Ammar Alshukry – Five Lessons From the People of the Cave
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Inna alhamdulillah nahmaduhu wa nastaeenuhu wa nastaghfiruhu wa
na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min
sayyi'ati a'malina man yahdihi allahu fala mudhillalahu
wa man yudhlil fala hadiyalahu wa ashhadu an
la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lahu ashhadu
anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu salawatun rabbi salamuhu
alayh Ibadallah, yaqulu Allah azza wa jalla fi
kitabihi alkarim ba'da audhu billahi min al shaytan
al rajim Ya ayyuha allatheen aamun, attaqoo Allah
haqqa tuqatihi wa laa tamootunna illa wa antum
muslimoon wa qala ta'ala ya ayyuha an
-naasu attaqoo rabbakum allathee khalaqakum min nafsin wahidaa
wa khalaqa minhaa zawjaha wa battha minhumaa rijaalan
kathiraan wa nisaa wa attaqoo Allah allathee tasa
'aloon bihi wa al-arhaab inna Allaha kaana
alaykum raqeeba wa qala ta'ala ya ayyuha
allatheen aamun, attaqoo Allah wa quloo qawlaan sadeedaa
yuslih lakum a'malakum wa yaqfeer lakum dhunubakum wa
min yuta'illaha wa rasoolahu faqad faaza fawzan
azeema amma ba'd All praise is due to
Allah.
We seek His guidance and His forgiveness and
we seek refuge in Allah from the evil
of ourselves and the whispering of our desires.
Whom Allah guides, no one can misguide.
And whom He allows to be misled, no
one can guide.
And I bear witness that there is nothing
worthy of worship except Allah alone having no
partners and that Muhammad ﷺ is His slave
and His messenger and His perfect worshipper.
To proceed, we are encouraged by the Prophet
ﷺ every Friday to read Surah Al-Kahf.
And Surah Al-Kahf is a chapter that
details four stories.
It is a chapter that deals with the
concept of fitna, trials.
And the four stories that we read in
Surah Al-Kahf reflect this notion of trials.
A person will be tried in their deen,
like Ashab Al-Kahf.
Or a person will be tried in their
money, like Sahib Al-Jannatain, the owner of
the two gardens.
Or a person will be tried with regards
to knowledge even, like Musa and Al-Khidr.
Or a person will be tried regarding power,
like Dhul-Qarnain.
And so in this brief khutbah, I wanted
to share just a few lessons from Ashab
Al-Kahf.
This story that Allah ﷻ tells us that
Rasulullah ﷺ was asked about, about a group
of people who came into a cave.
Their story was amazing.
And I don't have the time to go
over many gems, but I'll just share inshaAllah
3 or 4 if time permits 5.
But the first thing Allah ﷻ tells us
that these people were persecuted and they came
to a cave.
And Allah mentions twice that they are a
fi'ah.
That they are, sorry, fityah.
Not a fi'ah, but fityah.
وَإِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدَاءٌ Allah says
that they are young.
And the fact that they are young is
praise for them because young people normally are
more distracted with entertainment and the frivolity of
youth than big picture questions.
Why are we here?
And why are our people worshipping idols?
Generally, young people are deluded by entertainment.
And so if you were to ask young
people about the newest singers they would know,
the newest athletes they would know, the newest
movies they would know, the newest series they
would know.
And so when Allah ﷻ is repeatedly calling
them young, that is praise for these young
people that they separated from the frivolity of
their society.
آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدَاءٌ They believed in Allah
and we increased them in guidance.
But there is also praise for the companions
of Rasulullah ﷺ when this surah was revealed
in Mecca because the people who were around
Rasulullah ﷺ were also young.
And young people changed the world in every
time and place.
And we see even here in the United
States in the past couple of months, after
everything that has been happening with the war
on the people of Gaza, you saw that
the greatest national conversations were sparked not by
people in corporate offices and not by politicians,
but by the young people, the students in
universities who were having encampments all over the
country and all over the world that were
causing the discussion to be happening about divestments
from the Zionist state.
إِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدَاءٌ Allah says
they were a young people who believed in
Allah.
So the first is the power that comes
with youth.
The second lesson is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la says, وَرَبَطْنَا عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ إِذْ
قَامُوا Allah says we strengthened their hearts.
We strengthened their heart when they stood up
against their people.
And they stood up, the Mufassireen said a
number of times.
Number one, they stood up in front of
the king and they addressed the king for
his idol worship.
And then they stood up to their own
families.
And then they stood up in the marketplace.
And then they stood up when they met
each other in front of the cave and
they said, رَبُّنَا رَبُّ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ Our Lord,
the Lord of the heavens and the earth,
we won't call upon other than Him.
And so this idea that Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la gives steadfastness and Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la gives strength
to people's hearts in their greatest moments of
difficulty and crisis.
And we see this word, رَبَطْنَا عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ
We see this phrase appear in a number
of other places in the Qur'an.
Where?
We see it before the battle of Badr
when the Sahaba radiAllahu anhum are about to
meet the enemy for the first time.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
casts drowsiness upon the companions.
Instead of being nervous wrecks and being incredibly
anxious, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
put a calmness and a stillness on them
and made their hearts steadfast so much so
that their swords almost slipped out of their
hands.
And we see also with the mother of
Musa, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
says in Surah Al-Qasas, إِذْ كَادَتْ لَتُبْدِي
بِهِ Allah says, وَأَصْبَحَ فُؤَادُ أُمِّ مُوسَى فَارِغًا
إِن كَادَتْ لَتُبْدِي بِهِ لَوْ لَا أَنْ رَبَطْنَ
عَلَىٰ قَلْبِهِ لَتُكُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la says that when the
basket that was placed in the river went
to the house of Pharaoh and Fir'aun's
wife captures the son of the woman or
Musa Alayhi Salaam, and she says, قُرَّةُ عَيْنٍ
لِي وَلَكَ لَا تَقْتُلُهُ حَسَىٰ إِنْ يَنْفَعْنَا She
says, this is a joy to me.
The mother of Musa put him in the
Nile River because she was afraid of him
ending up in the hands of Fir'aun.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
sends that basket directly to the house of
Fir'aun.
That would cause anybody to panic.
But that's the plan of Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la.
And that's the ilm of Allah.
And that's the wisdom of Allah.
And that's the power of Allah.
That He can make Musa grow up in
the very house that the mother of Musa
is afraid of.
And he will be the most protected child
in Egypt because of it.
Because Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
knows what you do not know.
But Allah had to give her heart steadfastness.
لِتَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ That she can be of
those who believe.
And so you ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la for steadfastness of your heart
as you are going through difficulty.
Number one, steadfastness of the heart allows for
a person to believe in the deen.
Number two, it allows for you to believe
in the promises of Allah.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and
His Prophet they promised that العاقب للمتقين That
the end will always be for the believers.
No matter how dark it seems.
No matter how the entire world goes against
the believers.
No matter how belittled the people are.
No matter how weak they are.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has
promised إِنَّ جُنْدَنَا لَهُمُ الْغَالِبُونَ That our soldiers
are going to be the ones who win.
كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَأَغْلِبَنَّا أَنَا وَرُسُلِهِ Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la prescribed that I will
win and my messengers and everybody else will
lose.
But you need steadfastness of the heart to
be able to believe in the promise of
Allah.
A third is what the people say when
they enter into the cave.
They say فَأْوُ إِلَى الْكَهْفِ يَنْشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ
مِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ وَيُهَيِّئْ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِكُمْ مِنْ رَفَقَةِ
They go into the cave and they say
enter into the cave Allah will spread out
for you from His mercy.
They're entering into the cave it is a
place that is dark it is a place
that has no amenities it is a place
that is constricted it is a place that
has no heat it is a place that
is cold it is a place that has
nothing but what are they expecting to find?
They're expecting to find the mercy of Allah.
And that shows incredible optimism that a person
even as they're entering into the cave of
their life the cave of oppression or the
cave of imprisonment or the cave of grief
or the cave of poverty that a person
has optimism in Allah يَنْشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُمْ مِنْ
رَحْمَتِهِ that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because
I know that Allah is the Rahman that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will provide for
me mercy from where I don't expect and
we read in Surah Al-Kahf how Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala dealt with them and
gave them divine care and how Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala watched over them and protected
them أَقُولُوا مَا سَمِعْتُمْ وَاسْتَغْفِرُوا اللَّهَ لِيَ وَلَكُمْ
فَاسْتَغْفِرُوا إِنَّهُ الْوَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام
على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه سيدنا مسلم
الكثير the third is optimism having optimism in
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you see
how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala deals with
the righteous but then the fourth and this
is the last one Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala as you know causes them to go
to sleep for hundreds of years 309 years
to be exact and then he resurrects them
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala specifically uses
the word بَعْث in their story twice to
indicate the resurrection that the mushrikeen of Mecca
did not believe in and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala then causes for them to be
resurrected and they come out and Allah says
وَكَذَلِكَ أَعْثَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ لِيَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ وَعْضَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ
We caused them to interact with the people
of the town that they may come to
know that the promise of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is true for who to know
that the promise of Allah is true for
Ashabul Kahf that they recognize that the promise
of Allah is true you see they were
a people who fled a society that was
idolatrous because they knew that they did not
have the power to confront them they were
going to be persecuted إِنَّهُمْ إِنْ يَظْهَرُوا عَلَيْكُمْ
يَرْجُمُوكُمْ أَوْ يُعِيدُكُمْ فِي مِلَّتِهِمْ وَلَن تُفْلِحُوا إِذَا
أَبَدَى they said that if our people have
power over us they're going to stone us
or they're going to force us back into
our religion and so they fled to seek
refuge in a cave but Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala caused them to sleep for that
period of time and when they came out
they found that that entire society had become
Muslim so that they may come to know
that the promise of Allah is true and
I share this to you because the promise
of Allah is true and it may be
that you are expecting the promise of Allah
to happen in one year or two years
or three years or four years but the
promise of Allah is not tied to your
time span it is not tied to how
you feel it should pass it is tied
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's timing and
these people Ashab ul Kahf they had to
have an extended life period Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala caused them to die for 300
years just so that they could have the
gift to witness that the promise of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is true and so
we believe that the promise of Allah is
true we believe that Palestine will be free
we believe that there will come a time
when the Ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam will be led by the righteous and
not be led by the wicked we believe
in a time Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says that we will give establishment to those
who have been oppressed those that have been
established oppressed in the east and the west
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make
them a imma and he will make them
of those who inherit the land that is
a promise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
whether or not it happens next year or
the year after what we are required to
do is to believe in that promise to
have steadfastness with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
have rapt of our heart and that we
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant
us a worship of him that he loves
and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow
us to worship him as he loves until
the day we meet him and that he
make the best of our days the day
that we meet him we ask Allah azawajal
to allow us to hear the speech and
to follow the best of it we ask
Allah azawajal to grant freedom to our brothers
and sisters who are occupied in Palestine and
to bring safety and security to them and
we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
relieve the blood shed from the Muslims all
over the world whether it be in Sudan
or whether it be the Uyghurs in China
or whether it be our brothers and sisters
in Bangladesh that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
brings stability to the Muslim world and that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us and
guide our hearts and guide us to the
unity that he loves Arabic
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