Zakariyya Harnekar – Jumuah5 Dhul Qadah 144426 May 2023
AI: Summary ©
The speaker introduces Molina Zakaria Honecker, a doctor at Islamic College, who gives a brief recap of the Surah of the Bible. The message is to ensure that they do not fall into any harm and to prepare for the people who believe and have done the right deeds. The speaker discusses the importance of understanding one's worth and past tests in achieving salvation, and emphasizes the importance of learning the story and being a person of tremendous strength. The message of Islam is to lead people to seclude themselves from their people and to not meet social orders, and to choose friends wisely and make them the good friend.
AI: Summary ©
All praise and thanks are due to Allah
Salutations and peace be upon our beloved prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Respected Ulamah,
Hufath,
mothers, fathers,
brothers and sisters, I greet you with a
universal greeting of peace.
On behalf of Islamic College,
and the extended family, I would like to
wish each and everyone
May Allah
grant us all a blessed week ahead,
Today, it serves me great pleasure to stand
here and introduce our honorable guest speaker for
today, who is none other than Molina Zakaria
Honecker.
Molina Zakaria Honecker's mother is Missus Honecker who
is also a teacher here at Islamic College.
Molina Zakaria is not only a qualified alum
but also has his honors in mathematics, alhamdulillah.
Without further ado, I present you Molina Zakaria
Honecker.
How's everyone
today? Yes?
Good.
We
start by saying
praising Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and thanking him
for his innumerable favors that he has bestowed
upon us.
If you were to try and count the
favors of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
you'd never be able to put a number
to them.
So we express our gratitude and thanks to
Allah
at the beginning.
And we say, alhamdulillahi.
We praise Allah
Allah and we thank him for every single
condition that he places us in. And that's
not only lip service, we really say that
from the bottom of our hearts.
Thereafter,
we send salutations
and greetings of peace upon our beloved Nabi
Muhammad.
We send these salutations and blessings upon our
beloved Nabi Muhammad
For it is through his every
action,
his every statement,
his every
approval,
and his every state that Allah
taught us how to be in this life
such that we can attain the goodness and
the good,
the best of this life as well as
the best of the next.
Nothing in the teachings of is
to out is to out detriment, neither in
this life or the next. Even though at
times we may feel like in the law
of
certain things are difficult. Today is very cold.
Getting up fajr time, having to perform wudu
in the cold, it seems difficult.
But, actually, in that difficulty,
there is benefit for us that far outweighs
any degree of difficulty that is experienced in
that action.
Just ask the people who are suffering from
a lack of purpose
how much they would value
the purpose that we experience when we stand
up and we stand before Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, acknowledging and recognizing
that our lives are lived for Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. In fact, you probably can't ask
them because they wouldn't recognize it until they
experience what they don't have.
But we who have it should be grateful
for it.
Not complain about the difficulty in the law
of
but recognize the benefit that it leads to.
So,
as the head boy mentioned when he was
introducing me, my mom teaches you at the
primary school as well.
So
she instructed me on what topic to speak
about. So we'll have to go with it
inshallah.
The son must always listen, doesn't matter, even
if his beard is big.
Right?
So the topic that she asked me to
speak about was a story from Suratul Kahf.
Who knows Suratul Kahf? Which Jews is it
in the Quran?
It spans,
the the the second or the last part
of Jews 15 and into Jews 16.
Suratul Kahf is a very beautiful surah in
the Quran. All of the surah of the
Quran,
they're all beautiful.
The aspects of beauty differ.
Some of the Quran,
the endings of the verses are all in
the same,
or they're all in the same and that
creates a certain tempo and tone to the
surah.
Some of the surah of the Quran
are beautiful in their word choices.
Some of the Quran is beautiful in terms
of the structure.
But in all of the Quran, there is
beauty.
Surah Al Kahf, perhaps because we recite it
so frequently,
the beauty of that surah stands out to
us more so.
But what makes Surah Al Kahf beautiful?
What makes beautiful? What does mean firstly? Who
can tell me?
I'm being engaging here because I see lots
of students. So you have to engage others
who fall asleep.
What's Alka Haf?
It's a cave. Usually it refers to a
big cave, not a small cave.
Like, for those of you that might have
been to Mecca and climbed Jabal Noor, you
find the har or hira.
That's a very small opening in the mountain.
But the kahav is generally a big cavity,
a big cave in the mountain.
And, this surah,
it's named the surah of the cave for
a number of reasons. One,
there is a story in the surah of
some youth who took refuge,
who sought safety in a cave.
