The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, 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 Immutable, so that it may warn of a severe punishment from Him; and give happy tidings to those who believe and do the right that there is a better reward (of Paradise) for them, 2 wherein they will remain [in a state of bliss] forever. 3 and also to warn those who say: "Allah has taken to Himself a son," 4 They have no knowledge of this, nor did their forefathers have any either. What they say is monstrous: they are merely uttering falsehoods! 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 We have indeed placed all that is on the earth as its adornment in order that We may test them, who among them has the best deeds. 7 Verily what is on earth we shall make but as dust and dry soil (without growth or herbage). 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 fled for refuge to the Cave and said: Our Lord! Give us mercy from Thy presence, and shape for us right conduct in our plight. 10 Then We smote their ears many years in the Cave. 11 And afterward We raised them up that We might know which of the two parties would best calculate the time that they had tarried. 12