4. PIOUS
PEOPLE’S DU‘Ā (SUPPLICATION) IN THE QUR’ĀN (3)
Among
other groups of pious people whose supplications are mentioned in the Qur’ān
are: the people of the Cave (أَصْحَابُ اْلكَهْف)
d. The people of the cave
were people who took refuge in a cave escaping from the persecution of their
rulers for their belief. They fell asleep for over 300 solar years (309 lunar
years). This story was told in the Qur’ān as the Prophet’s answer requested by
al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith and ‘Uqbah ibn Abī Mu‘īṭ suggested by the Jewish rabbis
in Madinah to test him.
The
rabbis told them: “Ask him about three things which we will tell you to ask,
and if he answers them then he is a Prophet who has been sent by Allah; if he
does not, then he is saying things that are not true… Ask him about some men in
ancient times, what was their story, for there was a strange and wondrous tale
(i.e. “People of the Cave”), about a man who travelled extensively and
reached the east and the west of the earth (i.e., Dhū ’l-Qarnayn), and
about the Rūḥ (soul or spirit).”
When they asked the Prophet, he told them: “I will tell you
tomorrow about what you have asked me,” but he did not say in shā’ Allāh (“If
Allah wills”). For this, Allah delayed giving the answer through Jibrīl
(Gabriel). Fifteen days had passed, and Jibrīl did not
come to tell him stories they had asked him. This grieved him, as the Makkan people started
doubting him.
Eventually,
Jibrīl came and the Prophet complained for his delay. Gabriel told him that it
was up to Allah when he should come. This was a lesson for us to say in shā’
Allāh (“If Allah wills”) before we start doing something. Jibrīl told him
about the young men who fled from the persecution of their pagan king for their
belief in Allah and took refuge inside a cave. Like the story of Prophet Yūsuf
(Joseph) a.s. and many other stories in the Qur’ān, the names of people
and places in them were not given, as it is a book of guidance and awakening,
not a book of history.
Although the story of the People of the Cave is
given in brief and general term in the Qur’ān, Allah explains it in more
detail. He says: “Do you think (O Muhammad) that the people of the Cave and
al-Raqīm[1]
were a wonder among Our Signs?” (Q. 18:9). It means, as put by Ibn Kathīr,
their case is not something amazing compared to Allah’s power and ability in
creating the heavens and the earth, the alternation of night and day, the
subjugation of heavenly bodies (the sun, the moon and the stars), and other
mighty signs, all indicate Allah’s great power to do whatever He likes, and
doing more amazing things than the story of the people of the Cave.
In the next verse Allah said:
إِذْ أَوَى الْفِتْيَةُ إِلَى الْكَهْفِ فَقَالُوا
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً وَهَيِّئْ
لَنَا مِنْ أَمْرِنَا رَشَدًا (الكهف:10)
(Remember)
when the young men fled for refuge (from
their disbelieving folk) to the Cave. They
said: “Our Lord!
Bestow on us mercy from Yourself, and facilitate
for
us our affair in the right way!”(Q. 18:10)
Here they prayed to Allah to give them mercy and to conceal
them from their people, and to direct their matter well, namely, to grant them
a good end.
Then Allah caused them to
sleep many years when they entered the cave. Then He raised them from their
slumber. They disputed how long they stayed in the cave. (Q. 18:11-12). There
is an indication that the entrance of the cave faced north, as when the sun rose
its shade decreased to the right, and when it set it entered their cave from
the left. (Q. 18:17). Ibn ‘Abbās said that the sunshine did not directly hit
them, so that it did not harm them.
