How many years did the cave people sleep?

The reason why the boys resorted to the cave

One of the most prominent things that prompted the Companions of the Cave to resort to their cave was that they used to unite God - the Almighty - and do not associate anything with Him, while the ruler at that time worshiped idols, and soon after he called them to worship idols; So they rejected his invitation and insisted on adhering to the worship of God - the Most High - alone with no partner, He says - the Almighty -: (And We bound their hearts when they stood up and said, Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, we will not call on any god besides Him. We had then said an excess.); Polytheism is a slander against God - the Almighty - and an injustice to the human soul, and it was only from the youth that they retired from the society of polytheism and took refuge in the cave and slept in it for a long time by the command of God - the Almighty -.

How many years did the cave people sleep?

The duration of sleep of the Companions of the Cave is estimated according to the People of the Book as three hundred solar years, while among the Arabs it exceeds nine lunar years. The Almighty said: (And they broadcast in their cave three hundred years, and they increased nine.Thus, the period becomes three hundred solar years and three hundred and nine lunar years. The difference between every hundred lunar years and the like of it is three years; The hundred lunar years are three years longer than the hundred solar years.

And when the period of sleep that God Almighty had destined for the people of the cave ended, they woke up, and the question was among them how long we had stayed. The Almighty said:(Thus We sent them to inquire among themselves. One of them said, “How long did you stay?” They said, “We tarried a day or part of a day.” They said, “Your Lord knows best how long you tarried.”So each of them thought that the duration of their sleep did not exceed a day or part of a day, and the people of the cave had entered their cave in the morning period, and when they woke up, it was at the end of the day, and for this they said we stayed a day, and when they saw that the sun was still visible, they said some day, either عن سبب قولهم ربّكم أعلمُ بما لبثتم فيقول ابن عباس -رضي الله عنه- : “هُوَ رَئِيسُهُمْ رَدَّ عِلْمَ ذَلِكَ إِلَى اللَّهِ تَعَالَى لِأَنَّهُ لَمَّا نَظَرَ إِلَى أَشْعَارِهِمْ وَأَظْفَارِهِمْ وَبَشَرَةِ وُجُوهِهِمْ رَأَى فِيهَا آثَارَ التَّغَيُّرِ الشَّدِيدِ فَعَلِمَ أَنَّ مِثْلَ ذَلِكَ التَّغَيُّرِ لَا يَحْصُلُ إِلَّا فِي الْأَيَّامِ الطَّوِيلَةِ “ .

The discovery of the real duration of their stay by the people of the cave was one of the signs indicating the power of God Almighty. They were like sleeping, but when looking at them, the beholder does not think that they are asleep, but rather thinks that they are awake, and their dog was spreading his arms at the door, and the sun was rising and setting on them, and they continued in that state until God Almighty permitted life to return to them, and after that hunger forced them to take out One of them goes to the market in disguise with a piece of silver, and fear fills his heart that his affair will be revealed and he and his companions will be killed; Because they believed in God Almighty and refused to worship others with Him, and this man did not know that he and his companions had slept for more than three hundred years. He discovered that the world had changed, and there was nothing left in the city as they were accustomed to, and when he took out the coin that was with him; To buy food with it. The seller marveled at the one who presented the coin and asked him about his condition. So he told him the news, and the people of Medina were on monotheism at the time, and when they heard their story, they followed that man until he entered the cave and God Almighty decreed that their souls, he and his companions, be taken.

And the people argued about their situation, and some of them saw that they should build a mosque for them to pray in and draw closer to God Almighty. Some of them saw that they were three and their dog was the fourth of them, and some of them saw that they were five and their sixth was their dog, and some of them saw that they were seven and their dog eighth, and the truth is that only God Almighty knows their number; He said: (They will say three, the fourth of them is their dog, and they will say five, the sixth of them is their dog, guessing the unseen, and they will say seven, and the eighth is their dog. Do not argue about them except in an open argument, and do not ask anyone about them.).

The lesson learned from the length of stay of the people of the cave

The story of the People of the Cave, like other stories of the Qur’an, contains many lessons and lessons, whether in its main events or in its minute details. (Even when one of them came, the death said, "Lord, return to me, I will do righteousness, when I left, but it is a word, it is a saying, and it is a saying, and it is a saying." Also, this period is one of the most prominent evidences of the power of God Almighty, and God Almighty wanted it to establish the argument against the deniers and increase the faith of the believers, and God Almighty’s care appeared for the owners of the cave in their stay in the cave for a long time without their bodies wearing out. Or that faith in their hearts is affected by his reconciliation because they are His servants; So this sleep was one of the evidences of the power of God - the Almighty - and his great benevolence to the believers, and in that is an indication that everything in the universe takes place according to what he destined and wanted.