(9–12) “Or did you think that the Companions of the Cave and al-Raqīm were a wonder among Our signs? * When the young men took refuge in the Cave, they said, ‘Our Lord, grant us mercy from Yourself and guide us rightly through our affair.’ * So We sealed their ears in the Cave for a number of years. * Then We awakened them so that We might know which of the two groups had calculated more precisely the length of their stay.”
This interrogative carries the force of negation and prohibition. In other words, do not suppose that the story of the Companions of the Cave and what befell them is extraordinary in comparison with Allah’s other signs, unprecedented in His wisdom, and without parallel or anything resembling it. Rather, Allah the Exalted has many wondrous and extraordinary signs of the same kind as His signs concerning the Companions of the Cave—and signs even greater than these. Allah has always shown His servants signs in the horizons and within themselves by which truth becomes distinct from falsehood and guidance from misguidance.
The point of this negation is not to deny that the story of the Companions of the Cave is wondrous. It is indeed one of Allah’s wondrous signs. Rather, the point is that signs of this kind are exceedingly numerous. To single out this story alone as an object of wonder and astonishment betrays deficient knowledge and reason. The believer’s duty is instead to reflect upon all the signs of Allah that He has called His servants to contemplate, for they are the key to faith and the path to knowledge and certainty.
He associated them with the Cave—which is a cavern in a mountain—and with al-Raqīm, meaning the record in which their names and story had been inscribed, because they remained there for a very long time.
He then related their story in summary before giving its details. He said: “When the young men took refuge”—that is, the youths—“in the Cave,” seeking thereby to fortify and protect themselves against the trial to which their people subjected them, “they said, ‘Our Lord, grant us mercy from Yourself,’” by which You will make us steadfast, protect us from evil, and enable us to do good, “‘and guide us rightly through our affair’”—that is, facilitate for us every means that leads to right guidance, and set right our religious and worldly affairs.
Thus, they combined taking practical means and fleeing from the trial to a place where they could hide with humbly beseeching Allah and asking Him to ease their affairs. They did not rely upon themselves or upon any created being. Allah therefore answered their prayer and provided for them what they could never have anticipated. He said: “So We sealed their ears in the Cave”—that is, We caused them to sleep—“for a number of years,” namely, three hundred and nine years. This sleep preserved their hearts from anxiety and fear, protected them from their people, and made them a manifest sign.
“Then We awakened them”—that is, from their sleep—“so that We might know which of the two groups had calculated more precisely the length of their stay”; that is, so that We might know which of them had most accurately calculated its duration. As the Exalted says: “And likewise We awakened them so that they might question one another,” to the end of the verse. Knowing the duration of their stay makes the reckoning precise and reveals the perfection of Allah the Exalted’s power, wisdom, and mercy. Had they remained asleep, none of these aspects of their story would have become known.