Two Stories Compared The Youth of the Cave & The Journey of Musa (AS)

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Sadie via even Muslim Allah Allah He was at Page nine salam ala quarter to light Allah Ricardo

has taken quite a break from the circle calf series, but I decided to push myself and get this stuff going because Ramadan is around the corner. And there's lots and lots of work to do in preparation for Ramadan. So I wanted to

complete this obligation before the arrival of the one. So what we were doing in terms of SoCal Gas, we've done the Ajdabiya study of the entire SUTA. And we were talking about the overall structure and coherence and novel of the surah. And those of you who follow my work, know, that in my own methodology of studying the Quran, understanding the the layout of a surah, the connectedness of a surah, the flow of a surah, and how things the different subjects in a surah are all coming together. That's a very important part of understanding the message of a surah. Allah chose to put the ayat in a certain sequence, put the subject matters, combine them together in a certain way,

just like in all things Allah, like can we infer is borrowing his logic. He says, Allah decided to put every bone and every joint in our body in a certain way. Right? That's part of Allah's plan. And when you look at anything that Allah created, by way of human engineering, meaning Allah inspired human beings to produce amazing things, right, we, we produce amazing architecture, we produced amazing technology, we produced amazing devices. And any one of those devices is about pieces coming together properly. And any one of those pieces out of sync, and the device doesn't work, right. And we appreciate things that that are that have a harmony and to have an interconnectedness. In fact,

things working together well doesn't just work in the field of science, it's actually even a huge part of the arts. So color schemes that work together designs that work together, whether you're an architect, or an interior designer, or a painter, or a graphic design artist, or a video production press, etc, etc. There are aesthetics and design and elements that have to work with each other, for something to make sense. And then of course, this plays a role in literature. So in literature, if you're writing an essay, and the arguments you've made, aren't coming together, or your paragraph isn't put together well, or your chapter isn't put together? Well, you know, these, these are all

things that make our work remarkable and memorable, as opposed to something that's not worth our time. So the Quran has this remarkable, you know, aesthetic, it has this remarkable connectedness inside of a surah. And I keep stressing the fact that it's not like other books, it's not like reading a chapter in a in any other book. It doesn't have the kind of logical progression that you expect from a typical book. It has its own logic, its own structure, its own internal dynamics. And one of the one of the ways to think about that, it's not the only way to think about it, but one of the ways to think about it is kind of a symmetrical view of a surah. And that's what I tried to

present early in, in this surah. And that is that this surah is made up of four stories. And it's made up of several passages. So they're not stories, they're like, you can consider the Mahatma sermon from Allah. So a sermon followed by a story followed by a sermon followed by story, this is the kind of structure that it has. And if you want to think about how this is all organized, one way of thinking about it is there's an opening to the Sudoku gap. And there's a closing to SOTL gap. Those are both passages, they're not stories. So that's the beginning and the end. And I've already done a lecture on it's already been recorded, it'll be released soon on how the opening passage of

social graph in the closing passages into golf, tying to one another, and complete the argument for each other. Now we're working our way in. So those are the outer extremes. Now we're working our way in when you work your way in on the one end is the story of the young people of the cave, that's on the front end, when you're coming in. On the back end, when you're working your way backwards, there are two stories back to back. So there's the story of Musa alayhis salaam, his journey, immediately followed by little car names, journeys. So there's two back to back stories. And I'm going to bunch these two together and correspond them to the story of the young people of the cave. Okay, so part

of this venture is going to be and by the way, then we'll keep working our way towards the middle. That's what we're going to do. So we're starting on the extreme ends, and we're working our way towards the middle. And when you get to the middle, you actually interestingly enough, also discover the central idea of the surah. And that's one of the styles of the Quran that the central idea is somehow situated directly in the center and everything converges there and everything emanates from it. One of the most profound examples of that in the Quran is Surah to know where the famous ayat of a nude Allah Who knows Sumati well out in that long Madani. Surah are right in the middle, that's

the middle two sections of the of the surah and everything else is quite literally

illuminated by that middle passage. So something like this is happening here. So there are there are three tasks when it comes to this inner section. Now, I'm going to compare the story of the young people of the cave. And some of its correspondences with the story of Musa and Hobbit. That's what I'm doing today. In the next lecture, I'm going to see sort of the Habitica, half the young people of the cave, and we're going to compare them to the story of Luca name, that we are next comparison. And then the most immediate comparison, the story of Moses journey, and Tokoname journey compared to each other. So there's three stories. And there are three sets of comparisons, right. So if you

think of them as a, on the one end, and B, and C on the other, today, we're doing a B, tomorrow, we'll do a C. And then finally, the day after we'll do you know BC, those are the comparisons then we work our way inside. So today I'm going to start off with the youth of the cave. And Musa alayhis salam, his journey, which are two very distinct stories, this, this discussion will be most productive for you if you are familiar with both stories. So my goal here is not to walk you through the entire story. Again, there are elements of this story, these two stories that are going to play a role. Now in the study of coherence or connectedness inside of a surah. One concept is that of

anchors, I like to call it anchors. Anchors means a level use a certain kind of unique word, because you know, Quran has very common vocabulary. But sometimes it has unique vocabulary, like Allah uses the word that he doesn't commonly use, right? So that word kind of sticks out. And then he will use that same word, that unique word elsewhere in the Surah, making a mental connection between two very different parts of a surah. Right, so those are those I like to call anchors, those connections that are made. So and I'm for simplicity in this presentation. I've called it direct word associations, meaning you can clearly be see it's the same root origin, it's the same gesture. It's the same

origin of the word. It's the same phonetic sounds that are now recurring. So let's look at some of those things that happened in the youth of the Cave Story, versus Musala salaams journey. So Allah says about the use of the cave cognomen iOttie Na, algebra, I'm happy to announce Hubble gaffield Rahimi, Colonel when iOttie da Java, didn't you assume? Didn't you realize that the people of the cave and the inscription were some of our most miraculous signs and the word strange or unique miraculous even is our job. Right? And then when we get to the Musa story, the only other occurrence of our job in the Surah is what Takada Sevilla, who will bury our Java that when his student you

shall walk up, that he realized that the fish had taken a path. And it was a strange path that it took. It's interesting. Also, I, you know, I'm only kind of touching the tip of the iceberg here, because there's lots of comparisons. But I want you to just realize something for each of these comparisons. There's a significance. There's, there's some kind of significance, for instance, in this case, the what makes the story of us how we could have unique is that Allah preserve their life, even though we associate that long of asleep with death. Right? So if somebody's sleeping for 24 hours, it's pretty long. 48 hours, okay? 72 hours, okay, they're in a coma, they have to be in a

drip, they have to be fed a couple of decades, that's a corpse. Couple of months, that's a corpse, they're dead. So that one is part of the agenda here part of the job here. Something that's strange here is that where you expect death, there is life.

