and so on.
For the Christian tradition of the story, see the following websites.
http://www.kusadasi.biz/ephesus.asp http://www.kusadasi.biz/sevensleepers.asp http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05496a.htm For the Muslim scholarship, please refer to various books of Tafseer.
There are some interesting points in this Sura. The very first thing in this line is the fact that the letter ‘TA’ of the word yatalattaf in verse number 19 is the exact middle of the Qur’anic text.
Abdullah Yusuali lists the following points on thi story:
(i) The relativity of Time
(ii) The unreality of the position of oppressor and oppressed, persecutor and persecuted, on this earth
(iii) The truth of the Resurrection, when true values will be restored, and
(iv) The potency of Faith and Prayer to lead to the Right. Wonderful though such things may seem to be, they happen every day on Allah’s earth
…………Quoted from A.Y.A., note number 2334
In addition to the question of the relativity of Time, I note the following additional points from the text:
(a) Inspite of extreme hunger, when they wake up, they insist on searching for ‘clean food.’
(b) The are quite careful about their secret – this is the basic concept of TAQAIYYA. Fearing for life and their religious value system, they want to hide their identity.
(c) They start an argument about how long they stayed in the cave but then very quickly settle down on ‘Allah knows best,’ this is a very clear message from the Qur’an that in spite of faith, sincerity and honesty, intelligent people may arrive at different conclusions. This should not be a matter for dispute among believers, because judgement only belongs to Allah. This is a message for all the readers and writers in these forums who are quick to label each other Kafir and Mushrik on the slightest moment of disagreement.
Coming back to the point of relativity of Time, the most powerful message from this story is that Allah, out of His unlimited Power and Majesty, can take a person or a few out of this frame of Time and Space and place them somewhere that their aging proceeds at a different rate.
This is the most direct proof from the holy Qur’an for the long occultation of the twelfth Imam. Who, according to the belief of the Imamiyya, will one day appear on this earth on Allah’s command and fill this earth with justice and equity as its is now filled with oppression and injustice.
The concept of a Mahdi (the guided one) is unanimous among Muslims of all persuasion. The long occultation is an exclusive belief of the Imamiyya.
The hadeeth literature is full of reports on this and they are unanimous between the Shia and the Sunni schools. Some of the Shia books are as follows:
(1) Al-Ghayba, by Sh. Toosi (d. 461 Hijra) – Arabic text
(2) Bihar-ul-Anwaar, Mulla Baqir Majlisis, vol.51 – Arabic and Farsi texts
(3) The Occultation of the Twelfth Imam, Jassim Husain – English text
SUNNI RESEARCH WORK ON THE MAHDI
(1) Dr. Abdul Aleem al-Azeem Bastawi has completed his Ph.D. from Saudi Arabia. His thesis has been published in two volumes. In the first volume, he has collected all the SAHEEH hadeeth reports on the coming of the Mahdi. In the second volume, he has collected all the weak hadeeth reports on the topic. The name of his book is: Al-Mahdi al-Muntazar fi Dhaw al-Ahaadeeth wal-Aasaar as-SAheeha wa Aqwaal-ul-Ulema wa Aara al-Firqa-tul-Mukhtalifa. (Arabic text)
(2) A book from older generations was written by Imam Al-Hafiz al-Qurtabi (d. 681 Hijra). The name of his book is: Alaamaat Yawm al-Qiyama. There are several reports in that book on the coming of the Mahdi. We quote one below:
“Abu Sa’eed Khudri reports from the Prophet, who said: (There would come a time) when this community will be overwhelmed by disasters and bad times, so much so that there would be no one available to help anyone in the misery. IN that midst Allah will raise a man from my ITRAH, the Ahl-ul-Bayt who will fill this earth with Justice and equity as it would have been filled with oppression and injustice. All the inhabitants of this earth and those in the heavens would be happy with that skies will be showering (Allah’s Mercy) and the earth would be vegetating with all good things – until all the living beings would wish that all those who were dead would also come alive (and benefit from all the bounties). This will last for seven or eight or nine years.”
There are to be found similar reports in the Jam’e of Tirmizi as well as in the Sunan of Abu Dawood. The significant wordings in all these reports from the Sunni sources is the mention of the term “a man from my ITRAH, the Ahlul-Bayt…..” This actually connects the reports about Mahdi to the Hadeeth Thaqalayn in which the Prophet had said:
“I am leaving among you two valuable objects, the Book of Allah and my ITRAH, the Ahlul-Bayt. If you attach yourself to those two, never ever shall you go wrong. They will not separate from each other until they both meet me at the Pond.”
That is a clear proof from the Qur’an and the Prophet’s hadeeth of the continuity of the office of the Imamat from Imam Ali to the twelfth Imam and the prophecy about his re-appearance when Allah wills.