﴿ إِنَّهُمْ إِن يَظْهَرُوا۟ عَلَيْكُمْ يَرْجُمُوكُمْ أَوْ يُعِيدُوكُمْ فِى مِلَّتِهِمْ وَلَن تُفْلِحُوٓا۟ إِذًا أَبَدًۭا ﴾

“for, behold, if they should come to know of you, they might stone you to death or force you back to their faith-in which case you would never attain to any good!"”

When the Men of the Cave woke up from their sleep, they naturally started discussing the duration of their sleep. But, time had stopped for them by God’s order and as such the period which was spread over centuries for others appeared to be just one day for the Men of the Cave. After getting up they felt hungry. Still having some silver coins in their possession, they sent one of their number out with a coin. They insisted on his searching for clean food thinking that perhaps ‘halal’ food would be available in the Christian localities of the city. Moreover, they advised the concerned person to handle the matter cautiously and wisely, because, on the basis of past experience, they were afraid that if their opponents came to know of their existence, they would try to persuade them to return to polytheism and, on their refusal, they would kill them.