Mustafa Khattab – The 4 Tests Surat AlKahf
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AI: Transcript ©
So today, inshallah, we'll talk briefly about some
of the lessons we can learn from Surah
Al Kahf,
Surah 18 in the Quran.
And this story is very special. It is
at the middle of the Quran, right in
the center.
The
word this word in the store is exactly
in the middle of the Quran. So this
is half and this is the other half.
So this store is right in the middle
of the Quran. It's the core
of the Quran.
And there are so many other narrations of
the hadith. So the prophet
says, whoever
recites Surah Al Kahf on the day of
Jummah, then a light will shine for them
until the next Friday. So between the 2
Fridays, if you recite this surah, this chapter,
which is 18th on Friday, then Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala will cause a light to shine
for you.
Why? They say because this surah is basically
a guideline
for a Muslim's life in this dunya.
There's another hadith for the Islamic Muslim. The
prophet says,
whoever decides the first in aya of this
particular chapter, this person will be protected from
the dajjal.
Dajjal is a character that will appear before
the end of the fight. It's one of
the major signs of the day of judgement.
But in any case, what is the relationship
between this dajjal
and
the fitna or the task mentioned in the
Surah?
The Surah basically talks about 4 different types
of people. It gives 4 different stories and
4 different examples of concern.
And they say these 4 different tasks,
we go through through them every day, but
so much so on the day of judgment,
when this character of Dajjal will come, then
people will be tested by these 4 things.
The task in faith,
the task
task in wealth, the task in knowledge,
and finally, the task in authority,
and so on and so forth.
Now if you look at the 4 stories
in the Surah,
you'll see something interesting.
Surah Al Kahf is made of a 110
ayaats.
Right in the middle, so you'll see
story 1 about the youth and their faith.
Story 2 about the men of the 2
gardens, the men, the rich men.
Then, so the story number 3, Musa alayhi
salaam and the test of knowledge. And that
end is the story of,
and the dukhamein and the test of the
fort.
So after story 2, which means that it
is right in the middle
after story 12, and before story 34,
you will see in the talk about Shaitan.
Middle of it.
Why? Because he is the one who's testing
you with in terms of your faith, in
terms of your wealth, in terms of your
knowledge, and in terms of your authority.
So Shaytan is at the door of all
these tests.
There's a beautiful hadith that has something to
do with these four stories in Surat Al
Kahf.
The prophet
says the hadith of Usayat and the Tabani.
The prophet
says
throughout
Sahaba and other ghosts of khareq. But this
particular one talks about 4 different tasks that
we go through. So the prophet says,
on the day of judgment,
your feet will not be removed either to
go to this way to Jannah Inshallah, or
to the other way, Wallahu Alaihi.
Until you are asked about 4 things, then
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Salam will say, you
will be asked about your life. How did
you spend your life? This is the first
question you will get.
And number 2, you will be about asked
about your youth years. What did you do
through your youth years? When you were healthy,
you had the time, you had the ability,
what did you do in that time?
And number 3, you will be asked about
your money, your wealth. How did you collect
your wealth and how did you spend it?
And number 4, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will
ask you about your knowledge.
How or what did you do with your
knowledge?
Now if you look at the 4 stories
in Surah Al Kahf, they talk precisely about
these 4 questions.
The first story of the youth in the
cave talks about the youth years,
a group of youth who were tested in
their faith.
Then Shabab Nifimah Ablah. Then the second point,
Wa'an Nifimah
Ablah. Talk about his wealth, how he collected,
and how he spent it. You see the
story about the rich man and how he
what he did with his wealth, and he
was destroyed because of his wealth.
Then the third one is the hadith of
the lord SAW.
His knowledge.
Then interestingly enough, you see in the Surah,
the story of, Musa alaihis salaam al Khadar,
It talks about knowledge.
Musa alaihis salaam was tested with the knowledge,
which is the third point in the hadith.
And the last one,
which is authority,
or what did you do with your life?
