"When the youths took refuge in the cave, they said, 'Our Lord! Grant us mercy from Thy Presence, and make us incline to sound judgment concerning our affair.' So We placed [a veil] over their ears in the cave for a number of years. Then We raised them up again, that We might know which of the two parties had best calculated how long they had tarried. We recount their story unto thee in truth. Verily they were youths who believe in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance. And We fortified their hearts. When they arose, they said, 'Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We shall call upon no god apart from Him, for then we would have certain uttered an outrage. These, our people, have taken gods apart from Him. Why do they not bring a clear authority concerning them? For who does greater wrong than one who fabricates a lie against God? And when you have withdrawn from them and all that they worship save God, then take refuge in the cave. Your Lord will spread forth something of His Mercy for you, and make you incline to ease in your affair.' You wouldst have seen the sun when it rose, slanting away from their cave to the right; and when it set, turning away from them to the left, while they were in an open space within it. That is among the signs of God. Whomsoever God guides, he is rightly guided; and whomsoever He leads astray, thou wilt find no protector to lead him aright. Thou wouldst have thought them awake, though they were asleep. And We turned them to the right and to the left, with their dog stretching forth his paws at the threshold. Hadst thou come upon them, thou wouldst have turned away in flight and been filled with terror on their account."
Quran 18:10-18
Here are some early passages from the 18th surah, al-Kahf, rendered as "The Cave." This is a Quranic retelling/reflection on the Christian story of the Seven Sleepers, and it's the story that gives its name to the surah. I suppose when you're talking about the word of God you shouldn't admit to having a favorite surah, but, having said that, surah 18 is clearly one of my favorites surahs, and it's one that I reread consistently. We've discussed the notion, prominent outside of the faith, the Islam is a painfully literal faith, sort of like Protestants on steroids, which is simply not true. Instead, Islam is a faith where metaphor plays a huge role, which, considering the primacy of poetry in the Arabic world, should come as no surprise (although it surprises people all the time). The first surah that introduced me to this complex metaphoric world is al-Kahf.
As Nasr explains to us in the commentary: "Thus sleep is associated with the barzakh, the intermediate realm between two opposites; when one is sleeping, one is still alive, but one's soul has been 'taken' by God (6:60), so that it is a kind of 'minor death,' after which waking is like a resurrection . . . In this sense the story of the Companions of the Cave can be read not only as a proof of God's power of resurrection, but also as an allegory for the barzakh, or intermediate realm between individual death and universal resurrection. From a Sufi perspective, the turning of the youths in their sleep can also represent their alternation between the states of annihilation (fana) and the subsistence (baqa) in God." (p. 735)
I suppose it's only natural than when you convert to any faith you suddenly encounter an entirely new world of material, both sacred and non-sacred texts. One of my biggest joys, truthfully, after converting has been the challenge/pleasure to tackling this seemingly never-ending library of new ideas. It also works as an excuse for me not to devote as much time as I should to learning Arabic, as, instead, I spend many, many hours reading commentary on the Quran and the ahadith and related commentary, which is obviously not a bad thing, although becoming competent in Arabic would also be essential.
Quran 18:10-18
Here are some early passages from the 18th surah, al-Kahf, rendered as "The Cave." This is a Quranic retelling/reflection on the Christian story of the Seven Sleepers, and it's the story that gives its name to the surah. I suppose when you're talking about the word of God you shouldn't admit to having a favorite surah, but, having said that, surah 18 is clearly one of my favorites surahs, and it's one that I reread consistently. We've discussed the notion, prominent outside of the faith, the Islam is a painfully literal faith, sort of like Protestants on steroids, which is simply not true. Instead, Islam is a faith where metaphor plays a huge role, which, considering the primacy of poetry in the Arabic world, should come as no surprise (although it surprises people all the time). The first surah that introduced me to this complex metaphoric world is al-Kahf.
As Nasr explains to us in the commentary: "Thus sleep is associated with the barzakh, the intermediate realm between two opposites; when one is sleeping, one is still alive, but one's soul has been 'taken' by God (6:60), so that it is a kind of 'minor death,' after which waking is like a resurrection . . . In this sense the story of the Companions of the Cave can be read not only as a proof of God's power of resurrection, but also as an allegory for the barzakh, or intermediate realm between individual death and universal resurrection. From a Sufi perspective, the turning of the youths in their sleep can also represent their alternation between the states of annihilation (fana) and the subsistence (baqa) in God." (p. 735)
I suppose it's only natural than when you convert to any faith you suddenly encounter an entirely new world of material, both sacred and non-sacred texts. One of my biggest joys, truthfully, after converting has been the challenge/pleasure to tackling this seemingly never-ending library of new ideas. It also works as an excuse for me not to devote as much time as I should to learning Arabic, as, instead, I spend many, many hours reading commentary on the Quran and the ahadith and related commentary, which is obviously not a bad thing, although becoming competent in Arabic would also be essential.
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