Seven sleepers

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Often appears with: fate, destiny, and necessity · sura xviii the cave · islamic legend parallels · faith and guidance · fable, romance, and storytelling · eschatology and resurrection · ephesus · education and the training of the young · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · decius persecution · crime and punishment

Usually: argument (1) · narrative (1) · reverence (1) · skepticism (1)

Quotable

“And haply, if they believe not in this new revelation, thou wilt slay thyself, on their very footsteps, out of vexation.” G. Margoliouth (George), The Koran (Al-Qur'an) · observation

The Koran (Al-Qur'an) secondary

G. Margoliouth (George) · 610-632 CE (revelations compiled progressively; book published after the prophet’s death)
Book carefully concocted from various sources, and with much extraneous aid, and published as a divine oracle, then it would seem that the author is at once open to the charge of the grossest imposture, and even of impious blasphemy. The evidence rather shews, that in all he did and wrote, Muhammad was actuated by a sincere desire to deliver his countrymen from the grossness of its debasing idolatries-that he was urged on by an intense desire to proclaim that great truth of the Unity of the Godhead which had taken full possession of his own soul-that the end to be attained justified to his mind the means he adopted in the production of his Suras-that he worked himself up into a belief that he had received a divine call-and that he was carried on by the force of circumstances, and by gradually increasing successes, to believe himself the accredited messenger of Heaven. The earnestness of those convictions which at Mecca sustained him under persecution, and which perhaps led him, at any price as it were, and by any means, not even excluding deceit and falsehood, to endeavour to rescue his countrymen from idolatry,-naturally stiffened at Medina into tyranny and unscrupulous violence. At the same time, he was probably, more or less, throughout his whole career, the victim of a certain amount of self-deception. A cataleptic13 subject from his early youth, born-according to the traditions-of a highly nervous and excitable mother, he would be peculiarly liable to morbid and fantastic hallucinations, and alternations of excitement and depression, which would win for him, in the eyes of his ignorant countrymen, the credit of being inspired. It would be easy for him to persuade himself that he was "the seal of the Prophets," > Book is no other than a warning and a clear Koran, (30/104)

A Quranic section introduces Sura XVIII “The Cave,” recounting the Seven Sleepers’ faith, their sleep and awakening, and guidance that depends on God, not argument or speculation.

legend of Solomon's power over the Genii originates in a mistranslation of Eccl. ii. 8. Comp. also for other points in this story Prov. vi. 6; 1 Kings x. 1-10. 5 "Demons obeyed him (Solomon) . . . and evil spirits were subjected to him." Targ. 2. on Esther 1, 2. From the same source Muhammad has adopted, with slight variations, the whole story of Solomon's intercourse with the Queen of Saba. Comp. also Tr. Gittin, f…

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 3 secondary

Edward Gibbon · 1782 (written); 1845 (revised)
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part I. > Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.—Part II. (3/6)

Gibbon dismisses ecclesiastical legend by analyzing the Seven Sleepers: youths of Ephesus sleep for 187 years, awaken under Theodosius, and become a universal Christian-to-Islamic tale reflecting human love of sudden time gaps.

37 (return) [ See the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper, and Marcellinus. They mark the same year, but different days, for the surprisal of Carthage.] A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a colony; and though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives of Constantinople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the splendor of Antioch, she still maintained the second r…