Through a unique expression, 300+9, God provides us with the period of their stay in the cave in both the solar and lunar calendars. Three hundred solar years corresponds to three hundred and nine lunar years. See 15:87 and 72:27.

Islam recognizes the freedom to reject the message of the Quran. This freedom is guaranteed. See 2:193,256; 10:99; 80:12; 88:21,22.

The Quran gives examples of many false gods, idolized by people; such as children (7:90), religious leaders and scholars (9:31), money and wealth (18:42), dead saints and prophets (16:20,21; 35:14; 46:5,6), and wishful thinking (25:43, 45:23). Satan, in order to infect his subject with polytheism, first introduced a deficient and false definition of polytheism (shirk) thereby eliminating any potential self-criticism mechanism. Therefore, polytheists, generally reject the fact that they are polytheists (6:23; 6:148; 16:35). See 19:81.

This obviously connects with the "idle guesses" mentioned in the first paragraph of verse 22 above-guesses refuted by the subsequent statements, "My Sustainer knows best how many they were" in verse 22, and "God knows best how long they remained [there]" in verse 26. This was, in particular, the view of `Abd Allah ibn Mas`ud, whose copy of the Qur'an is said to have contained the words, "And they [i.e., some people] said, `They remained.. .'," etc. (which was probably a marginal, explanatory remark added by Ibn Mas'ud), as well as of Qatadah and of Matar al-Warraq (Tabari, Zamakhshari and Ibn Kathir). My interpolation, at the beginning of the verse, of the words "some people asserted" is based on the word galu ("they said") used by Ibn Mas'ud in his marginal note.

According to Razi, it is on this passage, among others, that the great Qur'an commentator Abu Muslim al-Isfahani based his rejection of the so-called "doctrine of abrogation" discussed in my note 87 on 2:106.

For an explanation of this verse, see 6:52 and the corresponding note 41.

See surah 2, note 7. Zamakhshari and Razi explain the verb aghfalna -agreeably with Qur'anic doctrine - as meaning "whom We have found to be heedless". (See also my note 4 on the second part of 14:4.)

Lit., "and whose case (amr) was one of abandonment of [or "transgression against"] all bounds [of what is right]".

Thus Razi explains the expression az-zaiimun (lit., "the evildoers") in the above context.

The expression suradiq - rendered by me as "billowing folds" - literally denotes an awning or the outer covering of a tent, and alludes here to the billowing "walls of smoke" that will surround the sinners (Zamakhshari): a symbolism meant to stress the inescapability of their suffering in the hereafter (Razi).

Like all other Qur'anic descriptions of happenings in the hereafter, the above reference to the "adornment" of the believers with gold and jewels and silk (cf. similar passages in 22:23, 35:33 and 76:21) and their "reclining upon couches (ara'ik)" is obviously an allegory - in this case, an allegory of the splenddour, the ever-fresh life (symbolized by "green garments"), and the restful fulfilment that awaits them in result of the many acts of self-denial which their faith had imposed on them during their earthly life. - Referring to the symbolism of these joys of paradise, - Razi draws our attention to the difference in the construction of the two parts of this clause: the first part is in the passive form ("they will be adorned. ..") and the second, in the active ("they will wear. . ."). In his opinion, the active form alludes to what the righteous will have earned by virtue of their deeds, whereas the passive form denotes all that will be bestowed on them by God above and beyond their deserts.

This parable connects with verses 7-8 of this surah, and serves„as an illustration of the statement that "all beauty on earth is a means by which God puts men to a test".

The difference between 300 solar years and 300 lunar years is nine years. Thus, discovering the end of the world waspredetermined by the Almighty to take place in 1980 AD (1400 AH), 300 years(309 lunar years) before the end of the world (see 72:27 & Appendix 25).

The Quran cites many examples of the different gods that people worship beside God; they include children (7:190), religious leaders and scholars (9:31), property (18:42), dead saints and prophets (16:20-21, 35:14, & 46:5-6), and the ego (25:43,45:23).

Interestingly, 300 Solar years = 309 lunar years, but God knows best

His laws in Theory (Kalimaatillah), and His laws in Practice as implemented in the Universe (Sunnatillah), never change. 6:34, 6:116, 10:64, 17:77, 18:27, 33:38, 33:62, 40:85, 48:23

6:52, 8:5254, 89:29:30. 'Case closed' = The Divine laws have already decreed for him ultimate loss for his relentless misdeeds

9:34-35