18:1  Allah is praised who revealed to His servant the book and did not place any deviation in it.

18:2  Upright as a warning of severe harm from Him and good news to the believers who do good work that they will have a beautiful reward.

18:3  In which they will remain forever.

18:4  And as a warning to those who say Allah has adopted a son.

18:5  They have no knowledge of it nor have their fathers, grave is the word that comes out of their mouths, they only speak a lie.

18:6  So you almost kill yourself with worry pursuing them as they do not believe in this word.

18:7  For We have placed everything on earth as an adornment for it to test them who of them is best in deeds.

18:8  And We will turn what is on it into barren soil.

18:9  Or do you consider the companions of the cave and the inscription amongst Our amazing signs?

18:10  When the youths sought refuge in the cave and said: our Lord, give us mercy from You and grant us righteousness in our affair.

18:11  So We sealed their ears in the cave for a number of years.

18:12  Then We raised them in order to know which of the two groups would best count the duration they stayed.

18:13  We tell you their account in truth. They were youths who believed in their Lord and We increased them in guidance.

18:14  And We fortified their hearts when they rose and said: our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, we shall not call on any god besides Him or we would say something excessive.

18:15  These our people have adopted gods besides Him. Why do they not bring a clear authority for them? So who is more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allah?

18:16  And when you part from them and what they serve besides Allah, seek refuge in the cave, your Lord will spread out His mercy for you and grant you ease in your affair.

18:17  And you see the sun pass to the right of their cave when it rises and avoid them on the left when it sets whilst they are in a gap between. This is from the signs of Allah. Whom Allah guides, he is guided, and whom He lets go astray, you will not find a guardian for him to lead him right.

18:18  And you consider them awake whilst they are asleep, and We turn them to the right and the left, and their dog stretches out its paws at the entrance. If you were to stumble across them, you would have run away and been filled with fear of them.

18:19  And likewise We raised them so that they would ask each other. One of them said: how long did you stay? They said: we stayed a day or part of a day. They said: your Lord knows best how long you stayed, so send one of you with these coins of yours to the town and let him see which food is purest and bring you provision from it, and let him be discrete, so nobody notices you.

18:20  For if they discover you, they will stone you or return you to their religion and you will never succeed.

18:21  And like this We had them found out so that they would know that Allah´s promise is true and that there is no doubt about the hour when they argued amongst each other about their affair and said: construct a building over them. Your Lord knows best about them. Those who won the argument said: we will erect a prayer place over them.

18:22  They will say (they were) three and their dog the fourth, and they say five and their dog the sixth, guessing the unseen, and they say seven and their dog the eighth. Say: my Lord knows their number best, only few know about them, so do not openly dispute about them regarding anything that is not apparent nor ask any of them their opinion about them.

18:23  And do not say about anything that I will do this tomorrow,

18:24  Except if Allah pleases. And remember your Lord if you forgot and say: maybe my Lord will guide me to greater righteousness than this.

18:25  And they stayed in their cave for three hundred years, to which they add nine.

18:26  Say: Allah knows best how long they stayed, His is the unseen of the heavens and the earth, He sees and hears all; they have no protector besides Him nor does He share His judgement with anyone.

18:27  And recite to them what has been revealed to you from the book of your Lord, there is no changing His words and you will not find a refuge besides Him.

18:28  And be yourself patient together with those who call their Lord in the mornings and evenings seeking His presence, and do not avert your eyes from them seeking the adornment of this world, and do not obey the one whose heart We have made careless about remembering Us and he follows his desire and his effort is wasted.

18:29  And say: the truth from your Lord, so whoever pleases, let him believe, and whoever pleases, let him reject, for We have prepared a fire for the wrongdoers which surrounds them completely, and when they ask for drink, they are given to drink water like lava which roasts their faces - what a bad drink and what a bad resting place.

18:30  Those who believe and do good work, We do not waste the reward of anyone with good deeds.

18:31  For them are the gardens of Eden through which rivers flow, they are adorned there with bracelets of gold and wear green clothes from silk and brocade, reclining there on couches - what a blessed reward and what a beautiful resting place.

18:32  And coin for them the likeness of two men: one of them We gave two gardens of grapes and surrounded them with palm trees and placed between them land for cultivation.

