Another reason the claim that their hair and nails had grown to extraordinary lengths is untenable is that Allah enveloped them in awe and dread while they slept, so no human being ever laid eyes on them. Consequently, anyone who spoke of their hair and nails becoming long did so out of pure conjecture and imagination, not from actually seeing them.

Further evidence lies in the fact that when Allah roused them from their sleep, none of them found the appearance of his companions strange. They said, “We have stayed a day, or part of a day.” Had their hair and nails truly grown to great lengths, at least some of them would have expressed astonishment at one another’s appearance; their complete lack of surprise proves that they awoke exactly as they had been before they slept, with no change in their hair or nails.

A third indication is that, upon waking, the People of the Cave sent one of their number to the city to purchase food. The townspeople were not taken aback by the man’s looks; what puzzled them were the silver coins he carried, for they assumed he had found some ancient treasure. If, as the author of that baseless article alleges, his beard had covered his face and his nails had dragged along the ground, the townsfolk would have recoiled in terror and fled from him. Because nothing of the sort occurred, it follows that the People of the Cave were raised in their original state.