[18].Surah Al-Kahf [The Cave]: Ayat 19

 

Ayat 19. Likewise, We awakened them (from their long deep sleep) that they might question one another. A speaker from among them said: "How long have you stayed (here)?" They said: "We have stayed (perhaps) a day or part of a day." They said: "Your Lord (Alone) knows best how long you have stayed (here). So send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the town, and let him find out which is the good lawful food, and bring some of that to you. And let him be careful and let no man know of you. 
 

[Tafseer] Their own human impressions were to be compared, each with the other. If they entered the Cave in the morning and woke up in the afternoon, one of them might think they had been there only a few hours-only part of the day in fact Allah let them sleep for 309 years. This relative or fallacious impression of Time also gives us an inkling of the state when there will be no Time, of the Resurrection when all our little impressions of this life will be corrected by the final Reality. This mystery of time had puzzled many contemplative minds. They were to be made to see that with the best goodwill and the most honest enquiry they might reach different conclusions; that they were not to waste their time in vain controversies, but to get on to the main business of life; and that Allah alone had full knowledge of the things that seem to us so strange, or inconsistent, or inexplicable, or that produce different impressions on different minds.  They now give up barren controversy and come to the practical business of life. But their thoughts are conditioned by the state of things that existed when they entered the Cave. The money they carried was the money coined in the reign of the monarch who persecuted the Religion of Unity and favoured the false cults of Paganism. Best food:, i.e., purest, most wholesome perhaps also most suitable for those who rejected idol worship, i.e., not dedicated to idols. For they still imagined the world in the same state in which they had known it before they entered the Cave. 

Hazrat Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah [SAWW](PBUH) said, "Keep only a believer for a companion and let only a pious eat your food".

[At-Tirmidhi Hadith # 2395 and Abu Dawud Hadith # 4832]. 

Lesson : as mentioned above in Surah Al-Kahf Ayat 04. "let him find out which is the good lawful food," This Hadith forbids Muslims from befriending infidels and stresses that they should establish a bond of friendship and fraternity with the pious persons only. The above Hadith signifies that taking believers for company has good consequences on the Muslim. While feeding only pious people compels the Muslim host to provide only Halal or lawful foodstuff for his household as well as his guests.