And interestingly, the fish is dead. And it takes the path coming to life. So it actually is a correlation of death and life being in Allah's hands, in all kinds of ways. And it's not just the word is associated. The story behind the word is also connected. The background is also connected in life and death. Now, the use of the cave say to each other, Gaffey, go seek refuge towards the cave, seeking refuge. And they're seeking refuge because they are escaping tyranny. On the other hand, and Musala, asylums journey when you shall walk up, he said, Oh, you remember in our inner Illa Sokrati, when we took refuge towards the boulder, when we took refuge in the boulder, full ILA away in that

same verb, and there are a cave, there are rock essentially the same thing. Essentially, the same imagery is repeating itself. And maybe two dimensions of Refuge are being highlighted. By the way, interestingly, one is running from something and seeking refuge and the other is running to something and seeking refuge. Right. So there's two different kinds of refuge. And it's also interesting that even if you're not running from persecution, you still need Allah's refuge. And when you are running from persecution, you need Allah's reference. So there may be other things that are being subtly hinted at, in these word connections. Then, of course, very unique that Allah Allah

usually doesn't describe his believers.

or his servants with words like fifth year or Fatah, like young people, but he goes out of his way to describe the youth of the people of the cave. So he doesn't just call them as hobble Gaff. He says in the home Videotron I'm going to be robbing him. They were young people. And Musa Ali salaam had a servant with him who could have been called a hadham. He could have been called his Sahib. He could have been called as Gunny you could have been any word could have been used for his associate his companion, but Allah chose to use the word youth again is called Musa Ali, with color Musa li Fatah when Mousavi said to his young servant, so his youth. So perhaps the surah is going out of its

way to highlight the importance of paying attention to youth, as was Musala Islam as are the young people of the cave themselves. So there's an extra echoing of the word youth that comes up by the time the surah is coming to a close. Of course, the people of the cave they ask Allah for special mercy from him because they don't know where to go when they're running from this tyrant king. They used to go hang out and they found this cave somewhere. Maybe that's our best best bet. It's not like they have a plan to go and live in a cave. Right? But in their desperation, they don't know if this is going to work out or not and they turn to Allah and they say Rabina Atina Malankara Mata,

our Master, give us from your special volts, some Rama some loving care, we need some Rama from you. Okay? And then when you come to the story of Musa alayhis salam, notice the word attina in the story of how we'll give it a give us give us Raha and on the other side Musala Salah meets a man who Allah already gave Rama to Athena who Ramadan min andina, we had given him Rama from our behalf, right. So there and these people, they are looking for refuge and if you follow the narrations associated with how they, he was lying under the sun by the beach, just covered himself in a blanket, and he has Rama from Allah, you know. So we think of Rama, we think of a certain kind of old person's living

well or a person has material good etc. Right? And right ma Allah gave to the youth of the cave is unexpected, you would think Rama would mean they're safe now. They're going to be in some luxurious place. They're in a cave. So Allah redefined our notions of Rama, what does it translate into? You don't get to dictate to Allah, what exactly do you want from him? It will come in a package that's designed by him. Right and then with how the, the way he has been given Rama we can't even understand. It's designed by Allah, but it constitutes Rama. So it's perhaps broadening our view of what it means to have Rama from Allah. And it's also maybe helping us understand that maybe a lot of

times we cannot possibly understand that of Allah, but it's always there. Ask Allah for it. And Allah will give it in unexpected ways. Atina Ramadan, Athena Ramadan, okay. Now, what he learned in Emelina, Russia, the use of the cave say, Yeah, Allah furnish for us. In our decision, this thing that this matter of ours, this situation of ours, furnish uprightness for us, meaning, we want you to facilitate that we stay on the right course. It's a remarkable prayer, actually, because they're not just asking to be safe, like, make safety easy for us, furnish ease for us, mate furnish safety for us. They're asking Allah to furnish goodness, righteousness, uprightness for them. What in the

world does that mean? It actually means Yeah, Allah, create a situation where I can continue to live a good life that is upright, that is a moral life. That is the kind of life you would want me to live, make that easy for me, because the fitna behind us, they'll force convert us into the false religion, they will take us back into a society that has Genelia that doesn't have any moral principles that are engaged in all kinds of evil. And if we're in that society, then us, you know, our goodness is going to start, you know, it's going to be forced out of us. It's going to be ripped from us. So they're asking for, you know, when we ask for convenience from Allah, perhaps we're

asking for more money. We're asking for better housing, we're asking for a nicer car, we're asking for things. Or we're asking for people around us to stop giving us a hard time or something, you know, we're asking for things to get easier. That's the heat to furnish, to facilitate, to make things easier, but they say Allah prepare for us Russia in our decision. Yep, facilitate goodness and uprightness. So that's actually it seems, safety is not even the ultimate objective. Continuing to stay good continues to stay on the right path. That's the ultimate objective for them. And on the flip side, Musa alayhis salam is going on this long journey, finally finding his teacher and says,

you know, Toby Rocha, Allah and to Imani Mima Lim Tosh the same word allah

Shadow rushed. You see the literary connection here? Could you teach me from what you've been taught, in terms of Russia in terms of uprightness, so Musa his journey, his goal is also rushed. And the use of the cave, their journeys goal is also Russia. You know, and Allah told him Musa alayhis salam to go get it from a teacher and these people don't know where to get it so they're just gonna ask Allah Allah open some door to get it for us. Right so Allah opened the door for them were asleep was the Russian

and for Musa alayhis salam is being in those situations that was his rushed that was his that was the guidance for him

similarly the word hammer is being echoed Hi Lana Minh and Marina Rasheeda and on the other hand lat or hit Neiman Emery or Sarah in my in this mission of mine in this purpose of ours in this situation of ours make make things easy for us and on the other hand masayoshi son turns to his teacher harder and says don't be harsh with me when it's on me don't make difficulty on me. Because of you know, in my mission I'm here I'm here to learn so go easy on me. So Amber and Amber repeated

then actually, I'll keep going Sorry, I forgot about you guys.

