arma@raksha.eng.ohio-state.edu (Lama Hamandi) (02/08/91)
It was posted that somebody (to whom I am replying) read the story of the people of the cave and wanted to know if it existed somwhere else. There is a Sura(Chapter) in the Quran that is entitled AlKahf, if you read it in this Sura and want to know if there existed other narrations in other books then : -Please be aware that for Muslims, anything in the Quran comes from Allah (God) and we don't need to another proof for its validity. About the people of the cave, I beleive that it was the Jews who made that story as a test for the prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon all the prophets) so they asked him about that story and put it like this: If you were a prophet then your god should tell you about it, otherwise you are not. The prophet didn't have any idea about that (it seems that this story was not known in the Arabian Peninsula at that time) so he waited for the revelation from Allah (God) and it indeed came after days hence Sura (chapter) AlKahf (the cave). The jews were told about it (actually the Sura (Chapter) contains "Yasalounaka (they ask you) aan (about) Ahlil Kahf (the people of the cave)" in reference to those who asked the prophet (Peace be upon him) about that story). So the point is that that story was known before the prophet muhammad (Peace be upon him) but it was not known to most (if not all) of the Pagan arabs or the society there at that time. I imagine that the books of the jews should contain some reference about it