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 braced their hearts when they stood forth and said: our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth; never we shall call upon a god beside him; for then we shall be saying an abomination. 14 These people of ours have taken to worshipping [other] deities instead of Him, without being able to adduce any reasonable evidence in support of their beliefs; and who could be more wicked than he who invents a lie about God? 15 (And they said to each other:) "Now that you have withdrawn from them and what they worship beside God, it is better to take refuge in the cave. Your Lord may bestow of His mercy on you, and facilitate 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