Sleepers Of The Cave

Sleepers as described in Christian literature:  They were few youths.  When the Emperor Decius heard of their change of faith, he summoned them and questioned them about their new religion.  In spite of knowing that the Emperor was deadly against the followers of the Christ, they frankly admitted before him that their Lord is the Lord of the earth of and heavens, and that they recognized none else as Deity for if they did so, they would be committing a grave sin.  The Emperor became furious to hear this, and warned that he would have them killed, but then considering their tender age, he granted them three days in which they were counseled to revert to their old faith, otherwise they would be put to death.  The seven youths took advantage of the situation and fled the city to conceal themselves in a cave in the mountains.  On the way a dog also followed them: they did their best to scare it away, but it would not leave them.  At last they found a cave as a suitable refuge and hid in it, and the dog sat at the entrance.  Being tired they soon fell into a deep slumber.  This happened in about 250 A.D. 

Controversy about Reality of the Life-After-Death:

At this time a fierce controversy was going on among the Romans regarding the reality of the life-after-death and Resurrection, and the Emperor himself was anxious to eradicate somehow the disbelief in the life-after-death from the minds of his people.  So much so that one day he prayed that God in His mercy may show a sign which may help restore and correct the people’s belief.  In precisely the same days these Sleepers awoke in the Cave. 

Sleepers wake up:

After about 197 years, in 447 A.D., during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II, they awoke suddenly when the whole Roman Empire had embraced Christianity and the Ephesians had given up idolatry.  After waking up the youths started asking one another about how long they might have slept.  Some said it might have been a day: others said it was a part of a say.  When they reached no conclusion, they stopped arguing, leaving the knowledge of the exact period to god. 

Sleepers send a companion to buy food:

Then they sent Jean, a companion, to the city with a few silver coins to buy food, and warned him to be on his guard let the people should recognize him, for they feared that if they were discovered the Ephesians would force them to bow before Diana.  But when Jean came to the city he was astonished to see the world had changed: the whole population had embraced Christianity, and there was no body in the city to worship Diana.  He came to a shop and wanted to buy a few loaves of bread.  When he paid in a coin bearing the image of Emperor Decius, the shopkeeper could not believe his eyes and asked the stranger wherefrom he had obtained that coin.  When the young man said that it was his own, a dispute began between them and soon a crowd gathered around them, and the matter reached the chief officer of the city.  The officer himself was puzzled and wanted to know the whereabouts of the treasure-house from where the young man had taken the coin, but the latter insisted that it belonged to him.  The officer did not believe him because he thought that a young man like him could not possibly possess a centuries-old coin which had not even been seen by the elders of the city. 

Emperor Visits Sleepers in the Cave:

When Jean came to know that the Emperor Decius had died, he was pleasantly surprised.  He told the crowd that he and his other companions had fled the city only the other day and taken refuge in a cave to escape Decius’ persecution.  The officer was greatly surprised and followed the young man to see the cave where his companions lay in hiding.  And a great crowd followed behind them.  When they came to the cave, it was fully established that the youths really belonged to the Emperor Decius’ period.  Consequently, Emperor Theodosius was informed and he also visited the cave to receive grace.  Then the seven youths went back into the cave and lay down and breathed their last.  Seeing this clear sign the people’s belief in the life-after-death was restored, and a monument was ordered to be built over the cave by the Emperor.

The story of the Sleepers of the cave as narrated above, corresponds so closely that mentioned in the Quran that the seven youths can easily be regarded as “Ashab-i-Kahf” (the Companions of the Cave).  The Quran means to impress and warn the Arabs by relating stories concerning the various tribes who had transgressed from the right path and with whom they were familiar, where they lived and flourished inside Arabia or outside it.  This story has been related in the Quran in response to a query raised by the disbelievers of Makkah, who had been prompted by Jews and Christians to question the Holy Prophet on such matters as were wholly known to the Arabs in order to test his Prophethood.

God exposed the skeptical attitude of the disbelievers towards the "Sleepers of the Cave".  Some people thought that God does not have the power to keep a few persons in a state of sleep for a couple of hundred years and then raise them as hale and hearty as they were at the time of going to sleep.  God has created the heaven and earth.  If people had ever pondered over the wonderful creation of the sun, moon, and the earth, they would never have expressed any doubt that such a thing was any difficult for Allah.

