The Cave
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[18:25]
AND [some people assert], "They remained in their cave three hundred years"; and some have added nine [to that number].

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* v.25 : This obviously connects with the “idle guesses” mentioned in the first paragraph of verse 22 above – guesses refuted by the subsequent statements, “My Sustainer knows best how many they were” in verse 22, and “God knows best how long they remained [there]” in verse 26. This was, in particular, the view of ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mas‘ūd, whose copy of the Qur’ān is said to have contained the words, “And they [i.e., some people] said, ‘They remained...’,” etc. (which was probably a marginal, explanatory remark added by Ibn Mas‘ūd), as well as of Qatādah and of Matar al-Warrāq (Tabarī, Zamakhsharī, and Ibn Kathīr). My interpolation, at the beginning of the verse, of the words “some people asserted” is based on the word qālū (“they said”) used by Ibn Mas‘ūd in his marginal note.