any change take place in his appearance, dress, health,
indeed in anything during the passage of time.
(4) This teaches us that Allah has the power to bring to life all the
generations – past, present and future – all together as asserted
by the Prophets and Divine Scriptures.
(5) It teaches us that ignorant people have always been perverting the
Signs of Allah which are sent for the right guidance of the people. That is how the miracle of the Sleepers of
the Cave, which had been shown as a proof of the Hereafter, had been turned
into a means of shirk, as if they
were some saints who had been sent only for this purpose.
Lesson to be learnt:
It is
obvious from the above-mentioned real lessons, which one can learn from the
story of the Sleepers, that a wise man will pay his attention to these things
and not divert it in search of their number, their name, the color of their dog
and the like. Only those people, who
have no interest for the reality but for superficial things, will spend their
time and energy in making investigations about such things. That is why Allah instructed the Prophet that
he should not enter into useless and irrelevant discussions about such things,
if other people try to involve him in them.
Instead of wasting time in such useless things, he should concentrate
his attention only on his mission. This
is why Allah has not Himself told their exact number lest it should encourage
such people as are always hankering after useless things. The correct number of the Sleepers of the
Cave is known only to Allah and a research into it is a useless work. Therefore one should refrain from
investigating into unimportant things, nor enter into discussions about
them. God has informed his Prophet never
to make a positive assertion like he will do that thing next day, for he does not know whether
he would be able to do that thing or not: he has neither the knowledge of the
unknown nor has full powers to do what he liked. If ever inadvertently he utters anything like
that, he should at once remember his Lord and say, “Insha Allah.” Beside
this he does not know whether there will be any good for him in the thing about
which he says he would do that. It was
possible that he might do another thing better than that. Therefore he should trust in God and say he
hopes that his Lord will guide him in
this matter with that thing which is nearer to the right way for him. God informed Prophet Muhammad that some
people will say that they were three and the fourth was their dog and some will
say that they remained in the Cave for three hundred years and some others
would add nine more years (to the reckoning of the period. God asked Prophet Muhammad to tell those
people that Allah knows best about the period of their stay there, for He is
fully aware of all that is hidden in the heavens and the earth.
Gregory of
Maududi, S.
Abul A'la, The Meaning of the Quran, Islamic Publications Ltd,
Do you consider “the Sleepers
of the Cave”,EN18:6 and the bearers of
the “Inscription”EN18:7 to be among Our strange Signs?EN18:8 18:9
EN18:6 The Arabic word kahf literally
means a vast cave.
EN18:7 Ar-raqim means “the
Inscription” that had been set up at the Cave as a memorial to the
“Sleepers of the Cave”
EN18:8 The question has been posed to expose the skeptical attitude of the
disbelievers towards the “Sleepers
of the Cave”, as if to say, “Do you think that Allah, Who has
created the heavens and the earth, does not have the power to keep a few
persons in a state of sleep for a couple of hundred years and then to raise
them as hale and hearty as they were at the time of going to sleep? If you ever had pondered over the wonderful
creation of the sun and the moon and the earth, you would never have expressed
any doubt that such a thing was anything difficult for Allah.”
When those few young men took refuge
in the Cave, they said “Our Lord! have a special mercy on us from Thyself
and guide us out of your ordeal aright.”
18:10
Accordingly We lulled them to a deep
sleep in the Cave for a number of years. 18:11
Then we raised them up in order to
test which of them were able to calculate correctly the period of their stay
there. 18:12
Now We tell you their real story.EN18-9
EN18:9 When during the reign of the Emperor Decius the followers of Prophet
Jesus were being mercilessly persecuted, the Seven Christian youths hid
themselves in a cave and fell into a sleep.
Then in A.D.445 or 446, they awoke when the whole of the Roman Empires
had become Christian. Thus they slept in
the cave for nearly 196 years.
The city of
After
Prophet Jesus when his message started reaching different parts of the
“They
were seven youths. When the Emperor
Decius heard of their change of faith, he summoned them and questioned them
about their new religion. In spite of
knowing that the Emperor was deadly against the followers of the Christ, they
frankly admitted before him that their Lord is the Lord of the earth of and
heavens, and that they recognized none else as Deity for if they did so, they
would be committing a grave sin. The
Emperor became furious to hear this, and warned that he would have them killed,
but then considering their tender age, he granted them three days in which they
were counseled to revert to their old faith, otherwise they would be put to
death.”
