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SURE
Kehf Suresi
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But orthodox, in accordance with what is divinely and authoritatively established as the truth guiding into all truth so that it strongly warns the ungodly and the impious of the torment laid upon the damned. It announces joyful tidings to those whose hearts are impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues and their deeds with wisdom and piety to expect a distinguished reward,
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Neither they nor did their fathers have the true knowledge that is consistent with fact and reality nor do they have the knowledge implying firm belief of what is true on sufficient ground. How enormous, monstrous and atrocious is the word they project and to which they give a speaking tongue! Indeed, what they utter is nothing but falsehood, the product of morbid and deluded minds.
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A group of young (Christian) men resolved to escape persecution*; they betook themselves to the Cave -in a mountain near by- where they expressed their invocatory prayer: "O Allah, our Creator". they prayed, "extend to us of Your mercy what will help us endure our tribulation, and direct us to a course of action determining what You commend for us of future events".
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We will relate to you O Muhammad in truth the facts, the circumstances and the incidents of their true story. They were a group of young Christian men who conformed their will to Allah's will and We strengthened their purpose by impressing their hearts with the image of religious and spiritual virtues.
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We confirmed their purpose and made them have the heart and We roused their spirits that they stood firm and declared themselves and revealed their true belief; they said: "Our Allah is the Ilah and Creator of the Heavens and the earth. Never will We invoke besides Him another god for then We will have uttered grievous error against Him".
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"These are our people", they said, "who have pitifully taken other gods besides Him. If only they would present a divine and authoritative evidence in support of their assumption! In effect they presumed upon Providence and who is more wrongful of actions than he who intentionally asserts what is false and relates it to Allah.
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If you should remove yourselves, said one of them, from their society and do not participate in their system of faith and worship but not from the divine system, then go to the Cave where Allah, your Creator, will extend to you of His mercy what abounds in you and help you endure your tribulation and overcome your difficulties.
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You could see the sun O Muhammad as it rose turning aside from their Cave to the right and as it set swerving to the left while they occupied a space within in a state of dead sleep; a divine wonderous sign indeed. He whom Allah guides to His path and Providence his guide is indeed guided into all truth, whereas he whom Allah sends astray, never shall you find for him a tutelary guide.
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You would have thought they were awake -probably their eyes were open- though they were fast asleep. And We turned them over from one side to the other right and left while on the threshold lay their dog with his forelegs outstretched. If you had seen them you would have run away from them making your escape, filled with horror.
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So conditioned, We aroused them and stirred them into activity only to question each other as to the length of time they had laid themselves to rest. "How long do you think you have been in this place to repose your wearied virtues?" asked one of them. "Probably a day or less", they said. "Allah, your Creator, knows best how long. Meantime send one of you with this silver coin to town in quest of the best food and he brings back some of it to satisfy our hunger, but he must be gentle and courteous and not to attract attention or fix directly upon himself nor indirectly upon you the notice of others.
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To serve Our purpose We ordained that their identity be revealed so that they, as well as others, would realize that the promise of Allah is truth personified and that the Day of Judgement is a certainty. The aftermath of the event resolved itself in the manner that was inevitably expected. The people who by then had conformed to Allah's will –Christians- debated the number and the event and its significance, some concluding to construct a memorial on the site, others whose decision prevailed resolved to erect a house of worship thereon.
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Tossed with their unballasted wits in fathomless and unquiet deeps of controversies, Ahl AL-Kitab (the People of the Book) were divided in opinion relative to the number of the young men, and in the course of time, some will say: "They numbered three and their dog the fourth". Others will say: "Five, their dog the sixth", an exercise of divination, whereas others will say: "Seven, their dog the eighth". Say to them O Muhammad: "Allah, my Creator, knows best their number; it is only a few who have been given the knowledge of the number and the significance of the even". Therefore, do not involve yourself O Muhammad in the heat of their dispute but treat the subject from an objective standpoint only so as to exhibit the actual facts and never seek counsel from any of them upon the event.
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Say to them O Muhammad: "Allah alone knows how long they stayed in the cave. Knowledge of the mysteries of the heavens and the earth is a divine prerogative attributed only to Allah. How infinite is His vision arid how unlimited is His audition. Besides Him. People have no tutelary guardian. His Authority, Sovereignty and Command are absolute and independent and no one does He permit to go shares with Him in any measure or degree.
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Be patient O Muhammad and rest content with those who invoke Allah's mercy and conciliation morning and evening in quest of nothing but His acceptance and His countenance speaking good will. And let not your mind's eyes turn aside from them or vacillate between them and the worldly-minded, setting your thoughts upon the ephemeral and fleeting glories of the world. Nor should you obey the one neglecting his duty to Allah and by consequence We closed his heart's ears, the one who counsels deaf and lusts after his vain desires and carries his vanity to excess that he cannot be reclaimed from a life of vice nor will he be reclaimed by Allah's grace.
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And say to them: "Allah's truth has come to guide us into all truth and he who wishes to acknowledge it with judgement and choice is free to do so and he who wishes to reject it is free to do so. We have prepared for the wrongful of actions a fire whose scorching and merciless flames beset them on all sides as if it were a bed having an arched canopy and covered sides. As often as they cry for help they are given a draught of boiling water like molten brass or molten lead scalding the faces; evil indeed is the drink and evil is the society!
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Indeed those whose hearts are impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues and their deeds with wisdom and piety are the recipients of Allah's mercy and divine reward. We never annul, cancel or render unprofitable the due return accruing from a good deed imprinted with wisdom and piety.
