• From the sleep for centuries together caused to fall upon the Companions of the Cave which period they felt to be a day or a part of a day was proved how the dead would pass the time unfelt for its length and how they will be raised on the Resurrection

Al-Kahf Verses 18 – 22

وَتَحْسَبُهُمْ أَيْقَاظًا وَهُمْ رُقُودٌ وَنُقَلِّبُهُمْ ذَاتَ الْيَمِينِ وَذَاتَ الشِّمَالِ وَكَلْبُهُمْ بَاسِطٌ ذِرَاعَيْهِ بِالْوَصِيدِ لَوِ اطَّلَعْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ لَوَلَّيْتَ مِنْهُمْ فِرَارًا وَلَمُلِئْتَ مِنْهُمْ رُعْبًا

And thou wouldst have deemed them awake while they were asleep; and We turned them unto the right and unto the left; and their dog lay stretching his paws at the entrance, Hadst thou1looked at them, surely thou wouldst have turned away from them in flight, and surely thou wouldst have been filled with awe of them. (18:18)

وَكَذَٰلِكَ بَعَثْنَاهُمْ لِيَتَسَاءَلُوا بَيْنَهُمْ قَالَ قَائِلٌ مِنْهُمْ كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ قَالُوا لَبِثْنَا يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ قَالُوا رَبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا لَبِثْتُمْ فَابْعَثُوا أَحَدَكُمْ بِوَرِقِكُمْ هَٰذِهِ إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ فَلْيَنْظُرْ أَيُّهَا أَزْكَىٰ طَعَامًا فَلْيَأْتِكُمْ بِرِزْقٍ مِنْهُ وَلْيَتَلَطَّفْ وَلَا يُشْعِرَنَّ بِكُمْ أَحَدًا

And thus did We raise them that they might question among themselves. Said one among them: “How long have ye tarried (here);” Said they: “Tarried we a day or a part of a day.” Said (the others): “Your Lord (alone) knoweth best how long ye have tarried (here); Therefore send ye then one among you with this (silver) coin of yours to the city, let him see (find out) which of them hath the purest2(most whole some) food, so let him bring unto you provision from it, and let him behave gently, and maketh3not you known unto any one.” (18:19)4

إِنَّهُمْ إِنْ يَظْهَرُوا عَلَيْكُمْ يَرْجُمُوكُمْ أَوْ يُعِيدُوكُمْ فِي مِلَّتِهِمْ وَلَنْ تُفْلِحُوا إِذًا أَبَدًا

“For verily if they come to know of you, will stone you, or force you to return into their creed, and then5never will ye succeed.”6(18:20)

وَكَذَٰلِكَ أَعْثَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ لِيَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ وَأَنَّ السَّاعَةَ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهَا إِذْ يَتَنَازَعُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ أَمْرَهُمْ فَقَالُوا ابْنُوا عَلَيْهِمْ بُنْيَانًا رَبُّهُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِهِمْ قَالَ الَّذِينَ غَلَبُوا عَلَىٰ أَمْرِهِمْ لَنَتَّخِذَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ مَسْجِدًا

And thus We did disclose the matter unto them (the people) that they7might know that God’s promise8is true, and that (about) the Hour (of Judgment) there is no doubt in it. When they9disputed among themselves about the affair then said they: “Build a building (monument) over them (their cave); Their Lord knoweth them best” Those (the believers) who prevailed in their affair said: “Certainly we will have over them a Mosque.” (18:21)

سَيَقُولُونَ ثَلَاثَةٌ رَابِعُهُمْ كَلْبُهُمْ وَيَقُولُونَ خَمْسَةٌ سَادِسُهُمْ كَلْبُهُمْ رَجْمًا بِالْغَيْبِ وَيَقُولُونَ سَبْعَةٌ وَثَامِنُهُمْ كَلْبُهُمْ قُلْ رَبِّي أَعْلَمُ بِعِدَّتِهِمْ مَا يَعْلَمُهُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ فَلَا تُمَارِ فِيهِمْ إِلَّا مِرَاءً ظَاهِرًا وَلَا تَسْتَفْتِ فِيهِمْ مِنْهُمْ أَحَدًا

(They will) say: “(they were) Three, the fourth of them was their dog;” and say (some others): “Five, the sixth of them was their dog,” guessing about the unknown; and (yet the others) say: “seven, and the eighth of them was their dog;” Say thou (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!): “My Lord knoweth best their number, knoweth them not but a few;” Therefore contend not about them but a plain contention, and ask thou not any one about them. (18:22)

Commentary

Verse 18

Some commentators think that their eyes must also have been open to give the impression of their being awake. The name of the dog is traditionally held as ‘Qitmir’ (M.F.A.)10. But the names of the dog are given as ‘Qitmir’ or ‘Qatmoor’ or ‘Sahba’ or ‘Ryyan’ by (M.S.)11. And the dog also must be looking awake to create fright in those who approached him.

