“If you, O Muhammad, had looked upon them, you would surely have turned away from them in flight and been filled with terror of them”—because of the awe with which Allah had invested them, so that no one could reach them until the decree had run its course and Allah Most High awakened them from their sleep. The people of the Hijaz recited “been filled” with the lām doubled, while the others recited it without doubling.

They differed as to the reason for this terror. (1) It was said: because of the desolation of the place.

Al-Kalbi said: Because their eyes were open like those of an awake person about to speak, though they were asleep. (2)

It was also said: because of their abundant hair, their long fingernails, and their turning over without any sensation or awareness.

And it was said: Allah Most High protected them by means of terror, lest anyone see them.

It is related from Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ‘Abbas, who said: We went on campaign with Mu‘awiyah toward the lands of the Romans and passed by the cave in which the Companions of the Cave were. Mu‘awiyah said, “If only these people could be uncovered for us, so that we might look at them.” Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “One better than you was prevented from doing so. He was told, ‘If you had looked upon them, you would surely have turned away from them in flight.’” Mu‘awiyah then sent some men and said, “Go and look.” When they entered the cave, Allah sent a wind against them which drove them out. (3)

“And thus We awakened them so that they might question one another. One of them said, ‘How long have you remained?’ They said, ‘We have remained a day or part of a day.’ They said, ‘Your Lord knows best how long you have remained. So send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the city, and let him see which food is purest, then bring you provision from it. Let him be discreet, and let no one become aware of you.’” (19)

His saying, Most High: “And thus We awakened them”—that is, just as We caused them to sleep in the cave and preserved their bodies from decay over the long passage of time, so too We awakened them from that sleep which resembles death, “so that they might question one another”: that some of them might ask others. The particle rendered “so that” here indicates the eventual outcome, since they were not awakened for the purpose of questioning.

“One of them said”—and he was their leader, Miksalmina—“How long have you remained?” in your sleep? This was because they found the length of their sleep extraordinary. It is also said that they were alarmed at the prayers they had missed, and so they said this.

“They said, ‘We have remained a day’”: because they had entered the cave in the morning and, when they awoke, it was evening. (5)