Stories of Al Kahf #03 – The Seven Sleepers Part 03

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh dear respected guests, I like to welcome you to another episode of stories from alkaff insha Allah Today we will be going through the last segment of the story of the Seven Sleepers in sha Allah with us today Sajid the chef Sajid Omar. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa salam. ala regard to particle Avi handler. So in the previous episode we discussed how does these group of youths that were in a city where there was a transgressed

King, and because of this, they decided to leave and ask Allah for his mercy in many different ways, and humbly expanded on a few points, but could you just give us a quick recap on what it was that we discussed last year? Love Bless you. Man Rahim. Al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah. We start in the name of Allah, we praise Allah and we send salutations upon the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. I hope you Well, my wife, and I hope our wonderful viewers are well. Yes, so we have the story of the Seven Sleepers, seven youth and seven young people. And they took a stance against oppression, against polytheism. And they were threatened with the lives that if you don't

worship these idols, if you don't follow the way of us and the people, then we will kill you. So they took a stance and they left their people. And they asked God Almighty for mercy. And God Almighty, gave them a cave, as an abode that protected them from

their people. And God Almighty mentioned will mention for us, we will discuss them today, so many ways that he protected them or so many gifts that he gave them, because they asked God Almighty to shower upon them mercy, and we will discuss the lessons pertaining to that. So this is a summary of the story. So God Almighty protected them in a cave, and then he made them sleep for 309 lunar years, and then gave them life again, or made them wake up after that period. And they became discovered by a new group of people that were living at that time. 309 Luna years later, and that is basically the reality of the story, a story and in previous episodes, we've we've sort of tied

things together. Why does the story exist in the Quran? How did it come to be?

Why is the surah the entire chapter known as the chapter of Alka have any references this particular story, even though there's several other stories, and perhaps things will become clearer as we traverse to the story further, colonial Odisha now, now going to the next coming, if we start with is number 14, and we tie the heart with patients, when they stood up and said, Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens on the earth, we will by no means call upon any god besides Him. For then indeed, we should have said an extravagant thing. Now, why is the reason as to why Allah subhanaw taala use the word Thai? Is that a physical tying of the heart? Can you please expand on that? Yeah. So God

Almighty says what about when I enter Colombia? So I see that so you could take literally that he tied the hearts when in reality, what God Almighty is saying here is that he made the hearts firm, when you tie something, it stays in place. So that's what you tie, your camel stays in place can't roam around a horse, same thing stays in place. So God Almighty Are you saying, but he says he typed the hearts he's saying that he keeps gave the heart steadfastness. That's what he's saying. And this was from the mercy of God Almighty. Again, we go back to the first supplication whereby when they left their people, they turned to God Almighty and said, Allah or God Almighty.

Grant us Your mercy. And they left it open the left in general, right? Because they didn't say Allah give us ABCD specifics. So the Allah showered upon us you mercy, which means the leaving it to God Almighty that everything which is merciful whether we know it or we don't know it, you give it to us, you know best. We will take the means you bless our actions, You grant us steadfastness, you showered upon us mercy. So God Almighty saying we we gave them a steadfast heart that is a mercy.

Right? That is a that is they didn't say Allah give us a steadfast heart. Since you are showered upon us, you mercy. Almighty gave them a dog that God placed it at the cave in a specific way, as we will see, made them sleep, give them the cave, and then there's greater mercies if we can say that in the sense that he gave them steadfastness. Because you know, when you live in different environments, it's

