Surah Al Kahf Tafseer

هَوُلَاء قَوْمُنَا اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ الِهَةً لَّوْلَا يَأْتُونَ عَلَيْهِم بِسُلْطَانٍ بَيِّنٍ

These, our people, have taken for worship gods other than Him (Allah). Why do they not bring for them a clear authority!

meaning, why do they not produce some clear evidence and genuine proof for their behavior!

فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَى عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِبًا

And who does more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allah.

They said:`but by saying that they are lying transgressors.'

It was said that when they called their king to believe in Allah, he refused, and warned and threatened them. He commanded them to be stripped of their clothing bearing the adornments of their people, then he gave them some time to think about the situation, hoping that they would return to their former religion.

This was a way that Allah showed kindness for them, because during that time they managed to escape from him and flee from persecution for the sake of their religion.

This is what is prescribed in the Shariah during times of trial and persecution -- a person who fears for his religion should flee from his persecutors, as was reported in the Hadith:

يُوشِكُ أَنْ يَكُونَ خَيْرُ مَالِ أَحَدِكُمْ غَنَمًا يَتْبَعُ بِهَا شَعَفَ الْجِبَالِ وَمَوَاقِعَ القَطْرِ يَفِرُّ بِدِينِهِ مِنَ الْفِتَن

Soon there will come a time when the best wealth any of you can have will be sheep, which he can follow to the tops of the mountains and places where rain falls, (fleeing) for the sake of his religion from persecution.

In such cases, it is allowed to seclude oneself from people, but this is not prescribed in any other case, because by such seclusion one loses the benefits of congregational and Friday prayers.

These young men were determined to flee from their people, and Allah decreed that for them, as He says about them