“The
seven youths took advantage of the situation and fled the city to conceal
themselves in a cave in the mountains.
On the way a dog also followed them: they did their best to scare it
away, but it would not leave them. At
last they found a cave as a suitable refuge and hid in it, and the dog sat at
the entrance. Being tired they soon fell
into a deep slumber. This happened in
about 250 A.D. After about 197 years, in
447 A.D., during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II, they awoke suddenly when
the whole
“At
this time a fierce controversy was going on among the Romans regarding the
reality of the life-after-death and Resurrection, and the Emperor himself was
anxious to eradicate somehow the disbelief in the life-after-death from the
minds of his people. So much so that one
day he prayed that God in His mercy may show a sign which may help restore and
correct the people’s belief. In
precisely the same days the Seven Sleepers awoke in the Cave.”
“After
waking up the youths started asking one another about how long they might have
slept. Some said it might have been a
day: others said it was a part of a say.
When they reached no conclusion, they stopped arguing, leaving the
knowledge of the exact period to god.
Then they sent Jean, a companion, to the city with a few silver coins to
buy food, and warned him to be on his guard let the people should recognize
him, for they feared that if they were discovered the Ephesians would force
them to bow before Diana. But when Jean
came to the city he was astonished to see the world had changed: the whole
population had embraced Christianity, and there was no body in the city to
worship Diana. He came to a shop and
wanted to buy a few loaves of bread.
When he paid in a coin bearing the image of Emperor Decius, the
shopkeeper could not believe his eyes and asked the stranger wherefrom he had
obtained that coin. When the young man
said that it was his own, a dispute began between them and soon a crowd
gathered around them, and the matter reached the chief officer of the
city. The officer himself was puzzled
and wanted to know the whereabouts of the treasure-house from where the young
man had taken the coin, but the latter insisted that it belonged to him. The officer did not believe him because he
thought that a young man like him could not possibly possess a centuries-old
coin which had not even been seen by the elders of the city. When Jean came to know that the Emperor
Decius had died, he was pleasantly surprised.
He told the crowd that he and his six companions had fled the city only
the other day and taken refuge in a cave to escape Decius’
persecution. The officer was greatly
surprised and followed the young man to see the cave where his companions lay
in hiding. And a great crowd followed
behind them. When they came to the cave,
it was fully established that the youths really belonged to the Emperor
Decius’ period. Consequently,
Emperor Theodosius was informed and he also visited the cave to receive
grace. Then the seven youths went back
into the cave and lay down and breathed their last. Seeing this clear sign the people’s
belief in the life-after-death was restored, and a monument was ordered to be
built over the cave by the Emperor.”
The story
of the Sleepers of the cave as narrated above, corresponds so closely that
mentioned in the Quran that the seven youths can easily be regarded as “Ashab-i-Kahf” (the Companions of
the Cave). The Quran means to impress
and warn the Arabs by relating stories concerning the various tribes who had
transgressed from the right path and with whom they were familiar, where they
lived and flourished inside
They were a few young men who
believed in their Lord, and We increased them in their guidance.EN18:10 18:13
EN18:10 That is, when they believed sincerely, Allah increased their faith in
the guidance and enabled them to become firm and steadfast on the way of the
Truth even at the risk of their lives rather than surrender before falsehood.
We strengthened their hearts, when
they rose, and they declared, “Our Lord is the One Who is the Lord of the
heavens and the earth. We will not
invoke any other deity than Him. It will
be the most improper thing if we do so”. 18:14
(Then they held mutual
consultations, saying,) “These people of ours have given up the Lord of
the universe and adopted other deities.
Why do they not bring forward any clear argument in support of their
creed? Well, who can be more wicked than
the one who forges a lie against Allah? 18:15
Now that you have forsaken them and
discarded the deities they worship besides Allah, let us go to such and such
and such a cave for refuge.EN18:11
EN18:11 When these God-worshipping youths fled the habitations to take refuge
in the hills, the city of
Your Lord will extend to you His
mercy, and order your affairs for you the best.” 18:16
If you had looked at them in the
Cave,EN18:12 it would have
appeared to you that when the sun rose, it left the Cave to one side and
inclined towards the right, and when it set, it turned away from them and went
to the left while they lay in the spacious place inside the Cave.EN18:13 This
was one of the Signs of Allah.