There we go.

And that will remember both of you okay.

So in total QA was at when the story comes to an end Allah addresses Azula so I said I'm it's tied to the story itself was spelled Nuff said I'm a Latina, Runa Rabban belladati will actually hold yourself back, be patient with yourself along with those who are calling on your rub, night and day. So those I serve is being told to be content and be patient alongside the Sahaba who have no material resources. On the other hand, Musa alayhis salam is being told by his teacher in Kolento Sati is sobre you're not going to be able to have suburb with me two very different dimensions of Sobor are being highlighted. And in both cases, a profit is being addressed to have Subhan. Allah is

addressing Rasulullah saw Salem to have suburb and how that is telling Musa alayhis salam you're not going to be able to have some of this is too much for you. In Mecca lentils Tatyana yo sobre Okay.

Forgot about your end.

Okay.

I think I'm uncoordinated now.

Okay, so you remember the famous Ira without a colon Alicia in NIFA. Angelica Harada. Don't you dare say I'm going to do this in this tomorrow for sure. Illa Ania, sha Allah except that you say that Allah wills right that Allah wills and that's the I have in sha Allah. And then Allah says was called Rebecca Dennis it and make mention of your Rob, when you forget. Right?

When you forget, remember your Rob.

Now on the other hand, in the story of Musa and hudud is kind of a, an a literal case study of this concept. Rosa was told, Don't ever say, I'm going to do this and this tomorrow, right? And remember, now in the case of Musa Alice, I'm sorry, in the beginning, he says, I'm not going to stop until I find this rock.

Even if I spend years and years and years Hakuba on the robot, what words are missing about the commitment to do this in the future? The words in sha Allah are missing. And what happens the past the place they were supposed to go to? And when he remembered when his student remembered, he said well MA and Sani, who Illa shaitana and of Cora, no one made me forget except shaytaan from remembering it shaitan made me forget now look at the words forgetting remembering and Sani will illustrate on one of Kuro so Lucien and Decker forgetting and wicked and in the beginning was corrupt Dhaka Ivana Sita remember your master when you forget. So the same concept and then a case

study of it highlighted later on by the way masayoshi son learned his lesson for not using not never forgetting in sha Allah again. So when when Hubbard asks him to come along he says said that you Dooney in sha Allah Hassan right so he applied it so it's actually the teaching was in the at the end of the story of the cave, and then the application was shown the consequence of the of not applying it and then learning the lesson from it was shown in the story of Musa and other.

So theory and application in a sense. Now, of course I highlight this before but it goes to show without Akula militia in any fight alone. Delica Verdun Illa and sha Allah. So the words Allah wills are coming in soon as Hubble gaff story and then at the end Musa story so that you need in sha Allah sobre

now, the next part the the subtle thematic association so so far I showed you Ameren Rama, Rama and Rama Rushton Rashad, right so they were like literal See, vicar and vicar Lucien in this yarn

Same exact words are coming. But now we have to take a thematic connection. thematic means it's not the same exact word. But the ideas seem to have a relationship with each other, even if the same word is not being used, it's kind of like, because kids are listening to sometimes cake and sweets.

You know, there is not the same word. But there's a mental association with those two things, right? Or race and car. There's, it's not the same thing, but there's an association between them. So there are ideas that are associated with each other in both of these stories. So let's look at some of them.

So the idea of spending a long time a long duration occurs in both. So they said in their in their cave, Salah, Sami atunci, Nina was notice or they say 300, some years, right? 300 some years, and then more. And Musa alayhis salam is going to travel and he says I'm going to spend cocobod book club, a half club is 80 years. And Hong Kong is at on top of ad on top of ADL keep on spending, if I take if it takes me 80 years, and then another 80 And then another 80 I'll keep going. So he's talking about centuries, right? He's talking about centuries. And in the story of the cave. Also, they stayed for centuries. So long durations of time, are alluded to in both stories, then, of

course, very literally what it has to move home in the story of the cave, when you cut yourself off and go in isolation away from them. So as Hubble can have an isolation, right, and they're away from society. And Musa alayhis salam you know, was he was the leader of the Israelites. So he was the head of the community. So he's never alone. But in this journey, he only has one person with him. And he's been dissolved even though the word Israel is not mentioned. He's is more attention from his nation, he's away from all of them. It's just him and you shall traveling alone to find this place. Right. So they went into isolation and Musa al Islam says, He said to his the only one with

him his young servant, I will keep on going. So this is actually an isolated journey also, which also not literal wording, but thematically ties these two stories together.

Then interestingly, even as far as imagery, when the people of the cave went to sleep, there was an opening on the top of the cave, it seems or the mouth of the cave was rather large. So when the sun would rise and fall with our shumsa, either taller, and caffeine, Natalia mean, with a horrible credo, that Shamal that the the sun, the rays would come in, like, if you have a home in your window in your home, I was gonna say a home in your window,

but a window in your home, and the sun comes in. Sometimes it comes in and you're like, I can't sit on this couch right now, because the sun is attacking me here. And after a certain point, then you can sit there or you want to make sure you have you know, curtains or blinds or something, because it'll hit you pretty hard. Right? When it seems that what Allah did is the rays of the sun would come approach the young people of the cave and then circumvent them both on sunrise and sunset. In other words, they would never be exposed under the sun, they would remain in the shade while they are in a perfect gap miraculously right in between well home fie fudge within Minho, they are in an

open space right in between those two passages, okay, within the rock, and Musa alayhis salaam, actually is looking for a place in between two oceans.