Then it talks about the life of Dukhan
Nain and how he dedicated his life to
the worship of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
serving the people and volunteering to help the
people. So exactly, the 4 stories in Surat
Al Kah are exactly the 4 things mentioned
in the hadith of the prophet.
The Hadith that talks about your life, the
youth years, your wealth, and your knowledge. Exactly
the 4 things
in this particular narration.
So we start with the task of the
youth.
So at the beginning of the Surah, which
is named after this, story, this incident
that happened before the time of the prophet
so many years before. So, he talks about
a group of youth
who were tested in their faith. They were
living at a time. They were pagans. They
were giving them a hard time. They couldn't
worship Allah and were persecuted.
So, they ran away to protect their faith.
The Quran talks about the youth all the
time and you see so many hadith about
the youth.
So, the prophet talks about the use of
Allah and the Hadith. Why?
Because they use ears. Say for example, you
are 16, 17 and up all the way
till
28, 25, 30.
This is the time
because during the time
you are actually applying. This is the highest
you can go in terms of mental ability,
in terms of physical ability,
in terms of the free time you have
and so on and so forth. This is
the time. If you want to do something
in your life, this is the time.
Because now when you hit 60 or 70
or 80, you start to forget things. Every
day you are visiting a doctor a different
month. One day you hear, one day you
nose, one day you'll laugh, one day you'll
need. There's something wrong. Right? But this is
the time.
So when you are young, say, for example,
you are in your,
teen years,
20 something.
Masha'Allah, when you are young when you are
younger than this, say, when you go to,
you know,
grade 2, grade 3,
you are healthy, how do they have a
problem?
And you have time because you don't have
money, Because you don't have a job. It's
your father who's providing for you. And you
know what parents do sometimes because they wanna
save money and you want you want to
buy everything in the store
so you don't have your own money.
Then after you graduate, you get your job
so remember, when you are young, you have
time, you don't have health, but you don't
have money. Right?
Then when you are in a youth, you
have a job and then the problem of
your life,
after graduation, you have a job, you go
there.
So you have health,
you you have money, but no time. You
are busy running around.
And when you retire,
you would have the time. You have nothing
for time, basically.
And
you would have the money, a retirement check
or getting a check every month and so
on and so forth and savings and so
on and so forth, but there's no God.
Again, you're complaining every day. You're seeing a
doctor every day all the time. Right? So
you have to look at all these equations.
The best time for you to do something
is at the youth ears. The problem with
our families sometimes,
when we look at our children,
we don't see them aging because they grow
in front of your eyes.
When they are young, like, grade 1, grade
2,
they don't pray and all these things.
Let them enjoy their life. They're still young.
They go to college. You know, it don't
make their life difficult. They still have a
long life ahead.
When they retire I mean, when they get
a job, they get married. Oh, man. He
has a problem. He's fighting with his wife.
She's calling the police on him all the
time. He doesn't have time,
man. When he retires, you know,
you know, his health is deteriorating. We can't
force him to pray and, you know so
there's always an excuse.
The best time to do something is at
youth the youth years.
This is when you have the health, when
you have the memory. When you grow older,
the person's hand becomes like, you know, the
flash drive or your iPad. You have the
limited memory.
So if you fill it with something so
we have 8 gigabytes
or something. Once you fill it, there's no
more space. You can't memorize anything.
If you try to memorize Surah Al Qariyah,
you forget Surah Al Qariyah. You get Surah
Al Qariyah, you forget another Surah. Right? So
it's always like this.
So I remember one time I read this
story,
the son was asking his father,
why do you keep you keep trying memorizing
the law? Because
this is the the truth. Once you try
to memorize the Surah, you forget the previous
one. But you never give up. You keep
trying reading the Quran and revising the Quran,
although you can't remember anything.
He said,
take this basket. They used to have a
basket for something and used to to carry
dirt in that basket.
So and the basket has holes.
It's like the dustbin that you keep in
your house or in the kitchen. It has
holes all around it. So he told his
son, go to the river and try to
fill it with water.
And the the basket was dirty because of
all the dirt and the stuff that he
was carrying.