Whomsoever Allah guides aright, he is guided aright, and whomsoever
Allah lets go astray, you will find no guardian to direct him. 18:17
EN18:12 It has not been mentioned that in
accordance with this mutual resolve, they left the city and went to a secret
Cave in the mountains in order to escape from death or forced apostasy.
EN18:13 This is to show that the mouth of
the Cave faced the north. That is why
the light of the sun could not enter inside the Cave and the one who passed by
it could not see who was inside it.
If you had seen them, it would have
appeared to you as if they were awake in fact they were asleep. We turned them about to the right and the
left sides.EN18:14 And their dog was
sitting at the entrance of the Cave with out-stretched forelegs. If you had looked at them, you would have
turned on your heels and their sight would have struck you with terror.EN18:15 18:18
EN18:14 That is, “If someone could
have peeped at the Seven Persons from outside and seen them turning from one
side to the other at intervals, he could have thought that they were not asleep
but were relaxing themselves.”
EN18:15 Allah has so arranged their refuge that none dared go inside the Cave
and know about them for it was pitch dark in the Cave and the dog was keeping
watch at the entrance. If someone ever peeped into the Cave and saw the Sleepers,
he took them for some robbers and at once turned on his heels. This was the reason why their refuge remained
a secret to the outer world for such a long period.
And in
the same miraculous way We raised them up againEN18:16 so that they may ask one another
(about their wonderful experience). One
of them asked, "Well, how long have you remained in this
condition?" The others answered, "May-be,
we have remained so far a day or a part of a day." Then they declared, "Your Lord knows
best how long we have remained in this condition. So let us send one of us with this silver
coin to the city, and he should look for a place where he can get the best food
so that he may bring something to eat.
He should, however, conduct himself with caution lest anyone should
discover our whereabouts; 18:19
EN18:16 They were aroused from their sleep in the same miraculous way that was
employed in sending them to sleep and keeping them hidden from the outer world.
For if
they succeed in over-powering us, they will surely stone us to death or force
us back into their Faith, and in that case we will never be able to obtain true
success." 18:20
In this
way We revealed their secret to the people of the cityEN18:17 so that they should know that
Allah's promise is true and that there is no doubt about the (coming of) the
Hour of Resurrection.EN18:18 (But it
is a pity that instead of considering this aspect of the matter) they were at
that time disputing among themselves with regard to them (the Sleepers of the
Cave). Some of them said, "Let us
build a wall against them, for their Lord alone knows best about them".EN18:19 But those people who prevailed in their
matter,EN18:20 said, "We will
build a place of worship as a memorial for them".EN18:21 18:21
EN18:17 The secret of their sleep was revealed when one of them went to
EN:18-18 According to the Syriac tradition, at the time of this occurrence, hot
discussions were going on in
EN18:19 It appears from the context that this was the saying of the righteous
people from among the Christians. They
were of the opinion that a wall should be raised at the entrance of the Cave in
order to let the Sleepers remain in the same condition in which they were, for
they argued that their Lord alone knew best about their rank and position and
the reward they deserved.
EN18:20 The people “who prevailed in this matter” were the Roman
rulers and priests of the Christian Church, who did not let the righteous
Christians have their way. This was
because by the middle of the fifth century, the common people, especially the
orthodox among the Christians, had become fully involved in shirk and the worship of saints and
tombs. They used to visit the tombs of
the saints and to worship them and kept the statues of Jesus, Mary and the
apostles in their churches. In fact
these were the people who were the upholder of shirk and who decided that a mausoleum should be built over the
Cave of the Sleepers to make it a place of worship.
EN18:21 It is an irony that some people
among the Muslims have misconstrued this verse of the Quran so as to make it
lawful for themselves to build mausoleums, monuments and mosques over the tombs
of the righteous persons and saints. The
Quran has, in fact, pointed out the deviation of the workers of iniquity who
prevailed upon others and built a place of worship over the Cave of the
Sleepers, who were indeed a Sign of Resurrection and of the
life-after-death. But they abused this
good opportunity and produced another means of practicing shirk.