He's looking for a place in between two oceans. And he finally it was actually a rock where they took rest. And when they went forward, his student reminded him that was the place where the fish thing happened. So they headed back towards the same rock, which was in between the two oceans. So the idea of the most important spot the miraculous spot, being in between,

and on the one hand in between two oceans, and on the other hand, in between the rays of the sun, the eastern and the western sunrise and sun fall, right in between. So this idea of between this, and finding that central place is highlighted in both stories.

Then, of course, food comes up in both stories.

They wake up and they're hungry. So the same for younger you has gotta Amman, okay, one of you take this money, we'll find out what's the best food we can get as Katama and also means What's the halachos food we can have? What's the most pure food we can get? And Musa alayhis salam is traveling and he gets tired. And when he gets tired, he says Atina Vada and bring us our food Laqad lucky Nam In Sofia, Safari Na Na Saba, we've been exhausted by this journey. So they're in pursuit of food. He's in pursuit of food. Interestingly, I didn't add this here, but thematically, it is the pursuit of food that led them to be discovered. So the discovery happens because of the pursuit of food. And

in the story of Musa Ali salaam,

Discovery of hunger happens because of the pursuit of food. It is what they realize what they missed is why they went back to where they went. So there's another interesting thematic tie in between the two.

Another contrast this time when they made the out to Allah as they're heading towards the cave, they talked about how they want Allah to make comfort for them, ease for them relaxation for them, and they did they their stories about sleep and relaxation. And on the other hand Musa al Islam stories about a journey and exhaustion, look at look at them in Safari Mahara nasaga, so nasaga So on the one hand Melfa, which means comfort, ease, relaxation, reclining, and on the other we have been exhausted by our journey Nakane Lapena and Safina hada nasaga. So Humla sometimes Allah will test or the miracle Allah will give to His servants his comfort. And the other time the miracle Allah will

give to His servants is exhaustion. It is because of exhaustion that the story continues, have they not been exhausted and not gotten hungry? We wouldn't have get getting the rest of the chapters of what happens with Musallam would not be happening. Right? So Allah will this is again, it's manifesting the same original idea. Remember, I told you, Rama doesn't come in the package we expect? Right? So he can package it as comfort and he can package it as exhaustion that's up to him. We don't decide how Allah delivers his Rama. This is one of my favorite correspondences in these two sutras. Allah says

you know towards the conclusion men Yeah, the law who for whom moated woman you believe fell in touch with Allahu Walia Murshida I hope I do a good job explaining this to you guys. It's really I found it really powerful. So Allah says, At the end of SoTL calf, calf story, he says whoever Allah guides and that's the person that's committed to guidance to begin with, and whoever Allah decides to allow to be misled, then you will not find someone to protect over them will Ian and just set them to the right course Murshida. So if Allah decides to let you stay misguidance to things you will not get a Willie and a motion actually in motion. Now what is William Michigan again, someone

protective over you, and someone who course corrects you. Now, interestingly, the first Willie motion every one of us has in our life is our parents. They're protective over us. And they set us to the right course if you're misbehaving, they correct your misbehavior. If you're making a mess, they ask you to clean up your mess. If you're missing your prayers, they tell you to make your prayer. If you're not if you're not, if you didn't make will do they ask you to fix your will do make it properly. They're your Willie and they're your machine. They're your first ones, right. And in their case, of course, hubcaps case, you know, they don't have parental guidance, they have

parental misguidance. Right, and their parents aren't guided. So Allah says, and whoever Allah decides to guide,

then they're the ones who commit the guidance themselves. And if Allah allows somebody to be misguided, it doesn't matter if their parents are good or not. It doesn't matter if they have real emotion, any any other believers, they could be in the best environment. But Allah decides that these people don't want to commit to guidance, so they don't deserve it. You know what this is telling us? It's a profound philosophical reality. Guidance is not the result of your environment. Guidance is the result of your commitment is not the result of your Environment. Ibrahim Ali Salam could be in a hostile environment. And he's guided us homograph in an extremely hostile environment,

and they're not prophets, and they're guided. And the Israelites were in the company of prophets every single generation, and yet they weren't guided. Right. So you can be in a guided environment and not have guidance, and you can be in a misguided environment. And you can have guidance. The example of this Allah gives elsewhere and McCann Quran, Allah says that, you know, he compares guidance to different phenomenon. So one of the phenomenon is Honey, are not honey Milk, milk. And he says it comes in Baney. First thing we're done. So the body of the animal has feces in it, it has urine in it, it has filth in it, and it has blood in it. And what's coming out of the other is pure

milk. Right? So Allah says, look at Allah's miracle that between all of the filth, something pure is coming out. And in the same passage, he gives the example of grapes.

Grapes are pure, it's a fruit. It's an organic thing. It's it's naturally grown. It's a sweetness created by Allah. But you can take pure grapes and squeeze them and you can make what with them, you can make wine with them. So look at the analogy, something that is internally impure, purity is coming out from it. That's the example of milk and something that's inherently pure impurity impurities coming out of it. That's the grape. And this is Allah's way of describing through this analogy. One of the implications of it is guidance. People can be

In a filthy environment, and when their hearts are pure, it's like the milk coming out of the animal, they could survive the blood in the feces and come out, keep your hearing clean. Not only are they pure and clean, they became a source of guidance and replenishment for others, they can become that. So you're not a product only of your environment. On the other hand, you could be in a natural, holistic, you know, Fitri environment and what you call Islamic environment, and moral environment. And yet, you can take all of the goodness around you, and you can manipulate it and squeeze it and fermented into wine, you could turn it into haram, that can happen. So what happens

on the one hand, these young people are in bad company, and they still have guidance.

And then on the flip side, there's a story of a young boy who has the best parents, so much so that those parents get divine help from Allah. And yet, he will not take guidance. In fact, he will be a tyrant against them.

