an ample expanse. As one report states, “whenever he came upon a wide opening…,” that is, any roomy spot. They thus found themselves in a spacious place inside the cave. This, too, is among Allah’s signs: He had prepared that haven for them. When they entered it in safety, placing their trust in Allah and consigning their affair to Him, He cast sleep upon them and they slept. How long did they sleep—one day, two days, three? No; they slept three hundred years, and then another nine. For 309 years they lay there, never roused by heat or cold, hunger or thirst. Such is one of the honors Allah bestowed upon them. Could any of us sleep for even three days without feeling hunger, thirst, heat, or cold? Yet they remained in their cave for 309 years: “They stayed in their cave three hundred years, and added nine” [Q 18:25].

Allah, exalted is He, also says: “We turned them to the right and to the left” [Q 18:18]. It was Allah Himself who turned them. Why did He do so? Because a sleeper has no agency—the pen is lifted from him—and even if he wished to move, he could not. “We turned them to the right and to the left, while their dog stretched out its forelegs at the threshold” [Q 18:18]; the dog stood guard at the entrance by Allah’s permission. Allah turned them because, had they lain on one side for all those years, their blood would have stagnated and their bodies would have decayed. Instead, they were turned to the right and to the left, so that anyone who saw them would think them awake—there was nothing in their faces to suggest slumber. An onlooker would have said, “They are awake,” while in truth they were sound asleep, and Allah had cast upon them