The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Praise be to God who has sent down to His servant -- the Book, which is free from any ambiguity 1 and which rightly directs, to give warning of stern punishment from Him, and to proclaim to the believers who do righteous deeds that they shall have an excellent recompense, 2 They will abide therein for ever. 3 And to warn those who say: Allah hath chosen a son, 4 a thing about which they have no knowledge, neither they nor their ancestors. Dreadful is the word that comes out of their mouths. What they utter is merely a lie. 5 Yet it may be, if they believe not in this statement, that thou (Muhammad) wilt torment thy soul with grief over their footsteps. 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 And indeed, We will make that which is upon it [into] a barren ground. 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 Recall what time the youths betook themselves to the cave, then said: our Lord! vouchsafe unto us mercy from before Thee, and prepare for us in our affair a right course. 10 Then We smote their ears many years in the Cave. 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