He will be a tyrant against them. And those parents by the way, they are his willy and his morshed, aren't they? Because the parents are, fundamentally believe in motion. So what's happening in Musa alayhis salam story for her Sheena and your hip Coahoma Torian and we're COFRA so it's as if this idea Manya dilla who for whom martyred woman you will follow Anthony de la Hui and Murshida. A case study of Manya de la who for whom wanted is as hobbled calf, the youngest hobbled calf, and a case study of manual lil fall antigen, Allahu le and Murshida is the young boy that's going to get described in the story of Musa Muhammad Ali Salam. Right. So it's a really cool correlation between

the two very profound now what I Sabu my carbon WAMGROUP code, you will think that they're awake, Allah says about the people of the cave, you will think that they're awake, but what's actually happening? They're deep asleep. They're long. So let's draw a conclusion from that is reality is not what it appears to be.

Reality is not what it appears to be. If somebody stumbled upon the cave, they will think they're sitting up alert. They're awake, right? But that's not the reality of it. So there's a scene, but there's an unseen reality. Well, I'm gonna quote, okay. And Musala, asylums journey. He asks, Did you just damage the ship to drown its people? Then he asked, Did you kill a person, an innocent person without any crime? Then he says, had you wanted we could have been paid for building this wall, though. Sheila Takata. And he Edra, why, because he didn't realize that reality is not what it appears. So in correspondence between these two stories is actually reality is not how it all

appears, you cannot judge entirely by what was caught on film, what you saw, or what you heard, or what even experienced musalla something, just hear something, or watch something it happened in front of he experienced it, and yet he does not have a grasp of what's really going on. In terms of reality. Reality is deeper than that. Right? So this is a profound undertone that connects both of these sources are these stories together, then, of course, building. I love this one, too. It's very philosophical opener, I let him banana, build a building over them. You know what that means, in simple terms, build a monument. So people remember this miraculous incident, people remember the

Seven Saints, the seventh sleepers, as they have been remembered, as churches have been commemorated. And this new alien Banyana historically happened. There were churches commemorating the seventh Sleepers of the cave. So there were buildings built over them, you know, and all of this is what a way of recording history, we don't want their story to be lost. We want that story to be treasured. That's the idea of building monuments, isn't it? Now, on the flip side, masala slums, also building something is building a wall, along with others.

And when they build the wall, we find out that the wall was not built to remember someone.

The wall was built to help forget that father and his children's and nobody pays attention to them. Some parts of history human beings really want to remember.

And Allah allows that to be remembered. And actually, even though they tried to build monuments to record the history, look at what happened. They built these monuments and they built these churches in the name of Africa have and they turn them into saints of Christianity.

They turn them into proof that Christ is Lord. And Allah revealed in the Quran, the corrected story, Allah revealed that that's not what these young people were. They were not a reinforcement of the Christian creed. This is not who they were at all. This is why he says neck, no knuckles, so I lay Canada home. And Huck were the ones that are going to tell you what really

happen with them. Because you, you try to record and preserve and commemorate, you know their history by monument by songs by hands by buildings, and you still corrupted it. And yet on the other hand, there's a wall, there's no name on it. There's no title ownership. And yet the people who are supposed to be preserved by it, they got it.

And so Allah sometimes protects people by making them forgotten. By making them forgotten how Allah some parts of history Allah chooses for us to remember some parts of history Allah deliberately omits He doesn't want us to know. For centuries people didn't know what the US herbal gaff really were about. They didn't know. And then Allah decided to reveal the truth. Nobody would have known about this wall and about these young kids and this history that happened in the world had ALLAH given it to us. Okay.

I love this one too. Oh my god well yet a lot of

a lot puffa yet a lot of fools or students right? Tell us to fun for whom with a lotta fun. Look in Arabic is

when

if you have like, if you spray something on a cloth, and a few fibers of that are few droplets come through the cloth, very subtle, barely. Or the you know, the stitching. If you look very closely, you can find a grain in there. It's so barely visible, barely noticeable until you take a very, very close look. Looking at something very delicate very closely. That's actually called look.

One of Allah's names is a thief, a thief. What that means is Allah is doing something and you barely notice that it's Allah doing it.

At further glance, it doesn't look like it's a lie at all. It looks like people are doing it. And you take a really close examine look and you realize it's a light work of moves. Yusuf Ali Salam story, so much is going on, right? And Allah azza wa jal describes one of his name's Latif and the Maya Shah Latif, in the story of use of Felice RAM. So nobody would think Allah's plan is to get him thrown in a well, or a child to be sold into slavery is God's plan. Or somebody being falsely accused and thrown in a jail cell is God's plan. Right, but subtly, in a very delicate way that Allah is leaving for us. And if Allah didn't leave that for us, we would have no we would know that

that's actually Allah which just looks like injustice straightforward. Father separated from son innocent person thrown in jail. That's what it looks like, you know, a false accuser getting away with it. You know, that's, that's all it looks like. But Allah is at play at work. And that that Allah's role in that is called the thief. Now, this word is also used for human beings a lot tougher for someone to act very subtly, very undetected. Lee, this is the word that the young people of the cave use when they give one of their guys money to go get food, because they were wanted, right. So go and kind of be inconspicuous, be incognito, hideaway. You know, in RPG video games, if there are

games about the enemy detecting you, they have these little triangle icons on top of the enemy that go from neutral to yellow to red. And that means now the enemy is alerted of your presence. So you weren't Latif enough? You weren't subtle or hidden? You know, enough. You weren't ninja enough. Right? So well yet a lot of is them saying hey, don't don't draw attention to yourself, blend in like you're invisible when you go and get that food, okay? Now, this is human beings doing their best to not be noticed, to be invisible to their for their role to be invisible. But did that attempt succeed or fail? Like, can you imagine somebody wearing clothes from 300 years ago, holding

coins in a bag that nobody uses anymore? And they're walking around, like,

trying to blend in?

