Page 141 - Perished Nations

So they stayed in their Cave three hundred years, and (some) add nine
(more) Say: "Allah knows best how long they stayed: with Him is (the
knowledge of) the secrets of the heavens and the earth: how clearly He se-
es, how finely He hears (everything)! They have no protector other than
Him; nor does He share His Command with any person whatsoever." (Su-
rat al-Kahf: 9-26)
According to widespread belief, the Companions of the Cave who are
praised both by Islamic and Christian sources, were subjected to the cruel
tyranny of the Roman Emperor, Decius. Meeting the oppression and injus-
tice of Decius, these young people warned their own people many times
not to abandon the religion of Allah. The indifference of their people to
their communication of the message, the increase in oppression of the em-
peror and their being threatened with death, caused them to leave their ho-
mes.
As historical documents verify, at that time, many emperors extensively
executed policies of terror, oppression, and injustice on believers who sto-
od for early Christianity in its original and pure form.
In a letter written by the Roman Governor Pilinius (69-113 AD) who
was in North West Anatolia, to the Emperor Trayanus, he referred to "the
companions of the Messiah (the Christians) who were punished because
they resisted worshipping the statue of the Emperor." This letter is one of
the important documents which relate the oppression visited on early
Christians at that time. Under such circumstances, these young people,
who were asked to submit to a non-religionist system and to worship an
emperor as a god apart from Allah, did not accept this and said:
"... Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and of the earth: never shall we call
upon any god other than Him: if we did, we should indeed have uttered
an enormity! These our people have taken for worship gods other than
Him: why do they not bring forward an authority clear (and convincing)
for what they do? Who doth more wrong than such as invent a falsehood
against Allah?" (Surat al-Kahf: 14-15)
As regards the region where the Companions of the Cave lived, there
are several different opinions. The most reasonable of these are Ephesus
and Tarsus.
Almost all the Christian sources show Ephesus as the location of the Ca-

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