Verses 19 - 20

The sleepers were roused or raised. The discussion among them about the duration of the sleep and their saying that God alone knows the truth, speaks of the firmness of the faith of the men about the limitedness of their mortal self and the Supreme Authority of the All-Knowing Almighty and their unwillingness to waste their time in a problem which they felt difficult for them to solve. This indicates the fallacious impression of ours regarding the calculation of time in this life and how all the impressions of our life on earth will be wiped out against the reality of existence at our resurrection for the Final Judgment. The mention of the quality of purity of the food they sent for, indicates that they being the true believers, were not accustomed to take anything and everything the other people, i.e., the heathens’ took, but only food pure and clean.

The last words of this verse along with the succeeding verse, indicate that the men thought that they slept only for a few hours and the affairs in the city were the same as they were when they went to sleep.

Verse 21

‘Thus’ or ‘in this way’, i.e., by causing the men to sleep for such a time, by raising them up after hundreds of years of sleep and more by making the men send one of them into the town in their own old-fashioned dress with the non-current currency, speaking their old out-of-date language, the men of the Cave as well as the people of the age, are tidings for man to realize that God at his Own independent Will, can make people sleep like the dead and yet protect their bodies from rotting and maintain them along with their dog to look as if they were alive, and that God protects His sincere believers as and when He deems it necessary and that He can change any situation to any extent which He wills to go beyond the human consciousness or any fallacious reasoning. And that dependence upon God is never futile. The mention of the coming of the Hour of Judgment being a certainty, indicates that the object of this wonderful demonstration of God’s Authority over the time and the affairs of the people is to make people realize about the certainty of their accountability.

When the man from the Cave went with the non-current coins of Decius’ time to the bakers shop, people gathered around him to know who he was. Ultimately the man was taken to the King who along with some scholars went to the Cave to verify the statement of the man. The man went in advance into the Cave and informed the other fugitives of the coming of the King with the scholars. The fugitives again fell prostrating in prayer to the Lord, praying for the sleep once again to come over them. When the King went into the Cave he found the men asleep and then believing in the statement decided to build a mosque at the spot, in token of God’s Plan being executed at the place.

Though the people of the Cave were not considered to be totally dead but for all practical purposes they were considered by those who found them in the Cave as dead and knowing them as pious ones, ultimately, they decided to build a mosque over them, the act which Qur’an mentions appreciatingly. Thus, it indicates that to build a mosque over the graves or to adopt the place where there are the graves of the pious ones, as a mosque, is commendable and the best example of it in Islam is the ‘Hijr of Ismail’ close to the very Holy Ka’ba and its being included in the performance of the ‘Tawaf’, i.e., the Seven Circuits around the Holy Ka’ba. In other words, it is a part of the Holy Ka’ba - wherein Ishmael and many other apostles of God or the pious ones are buried. The traditions narrating that the Holy Prophet gave any orders contrary to this either are not authentic and reliable or they mean something else.

For example, there is a well-known tradition that the Holy Prophet said that: “God has cursed the Jews and the Christians for adopting the graves of their prophets as mosques - do not take my grave as a mosque.” There is another tradition from Ayesha: “When Um Salama returned from Abyssinia, she described the churches and the places of worship of the Christians there, wherein they used to worship the saints buried there and worshipped the images or Jesus, Mary and the other saints.’” The Holy Prophet said, ‘Yes!’ ‘they have adopted them as their object of worship and you should not do like that.’ In another tradition the Holy Prophet said: “Do not praise me in the same manner as the Christians praised Jesus.”

From these two traditions, it is obvious that the Holy Prophet’s apprehension that his followers may exceed the limits about him and adopt him or any other person next to him as the object of worship besides God. It was not the question of worshipping God near at, or on a grave of any holy person. On the contrary, a place where a real devotee of God is buried is a sacred place and makes one remember God better than anywhere else - and after all, it is a blessed place. There will be no harm if a man worships God, wherever it may be.

Of course, there are traditions which discourage one to pray or even sit on the grave; not on account of its being an act of blasphemy but it is a disrespect to the grave of a believer. However, in order to save the Muslims from falling in the same idolatrous trap wherein the Christians and the other religionists had already fallen, Islam made it compulsory that in the Second and the Last ‘Rak’at’ of all prayers, in ‘Tashahhud’, the name of the Holy Prophet is to be mentioned after declaring the Absolute Unity of God, as His servant and Apostle - and God should be invoked to bless the Prophet and the members of his family.

After such daily and repeated confessions, it is impossible that a Muslim should adopt any object, seen or unseen, dead or living, as an object of worship, besides God; because to a Muslim, among the created ones, there is none greater than the Holy Prophet and those who are next to him in all excellence in the order of existence and when these are considered as the created ones, the slaves, the servants subservient to God in need of His Blessings, it would certainly be impossible to think of any other object as God or any one having any share at all in the Divine Authority. There remains one question: should the pious ones, whether living or dead, be remembered and revered or not?

The answer is that Qur’an and tradition encourage their remembrance not as deities but as good devotees and as sincere worshippers of God. For the amount of reverence paid to them in the form of bowing or prostrating or in any other form so far as they are not held as the object of worship, but mere reverence, regard and respect, to these holy ones, there is nothing to prove it as prohibited because ‘Ibadat’ or worship depends on the intention and the intention of a Muslim as said above can never be more than mere reverence and respect and not worship, which is due to none besides God. Refer to note on visit to graves of note on verse 17:57. (A.P.).

Verse 22

As to the number each one could see there. Some say they were Three, some Four and some say Seven.

There is a mountain near Damascus and the Cave in it is described to be the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. Even today the pilgrims to the Shrine of the Holy Lady Zainab, the daughter of Ali and Fatimah, in Damascus, visit this Cave in the mountain.

The perversity among men has become so common along with the materialistic tendency that the semi-educated or ill-educated, that whenever any truth about matters spiritual gets manifested, they immediately start controversies creating doubts against it. The bodies of these Sleepers who are said to be still sleeping has not been discovered anywhere but the mere absence of this information cannot affect the truth in the event for He, the Almighty God, who caused the time to pass so unconsciously, could also keep the bodies of these devotees of His, away from the physical sight, otherwise the foolishness of some recognized scientist of the world or the materialist government of the place would surely have disturbed the scene by shifting the bodies to some place, like some museum and would have made them the exhibits of mere wonder rather than the objects serving the purpose of inspiration and guidance towards the belief in God. God has kept the Twelfth Holy Imam Muhammad Ibn Hasan al-Mahdi away from the sight of the public but that does not mean that the Holy Imam also does live today. And a similar long miraculous life is granted to the holy prophet Jesus and the other apostles of God like Khidr, Idris. The Qur’an definitely declares that Noah lived for 950 years etc.

The object was to reveal the information about the event to answer the challenge against the knowledge of the Holy Prophet questioning the bonafide of his claim to be the Apostle of God.

The Holy Prophet said that the Seven Sleepers will awake during the time of the Last Imam Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi, when Jesus also will be given his second advent on earth.

The story of the people of the Cave was current among the various sects of the Christians, the question about the minute details of which, was a matter of controversy among them, and it had already become a matter of interest to non-Christians also. As the story contained some directive and conciliatory factors worthy of reference, was quoted here but besides these points, the other minute details of it, were of not much value in the reference.

Therefore Qur’an in its usual way of dealing with the other narrative stories of old, gives only the useful contents in a clear and unambiguous manner and drops or bypasses the other details regarding the age, the place, the names of the people, the name of the king, etc. which mostly are matters of controversial conjectures and the true version of which is known to God and might be known to some men of His. It is a matter of no use to anyone. Of course, in certain cases of such stories of doctrinal value Qur’an deals with them decisively though it may be controversial - such as the story of the crucifixion of Jesus.

The Holy Prophet has been counselled not to discuss regarding the aspects of the case, save what is clear and not to refer to any of the disputants. And similarly, regarding the duration of their stay in the Cave, Qur’an gives the account of what was generally current, i.e., 300 years solar or 309 of the lunar, and says that alone God knows how long they actually stayed. The important aspect of it is that they stayed there for a considerable lapse of time. (A.P.).

• 1. address to any of the Muslims.
• 2. Cleanest.
• 3. let him not make you known.
• 4. Refer to verse 18:12.
• 5. Should you return to their creed - you are lost forever.
• 6. Should you return to their creed - you are lost forever.
• 7. The people of the Cave and the others.
• 8. About the ultimate success of the Truth and the success on the Day of Judgment.
• 9. The people.
• 10. Minhaj al-Fada’il al-Ahl al-Bayt.
• 11. Minhaj as-Sadiqin [Mulla Fathullah Kashani].