The Cave (Al-Kahf)
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially 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 and they will live for ever therein. 3 And that it may warn those who say: "God has begotten 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 Haply thou art going to kill thyself over their footsteps, if they believe not in this discourse, out of sorrow. 6 We have caused earthly things to seem attractive so that We can see who will excel in good deeds. 7 Let it be known that We will turn all things on earth into 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 those youths took refuge in the cave, they prayed: "O our Sustainer! Bestow on us grace from Thyself, and endow us, whatever our [outward] condition, with consciousness of what is right!" 10 We then thumped upon their ears in the Cave for a number of years. (* Put them to sleep.) 11 Then We awakened them that We might show which of the two factions was most precise in calculating what [extent] they had remained in time. 12