Caves

The Cave made Textual: Sūrat al-Kahf

In the Qur'ān, God's values, laws and edicts rule. The same goes for the Qur'ānic cave, which represents a locus of revelation, safety and Divine protection. The ‘physical cave’ and the ‘textual cave’ embrace and disclose the ‘hero’ or vessel of revelation. In the beginning was the Qur'ānic text, to coin a phrase, and the text bespoke God's salvific, protective and fortifying cave.

Elsewhere, in an analytical study of Sūrat al-Kahf, I have identified eight distinct sections as forming the elementary structure of this eighteenth sūra of the Qur'ān. Notable among these are ‘the Story of the Companions of the Cave (Aṣḥāb al-Kahf)’ (vv. 9–26) and ‘the Story of Mūsā and al-Khaḍir’ (vv. 60–82). We have already dealt in some detail with the latter; it is the former story which will concern us here.

In the same study, I also identified five major archetypes which ‘clothe or “house” the signs and meanings of the text’. They are: the Sleeper (as epitomised in the Companions of the Cave), the Proto-Muslim (the Companions of the Cave together with the Just Critic of the Vineyard-Owner), the Mystic (al-Khaḍir), the Hero (Mūsā and Dhū 'l-Qarnayn) and the Anti-Hero (Gog and Magog and the Wicked Vineyard-Owner). All are significant in terms of their reality, their symbolism and their archetypical nature. However, it is the first, the sleeper, which will detain us here in view of the associations with that topographical archetype of the Cave.