You know, and then they speak they speak language from 300 years ago, pretty much hoping that nobody will notice. Like they'll become the center of the entire towns attention, right? The irony of it. On the flip side. Huddle is taking Musa alayhis salam on a journey. And he's doing some crazy things.

breaking a bone is killing a kid he's going like starving in a town and then started randomly building a wall. He's just doing these wild things. And at the end of it all, he describes how he doesn't use the word lucky for Allah. But essentially he says it without saying it. Right. How does he said, Ramadan Arabic OMA fall to me, that was all from Europe. I didn't do it on my own. That was ALLAH instructing me to do it. All of that, but as the Allah's role was to Latif, for it to be observed or to be discerned by Musa alayhis salam in those cases, right. So human attempts at look, and Allah's love

contrast between the two stories

Oh, I

keep forgetting you guys.

Okay.

I thought we did this one wasn't enough sec. Yeah, we did. Okay.

Now

the young people of the cave wake up.

And they're like, how long were we sleeping? Must have been a day now not even a whole day when our body Oh,

no, no volume.

And then quickly they realize there's no way for us to know we don't have a watch. We don't have a clock. We don't have a calendar. There's nobody that came from the outside to tell us what time it is and what day it is and what week it is. So Rob, boom Alemu diva. There is no need to concern yourself over things that only Allah knows.

Allah knows how long you said, Who cares? All that matters is we're hungry.

Like somebody woke up among them and maybe said, Man, I feel like I haven't eaten for centuries.

I may actually be true, right? But I haven't eaten for like 300 years.

Doesn't matter how long you didn't eat? Let's just go get some food.

Don't worry about how long you were sleeping. Okay, on the other hand Marsalis is being given advice by his teacher worker in photos mirror Isla Milan too heavy obrah? How can you be patient over something that you don't have full news of, we have two very different attitudes. When added to this, if you don't know where to go.

There's no way for you to know.

But then there are some situations where the Human Nature says I just need to know Why did Allah do this? Why did this happen? Can Allah just give me the source code? If you can just tell me why this happened? And it'd be so much easier for me to believe in Him. You know, like, I mean, of all the things he could have done, why did he do that?

And you should remember the words of how that when you when you think like that work a philosophy, Rolla, Milan, are you going to have somewhere over something, you can't have any news or

you can encircle it, you're not going to be made privy to that musasa was given a glimpse of what happened at the end. And he couldn't bear some things. So on the one hand, Allah is actually empathizing with you and me, when we start questioning, why did this happen? And why did that happen? But on the other hand, it's actually comforting to know that Boko Haram, your master knows, that's enough. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to know the reason. Allah's plan. You know, there's a, there's a discontent with, you know, I know Allah did this, this and this in my life. But if I just knew why he did it,

right? And then people, obviously Allah is not going to reveal to you why he did it. You're not going to get an email from the Divine, that in our push notification, this is why this happened to you. Now you know what some people do? They say, You know what, I figured out why he did? He must have done this because he wanted me to do this, this this this?

Why do you have to figure out Allah's plan? And why do you have to divine what he meant to do with you?

This is what he wanted really. And philosophy. They call this going inside the mind of God, you have no access.

You have more Makana Allah who knew the outcome Isla aim chill out. You know, Allah says Allah doesn't owe you Allah is not going to be one to you want to inform you of what's happening in the unseen. So don't try to keep hypothesizing what Allah his intentions could have been. There's no way for you to know. There's no way. And that's actually the point being taught in Musala salon journey. If you're suffering from that kind of impatience, that learn from that story. Take that lesson from that stream, Allah help all of us with our summit.

Another interesting, subtle contrast, while you sure you wanna be Kumada, don't let anybody notice. get wind of your presence. Don't let anybody realize that you guys are hiding out here. So even when you come back, don't come back. So directly, make sure you're not followed. You know, being conspicuous. We talked about that before. So their entire effort is to not be noticed. That's their effort.

Musa alayhis salam is going to a town and their entire effort is please somebody notice us we just need some food

and nobody wants to notice them.

Right there, Allah will try some of his believers, and he will make it impossible for them to be invisible. Their trial will be it is impossible for them to be invisible, and other believers he will try by making it impossible for them to be noticed. Their trial will be they get ignored.

Flipside, nobody will even act like they even exist. Can you imagine? The most honored Prophet of Allah musasa spoke to Allah directly spoke to Allah directly, and some guy in some building

He opened the door to Musa alayhis salam and said, Get out of here.

I can just imagine that for a moment, Musa alayhis salam, as food cannot hear true for about an hour you Houma Allah. Sometimes Allah will try by making you ignored.

Even if you are a macaque like even if he's a Musa Elisa, Allah can make him ignore. And if you are just some kids, that it's easy for kids to not be the center of attention, just there's just some youth, and they can become the center of attention when Allah decides Subhan Allah, and in the age where attention has become almost a religion by itself. Right? Not getting enough attention becomes a cause for a person to be depressed, to feel like they're worthless, because they're not getting enough attention. They're not getting enough views. They're not getting enough digital hearts, and smiley faces and up, thumbs pointed upwards. Clearly an indication of your worth as a human being.

When you're not getting those, how can there be any purpose in your life, and in an era of attention being a god by itself, and Illa besides Allah and unfortunately, maybe it's good for us to remember that sometimes Allah test people by giving them too much attention. And sometimes Allah test people by removing all the attention from them,

you know, and has nothing to do with what their worth is Musa alayhis salam is worth incredible amounts. What is the most mentioned prophet in the Quran, and he's not getting the attention for even one one neighbor one one you know, villager in a no name town. Hola for so I had that can be very heavy for young for a year as Catarman money and food. Okay, here's some money, go fetch some food for us. On the other hand, they're trying to get food and they don't have money.

So the people in the cave, they have money and they're trying to acquire food. Another interesting comparison contrast, they also tried to get food. And since they didn't get food, they tried to do some work so they can get paid. Maybe they can go over to the next village and use the gold coins or silver coins or whatever they were going to earn. And maybe get themselves some food that has dollar he dropped.

