The Companions of the Cave

Allah SWT has included many stories of people who lived in the past in the Quran and these stories have very important lessons for us. Today we are sharing a story from the Quran named “The Companions of Cave” and this is from the Quran and the whole chapter is named after this story as “The Cave”.

The story about companions of the cave has a very important lesson that Allah promises goodness and mercy for those who have complete faith in him. In the time of Prophet Isa (Jesus) peace be upon him, seven young men from the city of Ephesus accepted the teachings of Prophet Isa Peace be upon him. The ruler of the Roman empire  Daqyanus (Decius) at that time was an unbeliever and cruel.

He killed those people who accepted the message of Allah SWT spread by prophet Isa Peace be upon him. It was literally inviting death to accept the teachings of Prophet Isa peace be upon him but these courageous men not only accepted Allah’s message but also continued to preach other people around them.

When the king came to know about their beliefs he sent soldiers to capture them for punishment. Allah SWT directs them to leave their city and take refuge in a dark cave. They were also accompanied by limped dog and they safely reached in the cave and prayed,

[su_quote]Lord, have mercy on us and guide us through our ordeal.[/su_quote] (18:10)

Allah SWT gave them to slumber and slept along with their faithful dog who was sleeping in the posture that he is protecting them at the entrance of the cave. When they woke up, they looked around,  felt lost, and started to question each other that how long we might have slept.

They were not sure and assumed that they might have slept for a day or maybe less. Then they set out to the nearest city to buy some edible from the city with caution. They observed the world is completely changed and when they entered a market and handed the silver coin to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper was amazed because the coin was ancient and no longer in use.

They came to knew that the coins are 3 centuries old and Daqyanus died long ago.  The news about these people with ancient coins spread in the city like wildfire. They were taken to the king (Theodosius II) of that time who was believers and pious. He heard them carefully and released them with respect and honor.

They went back to their other fellows in the cave to tell them how long they have slept. Other companions were also astonished to hear about three centuries-long sleeping. Then they prayed to the lord and slept again and died while sleeping and a shrine was built at the cave as a memorial to them.

We get the following lessons from this story:

• Always believes in Allah no matter if everything is opposite to you, Allah SWT is sufficient for you.
• Allah SWT also preserved the dog with them, so we can infer that we should support the right voice in society and Allah SWT will surely shower his blessing on us.
• Even if we are on brink of despair, we should not lose our hope in Him, Because he can change the situations before we are aware.