It has an effect on you. Right? peer pressure, it has an effect on you. If you are able to remain upon your values, despite the pressures of people around you, that is a mercy from God Almighty, that is a gift. If you have the ability to always be who you are, and not let other people dictate your values. That is a mercy from God Almighty. That is a gift. Right? Yeah. And that is why we should we should ask God Almighty Allah, we should pray this prayer, that Oh, God, Allah, our Lord, please showered upon us Your mercy. Because you know, everything that is your mercy, we don't we know some things, but there's a lot more that we don't know to show upon as humans,

especially in today's day and age, I mean, it's something that Alma could definitely benefit from. Okay. And we've said time and time again, not just in any specific place everywhere, you can benefit from this. It's just the reality of the time. And the thing is that, you know, we spoke about this in earlier episodes, the importance of history, and learning from the people of the past. And is it these lessons for you now, right. So it's not just, you know, this, this prayer is not specific to a particular country, it's specific to Muslim living, every so often you miss an order from the greatest Mercy is to have steadfastness to be able to remain guided, even though you're being shoved

and pushed, right, to remain upon your values, even though people's values are dropping around you. That is a mercy. Because it's easier to do what everyone else is doing is easier. And that's why the messenger peace and blessings be upon him said, For to ballyhoura glad tidings to the strangers to the strangers, strangers wise, because they strange, they're doing the thing, they're doing that thing which everyone else is doing, which the majority are not doing. They wake up to pray when everyone's sleeping, they foster everyone's eating. Right? They hold on to the beliefs and the values when everybody's dropping them. They have principles when finding people of principle, a few,

they're taking a stance because they, they principled, they don't trying to say, you know, let's keep everybody happy. And we see this today, where people say, you know, I don't want to, you know, keep everybody happy. Do you know, when you want to keep everybody happy you taking a stance, I don't want to take a stance, you know, I just keep everybody happy, that is actually taking a stance, not taking a stance, taking a stance, you taking a stance, to allow destruction to to to continue and, and in fact, become more emphasized. Because it takes good people to do nothing for evil to discredit. Yeah, it takes good people

to say we're not going to act for evil to spread. So this is this is a very telling verse that God Almighty sharing with you when he says we made the hard surface, we just read the remainder of the verse, yes.

with patience, when they stood up and said, Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth that we will not buy. So this is the values the values Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth not idols not any human being. Go ahead.

We will by no means call upon any god besides him for then indeed, we should have said an extravagant thing. You see, they're taking a stance, they've taking us down not moving from their value, they say this is our value, we're not going to change. Right? If you don't want us we leave but we're not going to change. Go ahead what comes next now. So the next I states These are people these are people have taken Gods besides him. Why do they not produce any clear authority in their support? Who is then more unjust than he who forges a lie against Allah? So Allah

Could you please expand on our chef is quite, you know, yeah. So you know, earlier on God Almighty when he praised these people, he says in no Fujian Amma lubra Bhima Xena, Hoda, calm it says these were young people, they believed in the god physique now, moda, so increase them in guidance, increase guidance is the most you can have belief, and then increased belief is an added mercy. Right. So this one God Almighty saying that

this is a very important point. And I think this marks a powerful theme of this particular what of the objective of the story we said that this objective to Quranic stories, right? In early episodes,

one of the objectives is to develop you and this is this is the key case here of development, right? Because the scholars commented and say, this particular story here, it highlights the trial of power.

Power is a trial, you know, this particular story, this particular story, because here we have a king was using his power in a, in an abusive way. This is the travel of power, that if you have power and even you're not just with your power, and this is indeed a trap, right, because you're only developing your Hellfire instead of developing your paradise, right. So here

to understand this, we got to go back in the future to an AMA loop European was it now that they were young people, they believed in their Lord and the Lord guided them increase the guidance. Now, by the way, just to highlight here that some of the scholars have said that when we talk about youth from an Islamic perspective

It entails everybody up to the age of 40. Okay?

Today normally we attribute it to younger people. But it doesn't change the reality. The reality that we learn from here is that you never too young to be a supporter of the truth.

Right. And I think today this way society gets things wrong. We don't learn from history, we have this common statement that you know, what our youth, our future, our youth, our future, our youth, our future, and that is wrong. I don't like that statement. What I like is our youth, our today and our tomorrow, that's how it should be. Because when we see our youth our future, then our youth feel that you know what, this is the playing field of the adults, we just need to do other things, you know, PlayStation, Xbox, this that just, you know, sit around and be useless because we in a time capsule, and we waiting for the timer to go down to zero, when it counts down, that will denote that

now we have a role to play. So we play that role. You see, but if we say our youth, our today and our tomorrow, they understand that you don't want to we have a role to play today. We've got to do what we have to do today. Yes and learn from history. This whole surah is named after the Seven Sleepers, these youth who took a stance and every Muslim already to the day of piano and by the way, sort of visited once a week on a Friday. Why do we read it once a week to remind us to remind us it is the weekly audit of the human day.