In Yahoo icon, you Muqaam Oh, you're a token female let him the youth of the cave said listen. You need to take being hidden so seriously, because if they find out who you guys are, what are they gonna do? They're gonna stone you to death, the order has been given you are to be executed. And if not, they will assimilate you back into their own religion. They will force you back into the pagan religion. So they are under threat of persecution. Right. And on the other hand, Musala Salam story is also the threat of persecution. Wakanda Malecon young Hulu Kula Safina in Alaska behind them was a king, who was seizing all ships. Right? So these are powerless against the larger oppression, the

larger forces, these young people were powerless against the king that is coming after them. Right? And what did Allah do? Allah saved these young people

from being caught, and by the time they were caught, they were no longer under hostile threat. And Allah saved so Allah removed them from all harm worldly and otherworldly. And on the other hand, Allah allowed for those young people's ship to be damaged so they could survive.

Sometimes Allah will protect you by protecting you physically in the present and the future.

Sometimes Allah will protect you physically in the future by allowing you to come into harm's way in the president.

The Allah's plan has different variations. There's not one kind of plan. He has one kind of plan for the people of the cave another for the young people that were fishermen or the people that were fishermen and the story of Musa Lisa Hello tomography him Illa, Mira and Bahia without a stiff defeat him in Omaha, don't ask questions about them. Don't ask her useless questions about them. Allah is guiding what kinds of questions should you ask and should you not? How many words? How many exact years are they look? What village did they live in? What food did they get? Did they go to McDonald's? What do they what do they order it they have to catch it back then. These are not

questions you need to worry about. You don't need to argue about that. You don't need to get caught caught in you know and don't argue except about them except in things that have been made clear. Illa, Mira and viola. And don't seek out other information from other people. Just just to add some nice spice to the story. Don't do that. Musa al Islam goes on a journey and his teacher tells him nah does a neon shade. Don't you ask me about anything? until I say so.

In both cases, we're actually learning that when Allah decides he wants you to shut up and not ask questions.

He wants you to ask questions about what you're being told. And ask explanation about what you've been taught. Don't let your mind go to things that he didn't talk about.

and you want to know all those things? You know, I keep saying when I describe these stories, Muslim curiosity isn't about what Allah said. It's always about what Allah didn't say, all the time.

So, you know, the young people, so Allah said, The, there's three and four, and five and six, seven and eight.

How many were there, though?

Do we know how many there were?

Why do you want to know? I don't know. Just, you know, because Allah didn't say, so I just really want to let us say, because if he said it, it will really help you on Judgement Day.

You know,

all these two gardeners that in sort of golf, where's this garden? Is this in New Jersey? Is this? California? Where where's his garden? He didn't say that's why I really want to know, because he didn't say

the local name is Alexander the Great.

Yeah, he did not use the Great Wall of China.

Can you just know? Because if you could just know that it would just help me so much with my mind would

know.

We want to be obsessed with all the things Allah didn't ask us about. And there's even a more strict guideline placed on Musa Elisa, things that are happening in front of him. Don't ask questions right now is not the time to ask questions. But in the Quran case, we're not given that strict guideline like guidance or restriction like Musa listen. But our questions have been given direction. There is such a thing as an irrelevant question. There is such a thing as a problematic question. So this is a powerful teaching, contrasting the two now lasting a thematic comparison and contrast you think is never end, it's going to end it's going to end a thematic comparison and contrast, these are some

larger ideas that emerged from both stories that we can perhaps looking for correlation. So both of them are about divine intervention. So of course, the fact that these young people were able to find a cave that the army couldn't find the fact that they could be hidden away from the sun's rays, the fact that they could sleep for several centuries. All of that is divine intervention, and it's obvious that it's divine intervention, it became obvious to everyone when they emerged, right. And on the other hand, in Musa story we learned there are everyday things happening, the ship is getting damaged, a wall is being built, a child is being killed. These are things that happen in the news.

Right. And so you can see the the Allah's involvement in us how we're gonna have, but you don't necessarily see Allah's involvement when you hear news like that. Right? So there's the invisible, divine hand, but it's always there. There's a plan always there. Our problem is we want everything to be a divine intervention, like as hobbled graph, and we become uneasy when we don't see that direct divine miraculous intervention and say, How come Allah is not doing something about this, this and this on our terms? How come not every story looks like us? How about God? How come so many stories look like Musa journey, that's, that becomes our problem. So Allah is balancing the two,

sometimes he does intervene in miraculous divine ways. Other times, he doesn't. Other times, he lets things be and you have to see the delicate hand of a light plate.

Of course, by time, they went for a day, and it turned into centuries. And Musa Ali son started out saying, I'm going to spend centuries looking if I have to, and it happened the same day, they just ended up finding it. It took a nap woke up got hungry families, right. So all of it happens in rapid succession. So sometimes what we think will happen quickly, Allah can extend. And sometimes things that we want to happen, we think it's gonna happen way years down the line can happen today can happen so time and timetables are in the control of Allah, and he decides them for his slaves, we can have our projections, we can have our estimates, but at the end of the day, Allah can make

something happen, that we thought impossible, for better or for worse on his own terms, and we are dependent entirely on him. This is actually reinforcing the idea of what at Akula in any fire Lisa in any Fire Island Delica Don't say so, I'm going to do this in this tomorrow, the world around you could change in one day. It could change the entire reality of your your life in a day, in an hour in a minute. In a minute. Everything can change. So what tomorrow so that's another very powerful one, then

this is the there's a timeless, there's some things about Allah that he does for his slaves in this world that is timeless. Those that turn to him sincerely Allah protects their deen and their guidance. That's a guarantee from Allah. When you have Allah, for whom

and yet Allahu Manjusha there are multiple indications in the Quran. If you and I commit ourselves to guide guidance, there's no way Allah will leave us misguided.

If you could be surrounded by shirk, Cofer Janelia persecution

Allah will make the sun bend around your convenience to keep you guided. He will do that for you. All he needs from you is a commitment to guidance. But when Allah guides his slaves, that doesn't mean that that means He preserves their Deen, right. But in the story of Musa alayhis salam, there are also innocent people whose dunya was not preserved. their livelihood was not preserved, at least temporarily it wasn't preserved. people's families child was not preserved.

