(18:1) Praise be to Allah Who has revealed to His servant the Book devoid of all crookedness; (18:2) an unerringly Straight Book, meant to warn of a stern punishment from Allah, and to proclaim, to those who believe and work righteous deeds, the tiding that theirs shall be a good reward (18:3) wherein they shall abide for ever; (18:4) and also to warn those who say: "Allah has taken to Himself a son," (18:5) a thing about which they have no knowledge, neither they nor their ancestors. Dreadful is the word that comes out of their mouths. What they utter is merely a lie. (18:6) (O Muhammad), if they do not believe in this Message, you will perhaps torment yourself to death with grief, sorrowing over them. (18:7) Surely We have made all that is on the earth an embellishment for it in order to test people as to who of them is better in conduct. (18:8) In the ultimate, We shall reduce all that is on the earth to a barren plain. (18:9) Do you think that the people of the Cave and the Inscription were one of Our wondrous signs? (18:10) When those youths sought refuge in the Cave and said: "Our Lord! Grant us mercy from Yourself and provide for us rectitude in our affairs." (18:11) We lulled them to sleep in that cave for a number of years (18:12) and then roused them so that We might see which of the two parties could best tell the length of their stay. (18:13) We narrate to you their true story. They were a party of young men who had faith in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance (18:14) and strengthened their hearts when they stood up and proclaimed: "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We shall call upon no other god beside Him; (for if we did so), we shall be uttering a blasphemy." (18:15) (Then they conferred among themselves and said): "These men, our own people, have taken others as gods beside Him: why do they not bring any clear evidence that they indeed are gods? Who can be more unjust than he who foists a lie on Allah? (18:16) And now that you have dissociated yourselves from them and from whatever they worship beside Allah, go and seek refuge in the Cave. Your Lord will extend His mercy to you and will provide for you the means for the disposal of your affairs." (18:17) Had you seen them in the Cave it would have appeared to you that when the sun rose, it moved away from their Cave to the right; and when it set, it turned away from them to the left, while they remained in a spacious hollow in the Cave. This is one of the Signs of Allah. Whomsoever Allah guides, he alone is led aright; and whomsoever Allah lets go astray, you will find for him no guardian to direct him. (18:18) On seeing them you would fancy them to be awake though they were asleep; and We caused them to turn their sides to their right and to their left, and their dog sat stretching out its forelegs on the threshold of the Cave. Had you looked upon them you would have certainly fled away from them, their sight filling you with terror. (18:19) Likewise, We roused them in a miraculous way that they might question one another. One of them asked: "How long did you remain (in this state)?" The others said: "We remained so for a day or part of a day." Then they said: "Your Lord knows better how long we remained in this state. Now send one of you to the city with this coin of yours and let him see who has the best food, and let him buy some provisions from there. Let him be cautious and not inform anyone of our whereabouts. (18:20) For if they should come upon us, they will stone us to death or force us to revert to their faith whereafter we shall never prosper."....