Some people will say, “They
were three and the fourth was their dog”, and some others will say,
“They were five and the sixth was their dog.” These are mere irrelevant guesses. There are still others who say, “They
were seven and the eighth was their dog.”EN18:22 Say,
“My Lord alone knows best how many they were.” There are a few people only who know their
correct number: so you should not enter into discussions with them about their
number except in a cursory way: nor ask anyone about themEN18:23 18:22
EN18:22 This shows that about three hundred years after this event, at the time
of the revelation of the Quran, different stories had become current among the
Christians about the Sleepers of the Cave, but generally these stories has no
authentic source behind them. This was
because that was not the age of the press in which authentic books might have
been published. Therefore naturally the
stories of the events were carried from place to place by means of oral
traditions, and with the passage of time many tales of fiction got mixed up
with the real story.
And never say about any matter,
“I will do this tomorrow (for you cannot do anything), 18-23
EN18:23 This is meant to impress that the real thing in this story is not the
number of the Sleepers but the lesson it teaches: 91) A true believer should
not on any account turn away from the truth and bow before falsehood. (2) A
believer should not merely rely on the material means but on Allah. He should trust in God and follow the right
way, even though the outward adverse circumstances might appear to be
unfavorable. (3) It is wrong to suppose
that Allah is bound by any so-called “Law of Nature”, for He is
able to do any thing He wills even though that might seem to be against some
common experience. He has the power to change
any so-called law of nature, whenever and wherever He wills and bring about any
extraordinary “supernatural” thing.
So much so that He can raise up anyone who might have been asleep for
two hundred years, as if he had slept only for a few hours, without letting any
change take place in his appearance, dress, health, indeed in anything during
the passage of time. (4) This teaches us
that Allah has the power to bring to life all the generations – past,
present and future – all together as asserted by the Prophets and Divine
Scriptures. (5) It teaches us that
ignorant people have always been perverting the Signs of Allah which are sent
for the right guidance of the people.
That is how the miracle of the Sleepers of the Cave, which had been
shown as a proof of the Hereafter, had been turned into a means of shirk, as if they were some saints who
had been sent only for this purpose.
It is
obvious from the above-mentioned real lessons, which one can learn from the
story of the Sleepers, that a wise man will pay his attention to these things
and not divert it in search of their number, their name, the color of their dog
and the like. Only those people, who
have no interest for the reality but for superficial things, will spend their
time and energy in making investigations about such things. That is why Allah instructed the Prophet:
“You should not enter into useless and irrelevant discussions about such
things, if other people try to involve you in them. Instead of wasting time in such useless
things, you should concentrate your attention only on your mission.” This is why Allah has not Himself told their
exact number lest it should encourage such people as are always hankering after
useless things.
Except that Allah wills
it.” If ever you inadvertently
utter anything like this, you should at once remember your Lord, and say,
“I hope that my Lord will guide meEN18:24 in
this matter with that thing which is nearest to the right way for me” 18:24
EN18:24 This is a parenthetical clause which has been inserted here because of
its relevancy to the preceding verse, in which it was asserted that the correct
number of the Sleepers of the Cave is known only to Allah and a research into
it is a useless work. Therefore one
should refrain from investigating into unimportant things, nor enter into
discussions about them. This had led to the
instruction contained in the parenthetical clause for the benefit of the Holy
Prophet and the Believers who have been told never to make a positive assertion
like this: “I will do this thing tomorrow”, for you do not know
whether you will be able to do that thing or not: you have neither the
knowledge of the unknown nor have full powers to do what you like. If ever inadvertently you utter anything like
this, you should at once remember your Lord and say, “Insha Allah.” Beside this you do not know whether there
will be any good for you in the thing about which you say, “I will do
this.” It is possible that you may
do another thing better than that.
Therefore you should trust in God and say, “I hope that my Lord
will guide me in this matter with that thing which is nearer to the right way
for me.”
And some people say that they
remained in their Cave for three hundred years and some others add nine more
yearsEN18:25 (to the reckoning of
the period). 18:25
EN18:25 This sentence is connected with the theme preceding the parenthetical
clause like this: “Some people will say, “They were three and the
fourth was their dog…” and some will say that they remained in the
Cave for three hundred years and some others would add nine more years (to the
reckoning of the period)”. The
number of the years “300 and 309” have not been stated by Allah
Himself but Allah has cited these as sayings of the people.
O Prophet, say, “Allah knows
best about the period of their stay there, for He is fully aware of all that is
hidden in the heavens and the earth.” What an excellent Seer and Hearer
He is! There is no other guardian in the
creation in the heavens and the earth, and He does not associate anyone with
Himself in His authority. 18:26