Quranic Description:

When they believed sincerely, Allah increased their faith in the guidance and enabled them to become firm and steadfast on the way of the Truth even at the risk of their lives rather than surrender before falsehood.  God strengthened their hearts, when they rose and declared that their Lord is the One Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth.  They would not invoke any other deity than Him.  That will be the most improper thing if they did that way. They had mutual consultations and said that those people had given up the Lord of the universe and adopted other deities.  The Sleepers of the Cave questioned why did those people did not bring forward any clear argument in support of their creed.  Those people were much wicked than the one who forges a lie against Allah. 

Sleepers leave the city:

The Sleepers of the Cave left those people and discarded those deities people worshiped besides Allah, they decided to go to a cave for refuge.  They left the city and went to a secret cave in the mountains to escape either from death or forced apostasy. 

If any one had looked at them in the Cave, it would have appeared to him that when the sun rose, it left the Cave to one side and inclined towards the right, and when it set, it turned away from them and went to the left while they laid in the spacious place inside the Cave.  The mouth of the Cave faced the north.  That was why the light of then sun could not enter inside the Cave and the One who passed by it could not see who was inside that Cave.

If someone could have peeped at those persons from outside and seen them turning from one side to the other at intervals, he could have thought that they were not asleep but were relaxing themselves.  Allah had so arranged their refuge that one dared go inside the Cave and know about them for it was pitch dark in the cave and the dog was keeping watch at the entrance.  If someone ever peeped into the cave and saw the Sleepers, he took them for some robbers and once turned on his heels.  This was the reasons why their refuge remained a secret to the outer world for such a long time.

Sleepers are aroused from their sleep:

They were aroused from their sleep in the same miraculous way that was employed in sending them to sleep and keeping them hidden from the outer world.  They asked one another about their wonderful experience.  One of them asked how long have they remained in that condition.  The others answered that they might have remained for a day or a part of a day.  Then they declared that their Lord knows best how long have they remained in that condition.

Secret of their sleep revealed:

The secret of their sleep was revealed when one of them went to Ephesus to buy food for them and offered a coin of the period of Emperor Decius.  As it was a changed world, he naturally attracted attention for he was wearing a costume of 200-year old fashion and spoke a language different from that in vogue.  This was because during those two centuries the language, culture, dress, etc., had undergone a marked change.  So the shopkeeper looked askance at him and, according to a Syriac tradition, suspected that he had dug up some ancient treasure.  Accordingly, he gathered some people of his neighborhood and they took him before the ruler. 

Sleepers disclose their identity:

On questioning, it was discovered that he was one of those followers of the Christ, who had fled the city 200 years ago to save his faith.  As most of the population had embraced Christianity, the news immediately spread throughout the city and a big crowd of the people along with the Christian Roman Ruler, arrived at the Cave.  It was then the Sleepers of the Cave came to know that they had slept for about two hundred years.  So after making salutations to their Christian brothers they lay down and their sole left their bodies.

Issues about Resurrection and the Hereafter:

According to the Syriac tradition, at the time of this occurrence, hot discussions were going on in Ephesus about Resurrection and the Hereafter.  Though the people had embraced Christianity under the influence of the Roman Empire, yet traces of shirk and idolatry of the Romans and the effects of the Greek philosophy were still very powerful.  So in spite of the Christian creed of the Hereafter, many people denied this, or at least were skeptical about this.  To add to this the Sadducee sect of the Jews, who formed a great part of the population of the city, openly denied the Hereafter and professed to base this on the Torah.  The Christian scholars, however, could not put forward any strong argument to refute them.  This is why the disbelievers in the Hereafter were having the upper hand and even the believers were being involved in doubts about it. 