So let's recap is the weekly audit of the human being and as we travel to the other stories, you really understand why this is a weekly audit for us that if you are a person of authority, this is your weekly audit that read the story ponder over it. If you're a person who's being oppressed This is your weekly audit read it ponder over it

right take inspiration from it right maintain your guidance from it it's not just read every you know like a symbol just do this and just do it now remember earlier when you when you asked me about do we have to recite it we have to memorize it I said no it's an issue about putting it into practice lamentation

beautiful point and once again to you know make sure that we learn from the surah not just recite it like you said like a symbol in order to benefit from the stories and the lessons to be learned from the Sahara Desert from Alaska Iran. For those watching at home inshallah, we will carry on with the segment two after the break.

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Dear respected viewers, and welcome back to the second segment of stories from alkaff. We're going to be carrying on inshallah, from is 16 with Chef Sajid on Sharla Tada. So, before the break, we discussed on how the people of the cave were, you know, trying to they stayed steadfast on their beliefs, their core beliefs, which were to, you know, establish the monotheistic religion that was, you know, being

attacked in the time of the city, which they wants one wants from? Could you please just expand quickly before we move on to iOS? 16? on nice, you know, yeah, so one thing that's

important in that verse to mention is the importance of staying away from blind following that it doesn't mean that everyone's doing it, then by default, it's right. It could be but doesn't mean that right. So as you can see in the in the statement, that they should bring forth some authority to prove that they are upon the straight and narrow and upon the right path, and upon that, which is correct, and we are not. So the fact that they're not doesn't mean that we should just give up our beliefs or anything. So we learn from this, that it's important to blind follow. And we learn from this also that it doesn't mean the majority are doing it, or the majority view to be correct, that

it's actually a good thing. What's the next I attended?

I 16 states and when you forsake them, and what they worship, save Allah, protect yourself, we take yourselves for refuge to the cave, your Lord will extend to you to you largely of His mercy and provide for you a profitable course in your affair, as well. So, in this I states that the the seventh leaf is they took refuge in the cave. Now, by doing so they left their society. Is that something that is you know, accepted, especially now with all of these different situations that the Muslim almost go through in different parts of the world? You know, is it safe to say that we couldn't pack up and just you know, leave or is a duty to stay amongst the people? Yeah, this is a

good question. And to be honest, it's not a one brush, one size fits all situation, or one brush and all surfaces type of situation. We don't say that. It's good to leave, and detach yourself from society and put yourself in exile. Nor do we say, in every circumstance, it's good for you to stay. What we say here is that we should look at all the evidences collectively in Islam. So we have this particular idea.

in which these people are detaching themselves from the society and putting themselves in exile. But in the same breath, we have other generations in Islam that teach us that we should be patient with the people that are around us and invite them to Allah and be patient with the difficulties we received from them. And we are taught that Allah loves the person who mixes with the people more than the person who exiled himself from the people. So we should join between all these different sources, or different evidences rather, right? Because the source is from Allah. So there's no contradiction. So when we put everything together in context, we see that from an Islamic

perspective, it's only good to put yourself in exile if you fear that you will lose your values your Eman if you stay. But if you don't fear that, then it's better for you to stay with your people and be patient with the difficulty and try to bring them upon values that are ideal. So this is the most important lesson that we can, we can take from there. So they did detach from the people, but in their circumstance, that no choice they had, if they stayed, then their lives would have been taken. And there would be no monotheism on Earth. Right? Or, or specifically to the city there would be no monotheism in this particular place, nobody to have taken that stance, at least. And to be honest,