Young kids could not access their treasure for a long time. So we know the good ending of the stories by the time they got to adulthood, they could have access to those funds. But what about all the time before them? Sometimes when Allah will preserve the dean of His slaves no matter what, but that doesn't mean that Allah preserves the dunya of His slaves. That is Allah's plan, how he brings ups and downs in the worldly sense of our lives.

One of the most amazing contrasts in these stories, is these young people were going out and teaching their entire nation

of Abu Dhabi somehow it will have landed the Roman Dooney heel and entered this day. They are teachers, we learn from them. Right? So young people, you don't expect young people to be the sources of wisdom, young people, we think of them as people who need wisdom, who seek wisdom, right? And they become the wise that we still learn from today. Old men in their 80s and 90s are reciting Surah, Krakow and learning from the wisdom of young men. Right? It's not beautiful in our religion, that Allah removed age as a factor of who can give guidance. And on the other side, you have one of the most senior prophets in all of Islam, Musa Allah Islam, and he's playing the role of what a

student, a student, young have become teachers and the old have become a student, so hon Allah, it's the it's the universal, like power of guidance and learning the role we have to wear, the attitude we have towards learning in our religion that's been taught by this. Anyway,

this is I think, this is the last No, there's a couple more, okay. So the cave became a divine sanctuary. What that means is, you know, we think of some places and holy places where miracles happen, people turn them into sanctuaries and temples and things like that, right. So you have, like, in different religions, you have temples, Muslims, by the way, sometimes we, of course, the Haramain are sacred places to us, right? But you know, what we do we associate we end up doing *ging those places to like people are going there and cutting a piece of the life of the Kaaba and bringing it home and rubbing their face on it and stuff like what are you doing? What what are

you doing? This this that's this that's the that's the mentality that Islam came to destroy

that to take objects and make them sacred. That's what Islam came to get rid of. You know, there are people that take their haram off and they start hugging the Macomb Ibrahim little like you doing? Why are you doing this, you know, are elbowing each other in the face to kiss, hedgerow sweat, and stuff.

But you know what, Allah took a no name cave. We nobody knows where this is that Turkish people say we found it. Abilify. I don't know why they are finding everything. They've got the Ark of new acela, they've got the hair of the province I love everything happened in Turkey. I think either Malaysia lamb is there and then like one copper there. Luca names probably in stumbled, I don't know. Like, everything happens in one place. Right? Or Jordan or like, a couple of places where like, this is where everything happened? How do you know? Allah wanted some places to be completely unknown? You know, for for people in different religions, like the Vatican is sacred. Right? It's

sacred land. It's hollowed land. And here you have an unmarked cave. That became the place of a timeless miracle of Allah. What does that mean? That Allah even though there are places in this world, that our Messiah, right, Allah mentions that right, so the hara maner Messiah, right? They are places that bring about feelings of sacredness, most Delica out of these are sacred places. But actually, there are many other sacred places where sacred things have happened. And Allah did not want them to be known.

And you know what that means? Any place can be sacred. Miracles can happen anywhere. They don't have to be limited to a place. And the people that found the young people of the cave didn't understand that. That's why they started arguing. We should build the Michigan we should make this a sacred place. We should make this a sacred place. The point wasn't a place of secret. The point is not like the miracle happened here. That's, that's why I'm gonna come here because I have sleep apnea. So I'm going to go and get this cave. To my sleep issues get solved. That wasn't the point.

Point was Allah helps his slaves no matter what their condition.

Then the rock the unknown rock, like we think about that's the divine sanctuary. I said here divine seminary, Musa al Islam is going to learn aspects of his Deen. He's going to learn some things about Allah He doesn't know even though he's been taught to throw rock. And what university does he go to what remarkable center of learning does he go to an unnamed rock between two oceans? Meaning an obscure unnamed man that nobody seems to have ever heard of. Right, that we still argue about who that really is. What Allah is telling us is when he decides to give knowledge, and when he decides to protect a place, meaning when he decides to bless, either turns a place into a sanctuary, or turn

a person into a seminary, that's up to Allah. They don't have to come from the conventional places that we associate, you know, the conventional institutions that we associate one of the greatest teachers in history, God taught by a no unnamed man.

And unknown man, how Musa lay some teacher in the Quran. So much of our the prophets, inspiration comes from Musa alayhis salam. And he's getting taught by somebody who's just abdomen a body in a place that nobody even knows. Can't even find it. You know? So, this is a profound again, there are there are aspects of the story that highlight our philosophy towards learning. Learning is not a place, sacredness is not necessarily just a place. Learning is a gift from Allah and you can give it to whoever he wants.

And of course, I already mentioned this to you. A Masjid was built to commemorate history, and a wall was built to hide the history of that real family. Right.

I think this is the last one. Yeah, the quest for Russian. So I told you both of those quests are for Russian but dammit I'm Nina oshada. And on the other hand, you know, Toby Rocha Allah and to eliminate Mima alimta, or stir. The contrast is one is running from something and one is running to something. One is running to something, when they're running from evil. They're looking for guidance, and the other is running towards knowledge, and looking for guidance. You know what that is perhaps the two sides of the same coin. For every believer, if we want to live in upright life, we need to get away from evil.

And we have to run towards learning deeper, getting to know Allah better. We have to, we have to deepen our knowledge of Allah. There's a deeper knowledge of our deen and we have to get away from an evil environment and those two things go hand in hand. The more you get away from evil, the more Allah will bring people in your path that can help you learn your deen better. The more you start pulling yourself towards evil, even if people have been can be accessed, you will no longer care to access them. You'll be there but you don't have any value for them because you're being sucked into the wrong thing. So these are some really interesting comparisons contrast correlations that emerged

between the story of the cave of how Buka have and Musa ism again, I said this is not exhaustive. It's just kind of a cursory look, but inshallah This is a starting point. Others will come and add so much more to it. BarakAllahu li Walakum Quran Al Hakim on the final year committee it was Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh