7/20/2020 0:00:00
We will go to inspect the caves that are controversial as being the places where the story of the Companions of the Cave and Al-Raqim took place.
● The first cave is in Türkiye.
If we go to Türkiye, we will encounter an important observation:
Many stories of religion took place in Turkey… Ibrahim in Turkey, Nouh’s Ark, and the story of the Companions of the Cave… This makes us ask an important question… Why did many stories of religion take place in Turkey? Was there a political authority in the past that planted awareness? And the interpretation of religious texts and their projection into the geography of Turkey so that it has a religious status?
Cave of the Cave Companions in Turkey is located in the city of Tarsus in the village of Dadiler, inside Mount Angelos, 12 kilometers from the city of Tarsus. At the entrance to the cave there is a steep staircase consisting of 15 steps, and above the cave there is a mosque built by Sultan Abdul Aziz in 1873, which is distinguished by its three amazing minarets that still exist today.
As is clear, Turkey Cave… obtained this status from a process of marriage between the Syriac sources, as the name of the mountain is the same name mentioned in the Syriac sources. The idea of the mosque located near the cave is to make it have an Islamic character, as in the text of the Qur’an about the mosque that was built over them, even if it was built in a late period.
The city of Tarsus, with its religious and historical monuments, is considered one of the most important cities incubating religious and cultural tourism in Turkey, and every year it hosts thousands of tourists from all countries of the world.
But what is strange about the topic of the Turkish cave is that there are other Turkish cities that also conflict with the story. There is the Turkish city of Efes and Lija.
The insistence on this story by the authorities there is very natural, as it has a background in supporting the tourism economy more than it being a fact, especially since Turkey has become a tourist destination. Denying this story and this cave will harm tourism in general and will harm this city in particular.
● As for the cave in Jordan
It is the Al-Rajim Cave located in the village of Al-Rajib, 7 kilometers east of the Jordanian capital, Amman. This cave was discovered by a journalist in 1951.
The evidence about this cave is as follows:
– The old name of the site of the village of Al-Rajim in Jordan is (Al-Raqim), which makes it consistent with what was mentioned in the Holy Qur’an.
As it was mentioned in the Qur’an: (Or did you think that the Companions of the Cave and the Ar-Raqim were a wonder among Our signs) (Surat Al-Kahf: Verse 9). Thus, it is likely that the village of Al-Rajib is the correct location for the Companions of the Cave, taking into account the presence of more than one site in the Middle East that people believe is the Companions of the Cave.
Eight graves appeared in the cave, and near the cave door a dog skull was found (the upper jaw only), which was their guard. Also, the evidence found at the site indicates that the owners of the cave (if the cave is the correct cave) were seven, including the shepherd, and the eighth was their dog. The dog was buried on the threshold of the door where he was guarding, and he was not buried in the eighth grave. It is not yet known whose eighth grave belongs.
It was mentioned in the Qur’an: (They will say, “There are three, the fourth of whom is their dog.” And they will say, “Five,” the sixth of whom is their dog, unseen. And they will say, “Seven, and the eighth of them is their dog.” Say, “My Allah knows best their number. Only a few know them. So do not dispute over them except in open dissent, and do not consult any of them concerning them.”)
If we read the story, we will find that the discovery of the cave was very late, specifically in the year 1951. Here we pose an exclamatory question mark.
Is it possible that there was no local culture that talked about the cave, especially since the story appears in the Qur’an, and it is supposed that since ancient times it has had a special place among people, Al-Nasarah and Muslims?!
Among the clues to the cave is the name, its name is Al-Qaryah Al-Rajim, not Al-Raqim, but a way out can be found that the letter Qaf is pronounced as “jim” in people’s dialects.
Also, the discovery of the existence of eight graves, but as long as the graves are there, it is assumed that there is a mosque near the graves according to the text of the Qur’an, because since they used the name of the Qur’an as evidence for the discovery of the cave, they must also use the Qur’an as evidence of the existence of the mosque, but they will fall into a temporal dilemma with the existence of a mosque. Or claiming the existence of a mosque, because how is it valid that a story takes place in a Christian era and there is a mosque?!! There is supposed to be a church, not a mosque.
The Jordan Cave… is based on the source mentioned in the Shiite books by Imam Ali in order to prove the cave.
But as we talked about in the story previously, the problem with the story lies in a very important point, which is that whoever reads the story that infers that it is the cave in Jordan, and reads the names of the boys and the names of kings and cities, will find it with a purely Greek character and flavor, a purely Greek world. It pervades space and time, a purely Greek story, but inside this world you find a strange, anomalous, and completely different point that does not belong to this world at all, and it is the name of the village (Al-Raqim)… a pure Arabic name….. but it is inside the story of every… Its atmosphere is pure Greek. There is no relationship between the name (Al-Raqim) and the name of Philadelphia, Max Melianus, Amilichus Mutianus, Danius, and Antonius. So whose name is Antonius, and in the city of Philadelphia, and whose king’s name is Arrican, and in whose city there is a statue of Athena, it is assumed that he lives near a village called (Salcius) and not a village called (Al-Raqim).
This indicates that there are those who tried to give a pre-existing story after another Islamic one and match it with a name found in the Qur’an. That is, the name of the Companions of the Cave and Ar-Raqim found in the Qur’an.
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Conclusion
It seems that the two sites were created more for tourism purposes than for real.