While sleeping they turned
their bodies on their right and on their left sides, and their dog lay down at
the door of the cave as if guarding them. Allah made their appearance
frightening, so that no one would come near them or touch them until they woke
up from their sleep (Q. 18:18)
As they entered the cave at
the beginning of the day and woke up at the end of the day they thought that
they had stayed in the cave a day or part of a day. They sent one of them to
the town to buy good and lawful food with a silver coin.[2]
He was very careful not to disclose his identity, or people would stone him,
abused him or harmed him, or turn him back to their religion. (Q. 18:20)
The number of people of the Cave was not
explicitly mentioned in the Qur’ān, but there were three views mentioned in it:
a. three people, their dog being the fourth; b. five people, their dog being
the sixth; c. seven people, their dog being the eighth. Both the first and the
second view were rejected because they were based on رَجْمًا بِالْغَيْب (“guessing at the unseen”(, whereas the third view was not, and
therefore could be correct. However, Allah told the Prophet to sayأَعْلَمُ بِعِدَّتِهِم (الكهف:22) رَبَي “My Lord knows best their number…" (Q. 18:22)
Western scholars have
different view on the location of the cave. Some say it was in Turkey, others
in Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. The story was popular in the Middle Ages and
in several versions, including Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Georgian. According
to this story during the persecution of the Christians under the Roman Emperor
Decius (249-251 CE) seven or eight Christian soldiers took refuge at a cave
near their native city Ephesus, as they refused to practise pagan sacrifices. They
fell miraculously asleep, and they woke up during the reign of the Eastern
Roman Emperor, Theodosius II (408–450 CE). They explained to him the profound meaning of their experience, and then
died. The emperor was moved by their miraculous presence as evidence of the
resurrection of the body in the Christian doctrine, and then absolved all
bishops who had been persecuted for their belief in the Resurrection. The ruin
of Ephesus is located near the present city of Izmir at the Eastern coast of
Turkey. Not far from the ruin there was a cave at a hill where it was written
at its gate THE CAVE OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS, but was not very attractive to visitors
(I was the only visitor of the cave at that time).
Although we find some
similarities between this story and that of the people of the Cave mentioned in
the Qur’ān, the sleepers slept 208 years, whereas in the Qur’ān it was
mentioned 300 solar years, equal to 309 lunar years.(Q. 18:25)
In 1963 the
Jordanian archaeologist Muhammad Taysīr Ẓubyān discovered the cave of the
people of the Cave near the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. This is what
Muslim scholars believe to be the one mentioned in the Qur’ān. At the entrance
of the cave it is written in Arabic and English:
كهف أهل الكهف
(قبور بيزنطية) وردت قصتهم في القرآن الكريم
CAVE OF THE SEVEN SLEEPERS
BYZANTINE TOMBS – ONE
MENTIONED
IN THE KORAN IN THE STORY
OF THE
SEVEN SLEEPERS
(CIVIC,
6 February, 2015)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري (ت. 310 هـ(
تفسير القرطبى (ت. 671 هـ(
تفسير ابن كثير (ت. 774 هـ(
Ali, A.Yusuf. The
Meanings of the Holy Qur’ān. Kuala Lumpur: Percetakan Zafar Sdn Bhd, 2005.
Asad, Muhammad. The
Message of the Qur’ān. Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1984.
Abu Khalil, Dr. Shawqi. Atlas
of the Qur’ān. Riydh: Maktabah Dar-us-Salam, 2003
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/10/historicity-of-seven-sleepers-of.html
[1] The cave was located in a mountain. There are many
views regarding the al-Raqīm in the above verse, among which are as
follows: (1) it is a valley near Aylah (Ibn ‘Abbās, ‘Aṭiyyah, Qatādah and al-Daḥḥak);
(2) it is the name of the mountain where the Cave was located (Ibn ‘Abbas as
reported by Ibn Jurayj); (3) it is the name of the village where the cave is
located which is now called al-Rajīb in the present Jordan; (4) al-Raqīm means
“the Inscription”; it was a tablet of stone on which they wrote the story and
the names of the people of the Cave, then they placed it at the entrance of the
Cave (Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr). According to Western tradition the names of the Seven
Sleepers are: Maximian, Malchus, Marcian,
John, Denis, Serapion, and Constantine, whereas according to Eastern tradition their
names are: Maximilian, Jamblichus, Martin, John, Dionysius, Antonius, and
Constantine.
[2] According to Western tradition the name of the person
was Malcus, whereas according to Eastern tradition his name was Jamblicus.
