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THE QUR'ÂN.
XVIII, 20-25.
[20] Thus did we make their people acquainted with their story, that they might know that God's promise is true; and that the Hour, there is no doubt concerning it. When they disputed amongst themselves concerning their affair, and said, 'Build a building over them, their Lord knows best about them ;' and those who prevailed in their affair said, 'We will surely make a mosque over them.
They will say, 'Three, and the fourth of them was their dog :' and they will say, 'Five, and the sixth of them was their dog :' guessing at the unseen: and they will say, 'Seven, and the eighth of them was their dog. Say, 'My Lord knows best the number of them; none knows them but a few.
Dispute not therefore concerning them save with a plain disputation, and ask not any one of them? concerning them.
And never say of anything, Verily, I am going to do that to-morrow, except ‘if God please ;' and remember thy Lord when thou hast forgotten, and say, 'It may be that my Lord will guide me to what is nearer to the right than this 2.'
They tarried in their cave three hundred years and nine more. [25] Say, 'God knows best of their tarrying. His are the unseen things of the heavens and the earth-He can see! and hear 3!
1 That is, the Christians.
Mohammed being asked by the Jews concerning the number of the Seven Sleepers, had promised to bring them a revelation upon the subject on the morrow: this verse is a rebuke for his presumption.
8 This expression Sale takes to be ironical, and translates,' make thou him to see and hear;' Rodwell renders it, 'look thou and hearken unto him :' both translators having missed both the force
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