Surah Al-Kahf, Ayah 16

Their Belief in Allah and their Retreat from their People

From here Allah begins to explain the story in detail. He states that they were boys or young men, and that they were more accepting of the truth and more guided than the elders who had become stubbornly set in their ways and clung to the religion of falsehood. For the same reason, most of those who responded to Allah and His Messenger were young people. As for the elders of Quraysh, most of them kept to their religion and only a few of them became Muslims. So Allah tells us that the people of the cave were young men. Mujahid said, "I was informed that some of them wore some kind of earrings, then Allah guided them and inspired them to fear Him, so they recognized His Oneness, and bore witness that there is no god besides Him."

About the verse: فَأْوُوا إِلَى الْكَهْفِ (then seek refuge in the Cave - 16), Ibn Kathir says that the course adopted by the People of Kahf was that they left the city in which it was not possible to worship Allah and took refuge in the Cave. This is the Sunnah, the way of all prophets. They migrate from such places and opt for a place where ` Ibadah could be done.

When a man, on account of his devotion to truth, becomes isolated from his fellow-beings, he comes closer to God. He comes so close to his Lord that he can converse with God. He talks with his Lord and receives a response from Him. The new faith of the ‘Men of the Cave,’ their fearless preaching, their willingness to forego everything rather than to forego the right path, had all bestowed upon them the high status of nearness to God. Whatever they had apparently lost was nothing compared to what they had gained. It was this sense of achievement which enabled them to tolerate the loss of all else but the truth. They reconciled themselves to the position that they were living in a cave, renouncing the comforts of their homes and their town, while still entertaining the hope that God would help them and ameliorate their condition. Ibn Jarir has quoted ‘Ata as saying that they were seven in number. While in the cave, they used to pray to God, used to cry and seek His help. (Tafsir ibn Kathir). Finally God made them fall into a long deep slumber.