We tell you this story for a genuine purpose. They were young people who believed in their Lord and We gave them further guidance. 13 And We made firm their hearts when they stood up and said, "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. Never will we invoke besides Him any deity. We would have certainly spoken, then, an excessive transgression. 14 These, our nation have taken to themselves gods, other than Allah. Why do they not bring some clear authority regarding them! Who does greater evil than he who forges a lie against Allah' 15 So, when you have gone apart from them and that they serve, excepting God, take refuge in the Cave, and your Lord will unfold to you of His mercy, and will furnish -- you with a gentle issue of your affair.' 16 ۞ And thou mightest have seen the sun, when it rose, inclining from their Cave towards the right, and, when it set, passing them by on the left, while they were in a broad fissure of the Cave. That was one of God's signs; whomsoever God guides, he is rightly guided, and whomsoever He leads astray, thou wilt not find for him a protector to direct. 17