Gabriel Said Reynolds—

The eighteenth chapter of the Qur’an is named “The Cave” because it includes a story of young men who slept for hundreds of years in a cave until God awakened them. Yet the men were not alone in the cave: they had a dog. “Thou wouldst have thought them awake, as they lay sleeping, while We turned them now to the right, now to the left, and their dog stretching its paws on the threshold. Hadst thou observed them surely thou wouldst have turned thy back on them in flight, and been filled with terror of them” (Qur’an 18:18).

This dog was a problem to some Muslim commentators. In Islamic law dogs are generally considered unclean, and in a famous hadith (narration) the angel Gabriel tells Muhammad that angels do not go into houses that have dogs (or pictures).1One tradition solves the problem by getting rid of the dog. According to this tradition (cited by the famous Persian commentator Tabari), the Arabic word kalb (which usually means “dog”) may mean something else here (namely a reference to the young men’s cook)2 Other Islamic traditions, however, keep the dog; one explains that this dog is one of only three animals that will be allowed into paradise.3

In fact, the dog explains a lot about the origins of this story. The “Companions of the Cave” account is connected to a Christian story known as the “Sleepers of Ephesus” or the “Seven Sleepers.” The story of the Sleepers (probably first written in Greek in the fifth century but known to us from Syriac texts of the sixth century) was written to defend the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, likely in response to certain Christian theologians (often said to be disciples of the Church father Origen) who spoke of a “spiritual” resurrection.4 In the story, seven young Christians flee the city of Ephesus in order to avoid an imperial edict by the (Christ-hating) emperor Decius imposing pagan sacrifices. They end up in a cave, which is miraculously walled up, and they fall asleep.

The young men wake up over two hundred years later (when a shepherd removes some stones) in the time of the (Christ-loving) emperor Theodosius II. One of them heads into town to buy some food (they are understandably hungry), but when he shows his ancient coin (with the image of Decius on it) the Ephesians think he has found buried treasure. Chaos and confusion ensue, the bishop is summoned, and crowds gather. Eventually the young men tell the story to a crowd and everyone (even Theodosius, who hears about this) is delighted at the miracle, which shows definitively that God can raise bodies as well as souls.

At this point the attentive reader might ask, But where’s the dog? Why is there no dog in the Christian story, and a dog in the Qur’anic story?

The key to unlocking this riddle is found in a curious Syriac word in the version of the story told by Jacob of Serugh (d. 521): ‘īrā, or “watcher.” Jacob’s poetic version of this tradition is shaped by the Gospel image of Christ as shepherd, his followers as sheep, and the “evil one” (in this case, Emperor Decius) as a wild animal or wolf. Jacob relates that God placed a “watcher” to guard the “sheep.” It’s not hard to imagine how Christian readers might have envisioned this watcher: sheep need a sheepdog. In fact, while Jacob himself might have thought of the watcher as an angel, a traveler to Ephesus in the sixth century—also named Theodosius—is a witness to the common Christian interpretation. Theodosius refers to Ephesus as the city of “the seven sleeping brothers, and the dog Viricanus at their feet.”5

The cave story shows us one example of how the Qur’an engages with the living Christian traditions of the seventh century Near East. This sort of insight might help us to reimagine the entire project of its author. Stories like the “Companions of the Cave” suggest that the Qur’an’s author was eager to make space for a new community of believers in the religious marketplace of his time: to propose a new prophet, a new sacred scripture, and a new sacred language (Arabic).

From this perspective, it is not surprising that he often tells stories about animals. The Bible is filled with stories about animals (not only Noah’s ark) and, let’s be honest, everyone loves stories about animals.

A second Qur’anic story, also meant to teach a lesson about the resurrection, involves a donkey. In it, a man passes by the ruins of a city:

“He said, ‘How can God bring this city to life after its death?’ God then caused him to die for a hundred years, then brought him back. He said, ‘For how long did you remain?’ He said, ‘I remained for a day, or part of a day.’ He said, ‘No. You remained for a hundred years. Now look at your food and drink—they have not spoiled. And look at your donkey! Now We will make you a sign for the people. And look at the bones, how We arrange them, and then cover them with flesh.’ And when it became clear to him, he said, ‘I know that God can do anything’” (Q 2:259).

This Qur’anic story is connected to a text known as 4 Baruch. Although 4 Baruch was likely written first in Greek and by a Jew (in the second century), it was preserved in other languages (including Ethiopic) and was especially popular among Christians.

4 Baruch tells of a man named Abimelech, a faithful servant of the prophet Jeremiah, who is sent out by his master from the city of Jerusalem to collect figs. After collecting the figs Abimelech becomes tired and falls asleep under a tree. Upon waking, Abimelech is certain that he has slept only a bit. However, he soon notices that the city has changed and that Jeremiah is nowhere to be found. In fact, decades have passed, during which time Jerusalem has been conquered and sacked by the Babylonians. Strangely, however, his figs are still fresh.