in the stance that they took, at least a story was inscribed, which means the lesson of monotheism was inscribed and who knows maybe the fact that the lesson existed was a means of guidance for the later generations that came along was best of luck. With the next to coming, if

we find that Allah subhanaw taala, showing his message, I'll read them. And you might see the sun when it rose the client from their cave towards the right time, I want to set leave them behind on the left, while they were in a white space, they're off. This is a sign of Allah, Who Who ever Allah guides, he is rightly guided one. And whoever he causes to go astray, you shall not find for him any friend to lead him. Alright. And the next is states and you might think them awake while they were asleep and we turn them about to the right and to the left, while their dog lay out stretching its paws at the entrance. If you looked at them, you would certainly turn back from them in flight. And

you would certainly be filled with all because of that. This is amazing. So remember, when when they left they turned to God Almighty and they said show upon us Your mercy. They didn't dictate things they left it to God Almighty. Right. And this is from the mercy of God Almighty Allah is giving them that which they would never have asked for had they been given a chance to choose 1000 things. A cave. That's number one. Number two, they were made to sleep, a restful sleep. Number three, Allah subhanho wa Taala made them sleep in such a way whereby they will not be disturbed, so they can be a peaceful slumber. Number four, from the mercies as you've read is that they had this dog. Now

there's different commentators have different as to how they got this dog. But the point is, Allah tells us they had this dog, and Allah place the dog at the entrance of the cave. So if anyone tried to come in, obviously, naturally you'd see the dog and you'd stay away. So that means the Seven Sleepers wouldn't be discovered. Because they were in a mountain space, they were farmers, then it's feasible. And it's plausible to say that maybe you know, a farmer could be with his animals, and he might, it might be raining, something might happen and you might end up entering the cave. And these people will be discovered. Remember God Almighty is protecting them until a certain time from the

people. So it was done in such a way that people would think that okay, this animal here is not going. Also God Almighty says further on that God Almighty place the situation that whoever came close to the cave, God Almighty would fill their hearts with fear

that they wouldn't be able to understand but they just feel nervous, trying to get in the game and they'll change their mind and say forget about it. And they leave to the mercy from Allah Allah message from Allah to keep them protected and undiscovered. right because they just lifted people how far can they go? This is not an era of aeroplanes and aircrafts and helicopters and so on and so forth. So they must be around. Right? Surely, if you spend one year two years, you'd find them but they were in foreign for 300 years

300 soldiers, so this was a mercy from Allah also from the mercy of Allah upon them is that Allah didn't make the sunshine hit the cave, during sunrise or at sunset and some say that the cave must have been situated towards the Southwest. Some people have tried to find out where the cave is today. And there's different

attributions that have been made some sites

turkey Some say it's they've mentioned different places and Allah knows best I think the Sham region, the Levant region, is where this this cave actually is. And if my memory serves me, right, I think exactly in a place known as rakeem in Jordan and Allah knows best, but this is not to say when Allah says us horrible coffee or rotten rotten here refers to the place because the scholars of Tafseer say it refers to the inscription

but this was a mercy that

The sun wasn't hitting them because direct sunlight disturbs you. Yes. But in the same breath, we understand that sunlight did get into the cave. And we know your body needs sunlight. Otherwise you'll be harmed. And that's when they woke up, they didn't feel like they slept for 300 years. They felt like it was a day or part of a day. Yeah, because the effects of sleeping was not there. So that's another message. Also, we have the mercy of Allah making them toss in time. The law says they will tap. And this is important for good health. Because if you sleep on one side, you your blood gets stagnant on one side by tossing and turning, it maintains a more simpler body, bodily function,

blood circulation, blood circulation. So they asked Allah for mercy. They didn't specify. And Allah is giving them a B, C, D, E, F, G view said he has 1000 choices. You describe what you want from Allah, they wouldn't have said this. So hollow, right? Wrong.