So he went there and tried to fill
it with water. He filled it. When he
takes out the water, all the water falls
down. So he tried 10 times.
Said, no. Yeah. The law is lost, but
it is clean now. So even if you're
not able to memorize the law in that
old age, by reading the Quran, it will
purify you,
physically and it will purify you, spiritually and
religiously and so on and so forth. So
the youth years, this is the time. Take
advantage of it.
So as I said, the task for the
youth at the beginning of the Surah was
in relation to their faith.
They ran away. They tried to protect their
faith because they know that this is the
most valuable thing in their lives.
I know this is a very difficult time
at the end of the year.
You have, like, 15 different holidays.
Many of us, we go to public schools
and so on and so forth.
You'll see people trying to do Christmas at
home, the tree, and the Halloween, the crazy
costume, they try to scare their parents,
and Valentine's, and all these things.
This is a task of the faith. I
know if you go to a public school,
try to protect your faith.
Everyone is free to do whatever they want.
Everyone has their own holidays.
And this is what Allah says.
Every community,
faith community, they have their own holidays.
Everyone has their own, you know, holidays.
So everyone should respect
their own holidays and they should not be
involved in other holidays as long as they
are religious holidays.
Right? And so on and so forth. I
don't want to dwell on that point, but
this is part of the test as a
youth. You're not supposed to take part in
these
holidays,
especially something that honors,
for example, the birth of the God or
the Son of God and all these. We
should not even get close to getting involved
in something like this because because this goes
against our faith and our beliefs.
So this is the first test.
The second test, which is a task of
the wealth,
al fitna. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala closets in
the Quran al fitna. The man was testing
with his wealth.
And there's something interesting about this story. Remember,
over the last
few, footballs we're talking about while we've learned
from different things from animals, even for inanimate
beings and so on and so forth.
Allah subhanahu wa'ala in the story of Asayahu
Jannathay, he says when he describes Jannathayahu,
when a coupling means will change. When he
speaks about the earth, the dirt, the garden,
he says that the garden didn't do wrong.
They wrong the owner,
and the garden never fell short of getting
produced,
like the fruits and so on and so
forth. But when Allah
describes the person, the owner of the garden,
Allah says,
did not wrong the person. But the person
was wronging himself,
Why? Because he was not showing gratitude to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
All of us, we know that we're tested
in this life with difficult things like the
loss of something, the loss of a job,
and so on and so forth. There's a
loss of a child. But a lot of
people are not aware that you are sometimes
you are tested with something good
like with your children,
your wealth. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
in the Quran, we'll have new from his
sharei wa fayfid that we we test you
with good and bad
as a trial as a task for you.
Ibn al Fayim mentions
the story
of a man who came to some of
the Sahaba.
And he said,
I love Fitna,
and
I hate the truth, atul kah or ifmul
Fitna,
and leave you all the malaise al ilaha
salat
shayr al shahak. So some of the sahaba,
he said, you know, he is heretic. He
says something wrong. Why is this? So Ibrahim
al Khayr al Raghamullah said,
'Alib ibn Abi Talib radiAllahu 'Abi Surah and
and said, this man has said
Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says that in the Quran, they're
through wealth and your children are fitna attest
from Allah. He lost fitna. He lost money.
He lost children. If the man said,
I hate the truth, and the Quran calls
death the truth. This is the ultimate truth.
Every single one of us will die at
the end. It's the truth.
And he hates the truth. He doesn't want
to die. So there's nothing wrong with this.
And number 3,
he has something that Allah doesn't have, which
is a wife and children. Allah doesn't have
wife or children.
And number 4, he testifies without seeing that
man didn't see the promised, so he testifies.
And now Yashat and then Allah by the
Muhammad Rasoolah. He believes in Allah. He didn't
see Allah. And he believes in Muhammad
and this man didn't see the problem, so
he's telling the truth. So he let him
go. So that was the second test, the
test
of the wealth.
Why? Because the man was used to give
thanks to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Why? Because
he thought
this is what he told the other person
in the story,
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given me
a lot of children and he has given
me wealth, this means one thing to me,
that he loves me,
although he was not thanking Allah enough.