Eventually Abimelech finds Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, who is still in the city. Referring to the fresh figs, Baruch explains: “Thus will it be for you . . . if you do the things commanded you by the angel of righteousness. He who preserved the basket of figs, the same one will again preserve you by his power” (4 Baruch, 6:6–7).

The Qur’an takes up this tradition, even mentioning the miraculously preserved food. But why does the Qur’an cut out the details? Why does it not identify the city of Jerusalem, or the man as Abimelech? It is possible that the Qur’an’s audience already knows this tradition so well that there was no need to do so. Perhaps everyone knew the story about the miracle of Jeremiah’s servant and the fig tree outside Jerusalem.

Yet it is also possible that the Qur’an’s author wanted to decontextualize this story. For Jews and Christians, the context of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in the time of Jeremiah, as punishment for Judah’s sins, is important to larger ideas of salvation history. The Qur’an is not particularly interested in what the Babylonian exile meant for the Israelites. It is interested, however, in the resurrection of the body. The Qur’an’s central argument is that each person will be rewarded or punished on the Day of Resurrection based on their decision to accept or reject Islam. The history is not as important as the theology.

In the Qur’anic stories of the cave and the city in ruins, animals are merely mentioned. In a third story, that of the “valley of the ants,” an ant has a speaking role. As Solomon’s army approaches this valley, an ant tells the others to get out of the way: “O ants! Enter your houses or Solomon and his soldiers might crush you!” (Q 27:18). This scene evokes a passage not in the biblical book of I Kings (where most of Solomon’s story is told) but in the Song of Songs:

6 What is that coming up from the wilderness, like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of the merchant?

7 Behold, it is the litter of Solomon! About it are sixty mighty men of the mighty men of Israel,

8 all girt with swords and expert in war, each with his sword at his thigh, against alarms by night (Sol 3:6-8 RSV).

The unnamed speaker in the Song of Songs announces the arrival of Solomon’s fearsome army, much like the ant in Qur’an 27.

This story is exceptional not only for its talking ant. The story also makes Solomon a morally ambiguous (at best) character. As David Penchansky (in his book Solomon and the Ant) explains, Solomon is not without flaws in the Bible or the Qur’an (although some later Muslim interpreters seek to explain them away). He is a bully in this passage of the Qur’an, not only with the ants but also, a few verses later, with a bird, and then with the Queen of Sheba (who reacts to a threatening letter from him by declaring: “Kings, when they enter a city, ruin it”; Q 27:34).6

The principal point of the Qur’an 27 story seems to be that when God blesses a prophet such as Solomon or Muhammad, his enemies will be defeated. This offers listeners a reason to remain part of or to join the new Islamic community. Choose the winning team, the author seems to be saying.

It matters that the author looks to biblical tradition to make this argument. The Qur’anic author is operating, even in his storytelling, in a world in which biblical traditions and their interpretation really matter. If a new religion, with claims of a new prophet, wants to make space for itself in this world, it must do something with the biblical traditions that folks know and love.

According to standard ideas about the Qur’an’s historical context, the biggest challenge that Muhammad and his companions faced came from pagans. There were only a few Jewish tribes, and almost no Christians, in Arabia. A careful reading of the Qur’an, however, suggests something radically different about the context of the Qur’an. Islam emerged in a world where the Bible, and biblical stories, really mattered. In other words, the Qur’an’s animal stories are not just charming narrative details. The faithful dog, the resurrected donkey, and the wise ant reveal the Qur’an’s deep engagement with biblical tradition.

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1. https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3322

2. Abū Ja‘far al-Ṭabarī, Jāmi‘ al-bayān, ed. Muḥammad Bayḍūn, 12 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1420/1999), 8:194.

3. This tradition is found, for example, in the entry on “dog” (kalb) in a famous Islamic encyclopedia on animals: al-Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, ed. Aḥmad Ḥasan Basaj (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), s.v. “al-Kalb.”

4. See S. Griffith, “Christian Lore and the Arabic Qurʾān: The “Companions of the Cave” in Sūrat al-Kahfand in Syriac Christian tradition,” in G.S. Reynolds (ed.), The Qurʾān in Its Historical Context (London: Routledge, 2008), (109-37) 120.

5. Theodosius, The Pilgrimage of Theodosius, trans. J.H. Bernard (London: Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, 1893), 16.

6. D. Penchansky, Solomon and the Ant: The Qur’an in Conversation with the Bible (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021), ch. 6 (103–22).

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Gabriel Said Reynolds is the Crowley Professor of Islamic Studies and Theology in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of The Qur’an and the Bible and Allah: God in the Qur’an. He lives in Granger, IN.