Right? So these are all messages that God Almighty gave them. And then after that, if we just go to the verse we have law tells us that then Allah woke them up. And they had a discussion between themselves this 19. And thus did we right, rise them that they might question each other, a speaker among them said, How long have we been asleep, they said, We have been asleep for a day or part of the day. And other said, Your Lord knows best how long you have been asleep. Now send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the city and let him see which of them as the purest food. So let him bring you provision from it, and let him behave with gentleness and by no means take your case

known to anyone. So however, so many things that we can talk about here, like the use of the silver coin, the fact that, you know, one of them actually said, we've been asleep for a day or half a day. I mean, there was sleep for 300 years. And it just goes back to the point that you're saying that their bodies will move during the sleep to ensure that their body had no sign of God Almighty is Apollo able, what's interesting, the weekend we can gather here is very quickly is number one, they had a discussion, they had a difference of opinion. But then someone says and the scholars of Tafseer, some of them have come with accommodated with the older one, which means it's important to

have leadership and someone older to bring guidance, and serenity. Amidst confusion. He stood up and said, God knows best that let's leave the discussion. We don't really know there's no evidence, leave it to God Almighty. And this teaches us today the importance of, you know, many things that, you know, we don't know, we put our trust in God Almighty and believe that God Almighty knows best. That's number one. Number two, they sent he sent them or they chose someone to go and purchase food with halal money. So the money was permissible money does their coins, right? And then they say make sure you buy us government. Don't just go buy us food, we feeling hungry. But But as the most, the

as common as car could mean, the purest of food, the most halaal of food because they know we left the people who were slaughtering for idols don't buy that food, which shows the importance of eating halal and pure food. That's number two. Number three, we learned the permissibility of letting other people act on our behalf. It is permissible. Right? And so this is another grand lesson that we learned from this hamdulillah. Right. And the other thing that we pick up from this is well, yet a lot of and I think this is one of the most fundamental lessons from this particular part of the story while he uttara off and be gentle. Meaning act in a way that's not abrasive right now, for us

today with an MIT lesson. Because are these people living in that in terms of strength or weakness? Well, at the time that they were put to sleep, it was weakness, and right now they woke up, they think it's the same time. So do they feel that they are living in a time of weakness or strength, weakness, weakness? So what is the what is the lesson from at the time of weakness? How should you act still be gentle in the way that you conduct? You should be gentle should you be should you be abrasive, should be gentle, don't stir the waters is not the time is not the place. This is the time to manage yourself, don't bring attention to yourself. You're in a weak situation, what you're going

to do, what you're going to do, right? And this is the answer to those who keep saying, you know, you know this, and you know that and we have scholars for dollars, and we have this and we have the people you know, they all have us on this call is and why isn't a stance being taken here and a stance being taken. But you've got to understand that there's also the reality of context, what context Do you live in, that you might say something and your voice is going to mean nothing. But by saying it all it's going to do is cause you to fall into further destruction, which means you've only you've killed every opportunity to actually take a stance and that that goes against wisdom.

Right? And in Islam, what are we taught our in our data, we should be wise should be wise. So this fundamental lessons here in one liter of water yet, this is a time when you are not a person of strength and ability. So, being conspicuous, don't bring attention

This is a time whereby engaging discussion, but only engaging this, there are these levels with our levels to how we conduct ourselves in that when Allah says invite to Allah with wisdom. So here, this person is giving the advice, thank you going back, don't bring attention to yourself, because there's no benefit that's going to come to it. It's not wise for you to bring attention to yourself. But then obviously, attention came to them, because it ended up being 300 years later, and the people were using a different currency. And they saw this currency and they said, Hey, this is the currency of that King. Right? Some sources say his name was dkn. Who's that this is this was his

time. So this must be one of the guys from the seven that we read about, on these inscriptions. And Allah subhanho wa Taala did not come along here on for going through more of the benefits that we can derive from the story of the Seven Sleepers. Chef Sajid Lama hamdulillah. I mean, it's very important for today's society to take the gems that the chef has spoken about when deriving from the story, using wisdom when interacting with others in society, and are being harsh or brash in the way that we communicate. inshallah, if you feel that you've benefited from the series, please join us again next week, as we have many more stories to come from stories from alkaff insha Allah Allah

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh