His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "And thus We caused them to be discovered, so that they would know that the promise of Allah is true and that the Hour is no doubt in it, as they dispute among themselves about their affair. They said, 'Build over them a structure. Their Lord knows best about them.' Those who prevailed over their affair said, 'We will surely take [for ourselves] a mosque over them.'"

The reference in "thus" in His saying, the Most High: "And thus" is to their resurrection so that they may question. That is, just as We resurrected them, We caused them to be discovered.

And "caused to be discovered" is the transitive form of "to discover" with the hamzah. The origin of discovery is in the foot. When the one who stumbles in something is similar to it, he is likened to it, from the similarity of knowledge of something that has been hidden and then emerged after its concealment. The pronoun in "so that they would know" may return to the Muslim community to which the people of the cave were sent in their time. This is what al-Tabari mentioned. This is because they - as it has been narrated - were then afflicted by a trial regarding the matter of resurrection and the raising of bodies from the graves. Some people doubted this and dismissed it, saying: Only the souls are resurrected. This troubled their king, and he remained perplexed, not knowing how to clarify the matter to them until he donned sackcloth and sat on ashes, and he humbled himself to Allah in supplication and clarification. So Allah caused the people of the cave to be discovered. When Allah resurrected them, and the people understood their matter, the king was pleased, and those who had doubted the resurrection of bodies returned to certainty about it. To this, the reference is made in His saying: "as they dispute among themselves about their affair" according to this interpretation. It is possible that "caused to be discovered" works with "as" - according to this interpretation - and it is possible that "so that they would know" works in it.

The pronoun in His saying: "so that they may know" is likely to refer back to the companions of the cave. That is, Allah, glorified and exalted is He, makes their matter a sign for them indicating the resurrection of the bodies from the graves. And His saying: ﴿when they dispute﴾ - according to this interpretation - is the beginning of a report about the people who were raised in their time. The implied action in "when" is an omitted verb whose meaning is: remember, and it is possible that it could be worked with: "they said," and the meaning would be: they said when they dispute: build over them. The dispute - according to this interpretation - is only concerning the matter of building and the mosque, not concerning the Day of Resurrection. And "the doubt" means the uncertainty, and the meaning is that the Hour in itself and its reality is without doubt, even if doubt has occurred for some people, that does not affect it in any way. It has been said that the dispute was only about whether they saw them and some of them said: they are dead, while others said: they are alive. It has been narrated that some of the people wanted to conceal the cave from them and leave them hidden in it. So the dominant group in the matter said: ﴿we will surely take a mosque over them﴾, and they took it. Qatadah said: "those who prevailed are the rulers." Al-Hasan and 'Isa al-Thaqafi read: "they were overcome" with a damm on the ghayn and a kasrah on the lam, and the meaning is that the group that called for the building intended to build a place of worship or a factory for their disbelief, but the believers prevented them and said: ﴿we will surely take a mosque over them﴾. It has been narrated from 'Ubaid ibn 'Umayr that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, concealed their matter from the people at that time and hid it from them. Therefore, they called for the building to be a landmark for them.