So if you see Allah
giving you a good life or a good
job, a good pay,
a good job, and and you have a
good life, a good health, children, and so
on and so forth, and you are not
thanking him enough,
then there must be something wrong.
Expect something terrible to happen. So this is
part of the task that Allah
is testing you.
Do they think
when they're doing something wrong,
you're not thanking me enough,
but I still give them wealth and I
give them children. Do they think that I'm
doing this because they love them?
No. They have no idea.
It's only a test as Allah subhanahu wa'ala
says in the ad.
Kaf, Surah 18,
and the hadith of the prophet says,
the
The prophet says the reason why Musa al
Sallallahu alaihi wasalam was tested with his knowledge,
one day he was standing like this and
giving a foot while he was giving a
talk. So someone was so impressed
with the style of Musa alaihis salaam, so
the man stood up after the talk and
said,
yeah, Musa alaihis salaam, you called him,
who is the most knowledgeable person on this
earth? So according to Musa alaihis salaam said
that would be me. So
Al Qadhi, Musa Al Qadhi said that would
be me. So Allah revealed to him that
there's someone else in this world who is
more knowledgeable than you, so go and learn
from him. And you know the rest of
the story, the Sheikh, the the boy, the
wall, and so on and so forth. At
the core of the story,
Musa Alaihi Salam
set,
the rules for learning from his Sheikh, which
is a tablet in this case. It said,
Insha
Allahu Abuzadu wa Ta'ala Asi Leqamu. It says
in the story, Insha Allah, you will find
me patient with you
and I will never disobey you, which means
patience and modesty.
If you want to learn, you have to
you have to pause patience because learning is
a process and it takes a long time.
And number 2, you have to be humble.
The madman say, 2 people will never learn
anything.
Those who
are arrogant to learn, why should I ask
someone? I know everything.
And those who are shy, they don't ask.
They don't know how to make Muslim or
purify
themselves properly. So they are they are shy
to ask. They will never learn anything.
So if you want to learn something, you
have to have patience, and you have to
humble yourself and learn from the scholars.
You can't just go to Google and Google
things or what they call it Google, or
Sheikh Mohammed said to a Sheikh Google. You
can't
Some of the masha'i Qafasir, they say he
was aliskandar lakor the Alexander
the Great. But Alexander the Great was a
pagan man. He was not a believer. He
had like a 1,000 gods. So Allah Subhanahu
Waqqala would never use him in the Qur'an
as an example of a righteous person.
So the UHla gave different names and so
on and so forth. But the most important
thing about the story of this man, it
talks about how he dedicated his life to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and how he put his life in the
service of the people. He was volunteering
his time and his effort to helping the
people, taking advantage of all the skills that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given him. You
see at the end, he was helping the
people by building the dam for free. He
offered them money. He said, no. Whatever
Allah is giving me is much better. So
he didn't give me his whole life. And
the surah talks about his journeys to the
east and to the west and to the
north,
calving the people and spending his time in
the service of the people and worshiping Allah
So these are the 3 tasks mentioned in
the Surah or the 4 tests.
The task in deen, in faith, when you
are young as a youth.
And number 2, the task in wealth, to
see if you'll be thankful to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala or know. And number 3, the
test of knowledge
because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will ask you
about your knowledge. Knowing the Haram and kam
and knowing the sunnah of the prophet and
how to worship him and so on and
so forth. And most importantly,
practicing what you're preaching
and practicing what you're learning. What is the
point if you have all the knowledge and
you don't practice? You know halal and you
know halal, everybody knows halal and halal, but
no one is practicing. This is what Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will ask you about. And
number for your authority,
whether or not you're a ruler, you're a
not a president, every single one of us
has authority.
If you are a president, if you are
a ruler,
if you are the head of a company,
if you are the head of the house
or a husband
or wife, you have authority over your children.
If you don't have a family, then at
least
you have authority over yourself. So Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala will ask us
every single one of you. As the prophet
says in the authentic Hadith,
and the best in the life to come.