• The Response
• Christian Sources Acknowledging the Story
• Secondly: Refuting the Plagiarism Claim
• Differences Between the Qur’anic and Christian Accounts
• The Prophet’s Illiteracy and Impossibility of Borrowing
• Response to the Jabr and Addas Claim
• Addition

First, the Christian’s saying that the story has no basis and is not recognized and that it is a myth among them is due to his ignorance of its sources. Rather, the origin of the story is approved by them and in their sources and some of their historians have mentioned it.

On this day in the year 252 AD, the seven holy youths from Ephesus were martyred: Maximus, Malchus, Martinianus, Dionysius, John, Serapion, and Constantine. They were part of the soldiers of King Decius, who had appointed them to oversee the royal treasury. When they began to worship idols, they were denounced to him, so they took refuge in a cave, fearing that they would be weakened and deny the Lord Christ. The king learned of this and ordered the entrance of the cave to be closed on them. One of the soldiers was a believer in the Lord Christ. He engraved their biographies on a copper tablet and left it inside the cave. Thus, the saints gave up their pure souls. God wanted to honor them as his faithful servants. He revealed to the bishop of that city their whereabouts. He went and opened the entrance of the cave and found their bodies intact. He learned from the copper tablet that about two hundred years had passed since they were buried.

The story of the People of the Cave of Ephesus, or what the Syriacs call “the People of the Cave,” has a special place among Syriac historians and writers. Many have recorded it in prose, as Mar Jacob of Serugh (521 AD) wrote it in a seventy-four-verse poem in the heptamerican meter.

Some tourists, when visiting the ancient ruins of Ephesus, still go to the Temple of Artemis and the Cathedral of St. John to visit the caves of the People of the Cave.

The Syriac Church commemorates them on October 24.

As for their accusation of plagiarism, they dropped it when it was rejected for two reasons.

Surah al-Kahf (9–26)

The Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, was illiterate, he could neither read nor write, and he lived in Mecca, and his language was Arabic, which was almost devoid of Christians, so how can he know this story read in Syriac churches and books?
Was Prophet Muhammad Illiterate? Non-Islamic Sources on the Unlettered Prophet

“And you did not recite before it any scripture, nor did you inscribe it with your right hand…”
(Al-‘Ankabut 48–49)

“The language of the one they refer to is foreign, while this is a clear Arabic language.”
(Al-Nahl 103)

“Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet…”
(Al-A‘raf 157)

“I have indeed remained among you a lifetime before it. Then will you not reason?”
(Yunus 16)

{And you did not recite before it any book…}

“The Messenger of Allah neither read nor wrote.”

The angel said: Read.

He replied:

I am not a reader.

If Christians say he learned from Jabr and Addas, this is rejected for three reasons:

Quraysh claimed the Prophet learned from them.

Then Allah revealed:

“The tongue of the one they invoke is foreign, while this is a clear Arabic tongue.”

No one with even the slightest reason would say this.

• The story has an origin in Christian sources.
• It is not a fabricated myth.
• The Qur’anic account differs significantly.
• The plagiarism accusation is invalid.
• Borrowing was impossible given the Prophet’s condition and environment.