Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran: Difference between revisions

Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran (view source)

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 ==Parallels to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus==
-There are a number of clear parallels between the Qur'anic story and the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. Those are detailed here:
+There are a number of clear parallels between the Qur'anic story and the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
+The two narratives clearly share many features which would indicate that they are in fact one and the same. They are virtually identical in the events they describe and both contain striking similarities in key details. Both story mention youths, a cave, a long sleep, buying bread with coins, and the Day of Judgement. Since the Syrian legend pre-dates the Qur'anic story by almost two centuries, it should be clear that the author of the Qur'an is simply retelling the Syrian story. The Qur'an even suggests in verse 18:9 that the audience is familiar with the story as they should have already "reflected" upon it.
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 The Syrian account identifies the Emperor persecuting the seven young men as Trajan Decius, who reigned from 249 - 251 CE.  Since the story first originated around the middle of the 5<sup>th</sup> century (circa 450 CE) a sleep of 200 years would be the more accurate number.  Given this connection, some Islamic scholars and apologists in modern times have back-peddled on the number of 300 given in the Qur'an, re-interpreting it as a number given by the people at the time and not a definitive number given by Allah.
-===Summary===
-The two narratives clearly share many features which would indicate that they are in fact one and the same. They are virtually identical in the events they describe and both contain striking similarities in key details. Both story mention youths, a cave, a long sleep, buying bread with coins, and the Day of Judgement. Since the Syrian legend pre-dates the Qur'anic story by almost two centuries, it should be clear that the author of the Qur'an is simply retelling the Syrian story. The Qur'an even suggests in verse 18:9 that the audience is familiar with the story as they should have already "reflected" upon it.
 ==Differences==