their slumber. End quote.

Ibn Kathir, commenting on the Almighty’s words, “Had you looked at them, you would surely have turned and fled from them, and you would have been filled with terror of them” (18:18), said:
“Allah cast upon them such awe that no one who fixed his gaze on them could but be struck with fear, for He had enveloped them in majesty and dread so that no one might draw near them or lay a hand upon them until the decree reached its appointed term and their period of sleep, which Allah—blessed and exalted—had willed for them, came to an end. All of this took place out of His perfect wisdom, conclusive proof, and all-embracing mercy.” End quote.

These, then, are the statements of the leading exegetes concerning the People of the Cave. Not one of them says that their beards covered their faces or that their nails reached the ground. A few have merely mentioned, in tentative language, the weak notion that their hair and nails had grown very long—but there is no evidence whatsoever for this claim. Hence Ibn Jarir and Ibn Kathir omitted it from their respective commentaries, both of which are among the finest and the furthest removed from padding their works with unsound reports. They recorded only the opinion indicated by the context of the noble verse: that Allah clothed them in awe so that no one would venture near them until the divinely decreed span of their slumber had run its course.