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Suddenly were his fruits not reaped but suffered to rot, rotting to nothing. There, he kept striking the palms of his hands reciprocally in token of violent grief caused by the loss of what he spent on it; there stood the orchard so desolate empty but of dilapidated trellises over hills of ruin. There and then he said: "I wish I had not incorporated with Allah, my Creator, other deities".
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Express to them O Muhammad the likeness of life here, it stands similitude exact of a cycle in which a certain round of events or phenomena is completed, thus: We send down rain water from the floor of the vault of heaven; it mingles with the product of the soil which absorbs it and thrives thereby, then it eventually withers and dries up and gets dispersed with the wind, and Allah has always been Qadirun (Omnipotent) capable of doing all things.
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Now the Book of personal records is laid open to view and you shall see the sinful alarmed at its contents and excited with sudden fear and apprehension of danger. They express their thoughts in words, thus: "Woe betide us. This book", they say, "does not leave out a minor or a major offense unrecorded", and they shall find that every single deed, good or back is being presented and then they shall realize that Allah, your Creator, wrongs no one.
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For once We said to the angels: "Prostrate yourselves to Adam in adoration, and the angels prostrated to Adam in comely order praise and admiration except Iblis, AL-Shaytan-to-be, who was a Jinn juxtaposed* to the angels and by consequence he disobeyed Allah, his Creator. So conditioned, do you people take him and his progeny as tutelary guardians besides Allah when they are your avowed enemy! Evil indeed is the substitute adopted by the wrongful of actions.
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Never did I invite them -neither these nor those nor any creature- to be present, to spectate or to be associated with the event of the creation of the heavens and the earth nor of themselves -in reference to Adam- nor did I need help nor is it befitting. It is not Allah Who would use the help of others not to mention the wicked who mislead people.
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The Day shall come when Allah says to the infidels: "Call forth My partners whom you presumed to share My divine nature and Omnipotence", and they shall do so, but their gods shall give back no answer, and We established between them - they and their gods- in life below the relationship leading to their final damnation.
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And We have expounded and oriented Our revelations in this Quran to circumstances and requirements and We expressed many parables to bring the infidels to their senses but man has always been known to raise captions and frivolous objections about most things and tries to find fault unfairly and without good reason.
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What kept people back from acknowledging and accepting the spirit of truth presented to them to guide them into all truth and inspire them to invoke their Creator's mercy and forgiveness but to rest content until they are wedded to the same calamities wedding those of old or to perceive through sense of sight the torment destined to be laid upon the damned!
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We do not send the Messengers but to serve as spectacles and warnings, But the infidels try to seek everywhere vain proofs and groundless causes for which they are ready to contend to their life's end to refute the truth. They disdain indignantly to acknowledge My signs, My revelations and My warnings and laugh them to scorn.
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And who is more wrongful of actions than he who has been reminded of Allah's evident signs and revelations and shuns them, forgetting what his unclean hands have committed! The fact is We enshrouded their hearts to preclude them from exercising intellectual power or understanding and struck them deaf that nothing that enages the intellect would come to their hearing. These are those whose hearts dare rise defiant against Allah. And if you invite them to accept the spirit of truth guiding into all truth, never shall they acknowledge Providence as their guide.
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If Allah, your Creator. the Source of true forgiveness and divine mercy,were to censure them for their demerits which are far above all praises of man, He would have hastened them to their painful end. But We have determined for them a point of time when they shall be reduced to a useless form and besides Allah they shall find no one to afford them refuge.
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Again they made their way onward until they came across a town where they asked the people for food but the people neither offered nor afforded welcome or entertainment to strangers and consequently denied then hospitality. So they made their way onward only to find a wall about to fall and he -the teacher- repaired it and brought it back to its original state, and there Mussa exclaimed: "Had you willed you could have charged a price for it".
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"As to the wall", the teacher said, "it constitutes a part of the property belonging to two orphan youngsters in the town and it rested directly on a treasure. Their father was a gracious man in whose heart reigned piety, and Allah, your Creator, has decreed that they reach maturity and dig out their treasure, an act of mercy vouchsafed by Allah, your Creator. You must realize that none of these incidents did I do of my own accord; there you have the interpretation of the incidents you could not forbear".
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He took the lead in an expedition toward he west until he reached a body of water -said to be the Atlantic Ocean, or more likely a mirky land abounding in swamps– where -he thought when viewing the horizon- the sun sets and where he found a -disorderly and unruly- people over whom We gave him authority. We left to him the manner of dealing with them. Either you punish them, We said or show them kindness;
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They said to him -through interpreters-: "O you Zul- Qarnain, the tribes of Gog and Magog* are people who have both mischief and ill-will in their composition and they spread discord in the land. May we apportion to you a tribute in payment of raising a rampart between us, a rampart that would be invincible against all assaults!"
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It is these who have denied the truth of their Creator's signs and counselled deaf to His spirit of truth guiding into all truth and to His promise of Judgment at Resurrection. In consequence their hopes shall be doomed to disappointment and their deeds to worthlessness, and in Day of Judgement We will attach to them no importance nor shall their pleading be of weight.
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Say to them –the people- "If the vast body of water on the surface of the globe were ink serving the purpose of committing my Creator's words to writing, sooner would the vast body of water -now ink- be exhausted than would the words of my Creator even if we make this immense expanse twice as much".
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Say to them O Muhammad: "I am only a mortal like you, but I am prompted by Allah to impart to you the knowledge inspired to me. It emphasizes that your Allah is One and only, the Creator of the whole and of all in all". "Therefore, he who acknowledges Resurrection and Judgement and hopes to be welcomed in Allah's heavenly realm and be a recipient of His mercy and blessings will have to imprint his deeds with wisdom and piety and never to incorporate with Him, other deities nor invoke besides Him any".