Why Did The Dog Stretch His Arms in Surah Al-Kahf & Not Turn?

Why did the dog stretch his arms in Surah Al-Kahf & not turn?

A German medical scholar said, “I was traveling one day & I met a young man at the airport who presented me with a translated copy of the Qur’an. I thanked him & put the copy in my pocket with the intention of throwing it in the trash (A’oudhu billah) after the young man was out of my sight so as not to embarrass him.”

The doctor forgot the copy in his pocket & boarded the plane & because of the length of the journey & the boredom that permeates it, he said, *”I took out a copy of the Qur’an from my pocket when I felt its presence, then I opened it & turned the pages, so my eyes fell on Surah al-Kahf, and I read. Then two verses stopped me, they are God’s saying, Glory be to Him that means,
<<And you see the sun, when it rises, it turns away from their cave to the right, and when it sets, it turns towards them to the left, while they are in a gap thereof…>>
& the verse that means, <<And you think they are awake while they are lying down, and we turn them to the right & to the left, & their dog stretches out its forearms with a catch…>>

The doctor says that turning them over while they are sleeping is understandable in order that their bodies do not sore if they remain asleep in one position, but what surprised the doctor what he said In the verse preceding it <<and you see the sun, when it rises, it turns away from their cave to the right, & when it sets it turns towards them to the left>>, meaning that the sun enters the cave every day, but it does not come directly on their bodies, & he says that this is known in medical science, in order not to get bed sores, it must be a ventilated room & the sun enters it without it being directly on the body.
Then the doctor went back to thinking about the next verse where he says that really, in order for ulcers not to occur, the lying person must be turned over so that the body does not fester & rot & be eaten by the earth, but what amazed the doctor was that their dog was not turning over like them, but rather spreading its arms in one position for 309 years, his body did not ulcerate or rot.

This prompted the German doctor to study the physiology of dogs & what amazed him was that he found that dogs have unique glands under their skin that secrete a substance that prevents skin ulceration as long as there is life in the dog’s body even if they do not move & turn right and left like the humans in the cave.

This doctor became Muslim because of this miraculous matter.

What amazed me, is that the German doctor, from his first reading of this Surah, was stopped by miraculous things & he did not just read without contemplation, as many of us Muslims do.

God Almighty has commanded us to worship Him Properly through proper religious knowledge & to reflect on the Qur’an.

📖 ˹This is˺ a blessed Book which We have revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ so that they may contemplate its verses, and people of reason may be mindful {38:29}

If you read this beautiful reminder please send it to others so that they may benefit too.

Jazaak Allaahu khayran.