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 an unerringly Straight Book, meant to warn of a stern punishment from Allah, and to proclaim, to those who believe and work righteous deeds, the tiding that theirs shall be a good reward 2 Wherein they shall remain for ever: 3 And to warn those who say, "God 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 Perhaps you will destroy yourself out of grief because they disbelieve this Book. 6 Behold, We have willed that all beauty on earth be a means by which We put men to a test, [showing] which of them are best in conduct; 7 And indeed We shall one day make all that is on it a barren plain. 8 Do you not think that the story of the Companions of the Cave and the Inscription was one of Our marvelous miracles? 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 Therefore We covered up their (sense of) hearing (causing them, to go in deep sleep) in the Cave for a number of years. 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