18:33  Each of the gardens produced its fruit without any reduction and We made a river emerge between them.

18:34  And he had abundance, so he said to his companion, challenging him, I have more wealth than you and stronger numbers.

18:35  And he entered his garden, doing wrong to himself, saying: I don´t think this will ever disappear.

18:36  And I don´t think the hour will happen, and if I were to be brought back to my Lord, I would find even better than this in its place.

18:37  His companion said to him, challenging him, do you reject the One who created you from soil, then from a sperm, then shaped you into a man?

18:38  But He is Allah, my Lord, and I do not associate anyone with my Lord.

18:39  Why did you not say, when you entered your garden, whatever pleases Allah! There is no power except in Allah, if you look at me, I have less wealth and children than you.

18:40  But maybe my Lord will give me better than your garden and send against it a torrent from the sky so that it becomes washed away soil.

18:41  Or its water recedes, so you will not be able to find it.

18:42  And his abundance was rounded up and he wrung his hands regarding what he had spent on it whilst it was abandoned in ruins and said: if only I did not associate anyone with my Lord.

18:43  And he had no party to help him besides Allah and was not going to be helped.

18:44  There the only true protection is with Allah, with Him is the best reward and the best outcome.

18:45  And coin for them the likeness of the worldly life as water which We send down from the sky and the plants of the earth absorb it, then they become dry stalks which the winds carry off, and Allah has power over all things.

18:46  Wealth and children are the adornment of the worldly life, and the lasting good deeds have a better reward with your Lord and give better rise to hope.

18:47  And on the day We move the mountains and you see the earth exposed, and We gather them and leave not any of them out.

18:48  And they will be presented before your Lord in ranks; you have come to Us as We created you the first time, but you claimed We would not have an appointment for you.

18:49  And the book will be placed and you see the sinners anxious about what it contains and they say: woe to us, this book does not leave anything small or big without counting it. And they find present what they had done and your Lord does not wrong anyone.

18:50  And when We said to the angels: prostrate before Adam, they prostrated except Iblis (the devil) who was from among the Jinn and deviated from the command of his Lord - are you then going to take him and his descendants as protecting friends besides Me when they are an enemy to you? A bad swap for the wrongdoers.

18:51  I did not let them witness the creation of the heavens and the earth nor the creation of themselves and I did not take the support of those who lead astray.

18:52  And on the day He says: call whom you claim to be My associates, then they call them but they do not respond to them and We place a barrier between them.

18:53  And the sinners see the fire and think that they will be thrown in it and will not find an escape from it.

18:54  We have explained to people in this Qur´an all kind of examples but man argues about most things.

18:55  And nothing prevented people from believing when the guidance came to them and to seek forgiveness from their Lord except (that they waited) for the example of the earliest communities to reach them or the punishment to face them.

18:56  And We only send the messengers as bringers of good news and warners, and those who reject (the truth) argue with falsehood in order to refute the truth with it and take My signs and their warnings as a joke.

18:57  And who is more wrong than he who has been reminded by the signs of his Lord and turns away from them and forgets what he has sent ahead for himself. We have placed a cover over their hearts, so they do not understand it, and a weight upon their ears, and if you call them to the guidance they will never be guided.

18:58  And your Lord is forgiving, full of mercy; if He overtook them on account of what they have earned, He would hasten the punishment for them, but there is a fixed term for them which they cannot avoid.

18:59  As for the towns We have destroyed when they did wrong, We decreed a fixed term for their destruction.

18:60  And when Musa (Moses) said to his male servant: I will not stop until I have reached the crossing between the two seas even if it takes a very long time.

18:61  And when they reached the crossing between them they forgot their fish and it quickly made its way into the sea.

18:62  And when they had passed beyond he said to his male servant: bring us our food, we have earned our share from this journey.

18:63  He said: see, when we went towards the rock I forgot the fish, and only the devil made me forget to mention it, and it amazingly made its way into the sea.

18:64  He said: this is what we were looking for, so they retraced their steps.

18:65  Then they found one of Our servants whom We had given mercy from Us and taught him knowledge from Us.

18:66  Musa (Moses) said to him: may I follow you so you will teach me of the righteousness you have been taught?

18:67  He said: you cannot bear patience with me.

18:68  And how can you bear patience with what you do not understand?

18:69  He said: if Allah wills you will find me patient and I will not disobey you in anything.

18:70  He said: then if you follow me, do not ask me about anything until I mention it to you.

18:71  So they set off until they boarded a boat in which he made a hole. He said: did you make a hole in it to drown its people? You´ve done a strange thing.

18:72  He said: did I not say that you cannot bear patience with me?

18:73  He said: do not take me to account for having forgotten and do not make the matter difficult for me.

18:74  So they set off until they met a boy and he killed him. He said: did you kill someone pure other than in retaliation, you have done something unacceptable.

18:75  He said: did I not tell you that you cannot bear patience with me?

18:76  He said: if I ask you anything after that, then do not accompany me; you will have found an excuse with me.

18:77  So they set off until when they reached the inhabitants of a town they asked them for food but they refused to entertain them. Then they found a wall there which was about to fall, so he strengthened it. He said: if you wanted, you could have taken a reward for it.

18:78  He said: this is the parting between me and you. I will inform you of the interpretation of what you could not bear patience with.

18:79  As for the boat, it belonged to poor people who worked on the sea, and I intended to damage it because there was a king after them who took every boat by force.

18:80  And as for the boy, his parents were believers and we feared that he would overpower them with transgression and rejection.

18:81  So we intended that their Lord replaced him for them with someone purer and more merciful.

18:82  And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphans in the town and there was a treasure for them under it and their father was a righteous man, so your Lord intended that they should reach their full strength and take out their treasure as a mercy from your Lord. And I did not do it on my own accord. That is the interpretation of what you could not bear patience with.

18:83  And they ask you about the one with two horns. Say: I will recite to you a reminder about him.

18:84  We established him on earth and gave him the means for everything.

18:85  So he pursued a matter.

18:86  Until when he reached the setting point of the sun he found it set in a muddy spring and found near it a people. We said: oh two-horned one, you can punish them or you can treat them well.

18:87  He said: whoever does wrong, we will punish him, then he will be returned to his Lord who will punish him severely.

18:88  And whoever believes and does good, he will have a good reward and we will make it easy for him.

18:89  Then he pursued a matter.

18:90  Until when he reached the rising point of the sun he found it rising near a people whom We had not given any screening from it.

18:91  This is how it was, and We knew all about him.

18:92  Then he pursued a matter.

18:93  Until when he reached between the two extremes, he found another people who hardly understood any speech.

18:94  They said: Oh two-horned one, Ya´juj and Ma´juj (Gog and Magog) are spreading corruption on earth, so shall we give you a tribute for you to place between us and them a barrier?

18:95  He said: what my Lord has established me with is better, so help me with labour, I will place between you and them a structure.

18:96  Bring me blocks of iron, then when he levelled the two ends he said: blow, until he made it glow, then he said: bring me the melted mass to pour on it.

18:97  And they could not climb over it nor could they cut through it.

18:98  He said: this is of the mercy of my Lord, but when my Lord´s promise comes to pass He will make it crumble, and my Lord´s promise is true.

18:99  And on that day We let some of them mingle with others, and the horn is blown and We gather them all.

18:100  And We present hell to those who rejected (the truth) on that day.

18:101  Those whose eyes were closed to My remembrance and who could not listen.

18:102  Do those who reject (the truth) count on taking My servants as protectors besides Me? We have prepared hell as a gift for those who reject (the truth).

18:103  Say: Shall I inform you whose work is most useless?

18:104  Those whose effort went astray in the life of the world and they reckon that they have done well.

18:105  Those are the ones who reject the signs of their Lord and the meeting with Him, so their deeds are wasted and We assign no weight to them on the day of resurrection.

18:106  This is their reward: hell, on account of having rejected (the truth) and taken My signs and My messengers for a joke.

18:107  Those who believe and do good work, the gardens of paradise are their gift.

18:108  They remain there and will not want it to change.

18:109  Say: if the sea was the ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would run out before the words of my Lord would run out even if We brought a similar measure once more.

18:110  Say: I am only a human like you to whom has been revealed that your god is a single god, so whoever looks forward to meeting his Lord, let him do good work and not associate in the service to my Lord anyone.