What is the wisdom behind Allah (Mighty and Majestic) not specifying the number of the People of the Cave, who the People of the Cave are, who the People of the Sabbath are, and what their story is?

The questioner : What is the wisdom behind Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) not specifying the number of the People of the Cave, who the People of the Cave are, who the People of the Sabbath are, and what their story is? Please inform us about this, may Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
Before I answer this question, I would like to clarify that among the names of Allah the Exalted is al-Hakim (the Wise). Al-Hakim means the Ruler who establishes perfect order. So, He (Glorified and Exalted is He) rules over His servants by both legislation and divine decree. He (Glorified and Exalted is He) possesses perfect wisdom that minds cannot grasp or fully comprehend. There is nothing that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) decrees or legislates for His servants without a wisdom behind it. However, some of these wisdoms are known to us, and some are completely unknown to us, because Allah the Exalted says: .
Accordingly, it is obligatory for every believer to submit to the cosmic and legislative commands of Allah, and to His cosmic and legislative rulings, and to know that they are in accordance with wisdom and that there is a wisdom behind them. For this reason, when they asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about the soul, Allah the Exalted said: . And when Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) was asked about the menstruating woman making up the fast but not the prayer, she said: meaning during the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning that the Shari'ah came in this form, and there must be a wisdom for that. When this principle is established in the heart of the believer, he achieves submission to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and satisfaction with His rulings.
Then we return to answering the question. The question included two things. The first is the People of the Cave. The questioner asked what the wisdom is behind Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) not specifying their number. We say: Allah the Exalted hinted at specifying their number in His saying: . This verse indicates that they are seven, and their eighth is their dog, because Allah the Exalted refuted the first two statements and remained silent about the third, which indicates its correctness: . This is the refutation of these two statements. As for the third, He said: , and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not refute it. As for His saying: , this does not mean that no one other than Allah knows it, or does not know the number. Rather, it is intended that our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) does not know of the unseen except what Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) has taught him. This serves as guidance for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to delegate knowledge to Allah. If the meaning were that no one knows their number, it would contradict His saying: . The verse indicates that a few people know their number. Accordingly, their number is seven, and their eighth is their dog. These seven were young men who believed in Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with sincere faith, so Allah the Exalted increased them in guidance. For when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) knows faith and guidance in His servant, He increases him in guidance, as He said: . These young men were believers in Allah, and Allah the Exalted increased them in guidance, knowledge, and success. They were in a land whose people were polytheists, so they took refuge in a cave to protect themselves from those polytheists. This cave faced the northeast direction, as indicated by His saying: . This direction is the safest from the heat of the sun and the cold of the weather. They remained in that state for three hundred years and added nine. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) turned them on their right and left sides in their sleep. Allah cast terror upon those who came to them, as He said: . All of this was to protect them. Then, after this long period, Allah awakened them from their sleep, and nothing had changed in them, neither in their hair nor their nails nor their bodies. In fact, it appears, and Allah knows best, that even the food in their stomachs remained as it was. They did not become hungry or thirsty. When Allah (Mighty and Majestic) revived them, they asked one another: . This indicates that nothing had changed in them, and that the claim that their nails grew long and their hair grew long is a lie, because if that were the case, they would have known that they had remained for a long time.
These people in their story are a great lesson, where Allah (Mighty and Majestic) protected them from the dominance of those polytheists over them, and sheltered them in that cave for this long period without anything changing in them. He (Glorified and Exalted is He) turned them on their right and left sides so that the parts of their bodies that sleep on would not be affected. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) protected them by making those who looked upon them turn away in flight and be filled with terror of them.
The summary derived from this story is that whoever takes refuge in Allah (Mighty and Majestic), Allah the Exalted protects him, by means that may be known or may be unknown. This is the verification of His saying: . The defense of Allah for the believers may be by known means or by means unknown to them. This strengthens us to realize faith in Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and to carry out His obedience.
As for the People of the Sabbath, their story is also strange and contains lessons. The People of the Sabbath were the people of a city of Jews. Allah forbade them from hunting fish on the day of the Sabbath. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) tested them by having the fish come in large numbers on the surface of the water on the day of the Sabbath, and not come on any other day. The matter became difficult for them, and they said: How can we leave these fish? But they said: Allah has forbidden us to hunt them on the day of the Sabbath. So they resorted to a trick. They placed a net on Friday, and when the day of the Sabbath came and the fish came and entered this net, they were trapped. When Sunday came, they came and took them. They said: We did not hunt the fish on the day of the Sabbath, but we took them on Sunday. They thought that this trickery regarding the prohibitions of Allah would benefit them. But it was the opposite, for Allah the Exalted turned them into apes, in a state of disgrace. Allah the Exalted said: .
In this story, there is a lesson that whoever resorts to trickery regarding the prohibitions of Allah, his trickery will not benefit him, and that trickery regarding prohibitions is one of the characteristics of the Jews.
There is also a lesson in this, indicated by the story in Surat al-A'raf: . The people of this village divided into three groups. One group transgressed and did what Allah had forbidden them to do by this trick. One group forbade them from this matter and condemned them. And one group remained silent, and even discouraged the forbidders from forbidding evil, saying: . Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) clarified that He saved those who forbade evil, and that He seized the wrongdoers with a severe punishment for what they used to commit of open sinfulness. He remained silent about the third group, and in this is proof of the seriousness of this matter, meaning the seriousness of those who discourage the forbidders from forbidding evil, saying for example: People do not care about your speech, they do not enjoin good, and they do not refrain from evil, and the like of such discouragement from enjoining good and forbidding evil. In this is also proof that it is obligatory for a person to enjoin good and forbid evil, whether he thinks it will benefit or not, as an excuse to Allah, and perhaps the one being forbidden will fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic).