In the Surat Al-Kahf, there is a narrative of those young men who were in the cave. Yes. People of the cave. Yes. What is the significance of the dog? Yes. One significance you can see here in England and other European countries. You see, the description of dog watching over the Ashab-e-Kahf shows that the same people would have affinity with the dog and that would become a part of their everyday life.
So, these Ashab-e-Kahf can be recognized, I mean their forefathers, their ancestors, can be recognized by knowing that these are the people, these are the nations, who have that particular feature of love of God. Love of dog, not love of God. But that is so pronounced and conspicuous that nowhere else will you find the same. Now this is very surprising. The Holy Quran says that Ashab-e-Kahf used to have dog watching their mouths of their caves and the way the dog is mentioned is almost a part of them.
And when you study the habits and cultures of various peoples on earth, you come to notice that it is the Christian people who have that special affinity. And particularly the descendants of the Roman Empire or when it was extended to other parts of Europe, those European people are the descendants of those Christians who were called Ashab-e-Kahf. Or if not direct descendants, descendants of their values at least. So there, the love of dog is very prominent. And dog has become an everyday feature of their lives. While nowhere else is found dog to occupy the same position.
Go to the Far East, they have eaten their dogs. You see, in China, you will hardly see a dog because they have eaten them up. In Africa, they eat dogs with such pleasure, you know, a delish, don’t they? In India and sub-Pakistan, the dogs are to be seen as, you know, in the most pitiable state. In the streets, here and there, half-fed and, you know, absolutely shocking state. Disease-ridden and dog was just the object for children to stone.
So nowhere will you find love of dogs evinced as much as here in Europe. But weren’t these people of the caves supposed to be good people? They were, of course, very good people. Not only ordinary good people, exceptionally good. And the idea was that, but I mean, it seems that the dog is sort of a negative aspect of their goodness. No, no, no, no, not at all. It’s a good aspect. Dogs served their cause so much and in that situation a dog was required. Because if a dog is sitting watch and some people observe some dog sitting over somewhere, they cannot overtake dog if he’s a trained dog and runs to warn his masters.
And he can also escape their wrath. They can’t catch a dog, particularly in the olden days. They are not weaponry enough and a dog could easily escape their onslaught. So dogs were, and a dog can sit a constant watch. If you make him sit at one place and train him to sit over there, even if it’s asleep, it is, you know, the sleep is so delicate and so easily broken that nobody can approach a place without waking the dog who is asleep at some place. So this is why it was an essential part for their survival. It is the good character of dog which has been brought to limelight, not the badness of dog. And he proved to be such a loyal companion to them and so useful.
Whenever some enemies, some soldiers were approaching the mouths of such caves which were inhabited by the people of the caves, the dogs who were trained and who kept sitting on the mouth guarding the mouth of the cave, they would immediately run to their masters and warn them that somebody is approaching. Or at least by barking, when they would start barking, the bark would be heard deep in the caves as well.
So they would know that somebody is approaching. The second question leading from the same narrative is that these people were supposed to have been there for hundreds of years or some long period. But the style in which the Holy Quran gives this account is not ordinary style. It is something, you know, it is a departure from ordinary Arabic grammar. And immediately one’s attention is drawn to the fact that Allah knows Arabic grammar better than anybody else. Why has Allah made this particular departure describing the age for which they lived in the caves?
The Holy Quran tells us that as people of the cave lived, salasa mayatin sineen, 300 sineen. While according to the Arabic rule of numbers, the correct expression would be, if Allah means 300 years full, salasa mayatin sanatan, not sineen. Because it should be always singular and mansub, that is in the objective state. And never a plural sineen. The plural sineen is only used for count from between 3 to 9. And not beyond that. So why has Allah departed from this normal custom of counting numbers in Arabic and says that they lived in the caves 300 and then sineen.
So obviously the word sineen here is used to indicate certain other things. And there is a pause between 300 and then sineen. Wazdadu tisa, following this Allah says, wazdadu tisa, and they added 9 to this. Now when you look back at the history of the Roman Empire, during which the Christians were persecuted, and the time when they ultimately became the emperors of the Roman Empire or the possessors of the Roman Empire, rulers of the Roman Empire, the time is exactly 309 years.
So one thing is obvious, that Allah does want to create the impression that the whole process took 309 years. The period which can be called the period of the caves. But during this whole period, they were not compelled to live underneath the ground all the time, continuously. During this period of the caves, off and on, they went to the caves and then came out. And this is exactly what the Roman history tells us. And all the time spent in the caves put together is not more than 9 years. That is sineen. The period covered by the word sineen is from 3 to 9 years. And the total time actually spent during the period 309 years in the caves was not more than 9 years.
So you see, in one single sentence, these two difficult subjects have been discussed by the Holy Qur’an by making a slight departure from normal rule of Arabic grammar, apparently. But when you pause in between the sineen and salasa mayateen, then you begin to understand what Allah wants to say. There is no departure either. What Allah says is, they lived for 300. And what 300 were, have not been mentioned. And then it says that was daadu tissa, it was not just 300, 309 years. But the years are not mentioned here.
The word sineen means the years of ashaab-e-kaaf. The years when they lived as the people of the cave, actually, practically, underneath the surface of the earth, as cavemen. That period was not more than sineen. But altogether, the historical period which passed was 309 years. So in the light of what I have described, when you study the Roman history, it is exactly the same thing which appears. And surprising how a man in Arabia could have conceived this. The history books were not written at that time. Nobody knew what was the time and the period and this and that.
And this is why when the ashaab-e-kaaf are declared to be talking between each other, how many years they have lived and what is the count and this and that, they have forgotten, they don’t know, they are confused and Allah ultimately says, Allah knows better the time. So if it was so obvious that they had lived 309 years in caves, why was the issue so confused and uncertain? Again, this is a pointer. What Allah wants to point out is this, that during a long history of 309 years, off and on, the people of the cave, during the age which is called the age of the caves, went to the caves and came out of the caves also.
But the actual period spent underneath the earth, underneath the earth, in the caves, is not more than what you can describe as Sineen. And the word Sineen, as I have explained, is between three and nine, not more. Then what’s the thing about the coins? They were supposed to go and test out, go and buy something with this coin. Of course. If they had only been there for nine years? When they went to the cave, suppose one period extended one year, and in that period the last revolution took place.
So obviously the Holy Quran is referring to the last period when the revolution on the surface of the earth had taken place, but those who had run for their lives, they had several ties with the people living outside. They did not know what was happening. So when they went out, then they realized that a change had already taken place, a revolution had taken place. The monarch had accepted Christianity. So that is the incident which is mentioned there.