It was at that time the Sleepers of the Cave were raised up and furnished an absolute proof of the life-after-death and turned the scales in favor of the believers in this dispute.  Some of the righteous people from among the Christians opined that a wall should be raised at the entrance of the Cave in order to let the Sleepers remain in the same condition in which they were, for they argued that their Lord alone knew best about their rank and position and the reward they deserved.  The Roman rulers and priests of the Christian Church prevailed and decided to build a place of worship as a memorial for them.  This was because by the middle of the fifth century, the common people, especially the orthodox among the Christians, had become fully involved in shirk and the worship of saints and tombs.  They used to visit the tombs of the saints and to worship them and kept the statues of Jesus, Mary and the apostles in their churches.  In fact these were the people who were the upholder ofshirk and who decided that a mausoleum should be built over the Cave of the Sleepers to make it a place of worship.

It is an irony that some people among the Muslims have misconstrued Quran so as to make it lawful for themselves to build mausoleums, monuments and mosques over the tombs of the righteous persons and saints.  The Quran has, in fact, pointed out the deviation of the workers of iniquity who prevailed upon others and built a place of worship over the Cave of the Sleepers, who were indeed a Sign of Resurrection and of the life-after-death.  But they abused this good opportunity and produced another means of practicing shirk.

About three hundred years after this event, at the time of the revelation of the Quran, different stories had become current among the Christians about the Sleepers of the Cave, but generally these stories had no authentic source behind them.  This was because that was not the age of the press in which authentic books might have been published.  Therefore naturally the stories of the events were carried from place to place by means of oral traditions, and with the passage of time many tales of fiction got mixed up with the real story.

The real thing in this story is not the number of the Sleepers but the lesson it teaches: (1) A true believer should not on any account turn away from the truth and bow before falsehood. (2) A believer should not merely rely on the material means but on Allah.  He should trust in God and follow the right way, even though the outward adverse circumstances might appear to be unfavorable.  (3) It is wrong to suppose that Allah is bound by any so-called “Law of Nature”, for He is able to do any thing He wills even though that might seem to be against some common experience.  He has the power to change any so-called law of nature, whenever and wherever He wills and bring about any extraordinary “supernatural” thing.  He can raise up anyone who might have been asleep for two hundred years, as if he had slept only for a few hours, without letting any change take place in his appearance, dress, health, indeed in anything during the passage of time.  (4) This teaches us that Allah has the power to bring to life all the generations – past, present and future – all together as asserted by the Prophets and Divine Scriptures.  (5) It teaches us that ignorant people have always been perverting the Signs of Allah which are sent for the right guidance of the people.  That is how the miracle of the Sleepers of the Cave, which had been shown as a proof of the Hereafter, had been turned into a means of shirk, as if they were some saints who had been sent only for this purpose.

Lesson to be learnt:

It is obvious from the above-mentioned real lessons, which one can learn from the story of the Sleepers, that a wise man will pay his attention to these things and not divert it in search of their number, their name, the color of their dog and the like.  Only those people, who have no interest for the reality but for superficial things, will spend their time and energy in making investigations about such things.  That is why Allah instructed the Prophet that he should not enter into useless and irrelevant discussions about such things, if other people try to involve him in them.  Instead of wasting time in such useless things, he should concentrate his attention only on his mission.  This is why Allah has not Himself told their exact number lest it should encourage such people as are always hankering after useless things.  The correct number of the Sleepers of the Cave is known only to Allah and a research into it is a useless work.  Therefore one should refrain from investigating into unimportant things, nor enter into discussions about them.  God has informed his Prophet never to make a positive assertion like he will do that  thing next day, for he does not know whether he would be able to do that thing or not: he has neither the knowledge of the unknown nor has full powers to do what he liked.  If ever inadvertently he utters anything like that, he should at once remember his Lord and say, “Insha Allah.”  Beside this he does not know whether there will be any good for him in the thing about which he says he would do that.  It was possible that he might do another thing better than that.  Therefore he should trust in God and say he hopes that his Lord will guide him  in this matter with that thing which is nearer to the right way for him.  God informed Prophet Muhammad that some people will say that they were three and the fourth was their dog and some will say that they remained in the Cave for three hundred years and some others would add nine more years (to the reckoning of the period.  God asked Prophet Muhammad to tell those people that Allah knows best about the period of their stay there, for He is fully aware of all that is hidden in the heavens and the earth.

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