But if one studies the surah as a
whole,
this surah speaks about our salvation.
This surah teaches us
how to ensure
that we do not fall into any harm,
neither in this life or the next.
So it is as if
the believer should find in Suratul Kahf
what his place of refuge is, what is
his cave in life. How is it that
he
saves himself
from the
or he shelters himself from the harmful elements
of the world that surrounds us?
That's a bit of a point of, like,
Isha'ara, or just some indications or lessons derived
from the name of the Surah. But it
essentially gets its name from the fact that
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, mentions in the story
the word in the Surah the word karf,
and he narrates the story of the companions
of the cave, the youth who took refuge
in the cave.
But if I were to just touch on
the structure of the Surah before getting into
the one story specifically,
how does the Surah start?
Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala starts the Surah
by mentioning praise for him.
Then
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala speaks about the idea
of revelation
and the fact that he revealed
that to a specific slave of his. And
that is Nabi Muhammad
Alright. So Allah speaks first about Allah,
and then he speaks about Rasulullah and
then he speaks about the revelation that he
revealed.
Right? The revelation that he revealed with Muhammad,
salallahu
alayhi wasalam.
Thereafter,
the general topic of the first part
of the the first part of the of
the surah
is that
it speaks about the finite nature
of this dunya. The fact that this dunya,
this world that we live in,
it will come to perish, it will come
to an end.
And it speaks or it creates an image
almost as if you are entering that period
when the world is coming to an end.
That's the imagery of the first part of
the Surah.
If we go to the end of the
Surah
if we go to the end of the
Surah
and we look at the discourse at the
end of the Surah,
in reverse.
We look at it in reverse.
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, first speaks about them,
the people of the Hal Fayyin.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
speaks about the people of Jannah.
Allah speaks about how he has prepared for
the people who believe
and have done the right deeds. Allah has
prepared for them. Jannah. Just before that Allah
spoke about the disbelievers
and how he prepared for them the hellfire
as entertainment in the year after. Obviously, it's
it's not really entertainment that they would look
forward to or that they have any reason
to look forward to. And Allah
speaks how the actions will be,
Allah
says how the actions will be in vain.
And even the imagery in that word alone,
it's something very profound.
If you read in the translation and you
you read the translation,
it will say perhaps their deeds will be
in vain
or their deeds will be wasted.
But the word
the verb in Arabic
comes from the word.
And you can actually hear the similarity,
Same letters.
Right? Same root letters.
But the scholars of Tafsir say that
is a type of sickness that would affect
a she camel.
It's a type of sickness that would affect
a she camel. What would it do to
her? It would cause the she camel's
stomach to swell.
The owner of the of the camel would
then think
that this camel of mine
is pregnant.
So what is he expecting if he sees
his camel to be pregnant?
He's expecting to end up with another camel,
to have 2 camels.
But instead of having 2 camels,
when it when the time draws near to
the person expecting
the camel to give birth, the she camel
to give birth,
instead of giving birth, it dies from its
sickness.
Perhaps something like a perhaps they were referring
to something like a tumor in the stomach
of of this camel or something like that,
allahu alaihi.
So what happens? The person's hopes
get increased and increased and increased.
And then when they're supposed to reap the
benefits, in fact, they find bad consequences.
So Allah
speaks about the deeds of the disbelieving people
like that.
They do things in this life, they do
things in this life, and they expect to
reap good consequences on account of it.
But on account of their disbelief in Allah
rather than finding
rewards awaiting them,
they find
they find destruction. The opposite of what they
had,
they had thought or they had done their
actions for.
So may Allah
save us from that. But anyways, back to
the point. It was first in the beginning,
Allah
revelation
and Allah, Rasool Allah, Rasool Allah, Rasool Allah,
Rasool Allah, Rasool Allah, Rasool Allah, Rasool Allah,
Rasool Allah, Rasool
Allah, Rasool
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, is introducing the people
are how the people will be organized
in the year after.
And it's as if
the year after is nodding in.
And then the topics go how?
Then Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala speaks about the
revelation.
Even if the oceans of this world would
turn into the ink,
to rival the words of Allah
the oceans of this world will be depleted
before it
rivals the word of Allah
Speaks about the revelation.
And then what does it speak about after
that? After that, it speaks about the messenger
again
I'm a man like
You
except that I have received the revelation.
But you let's not be carried away with
it. Sometimes people get the wrong idea, the
wrong notion, when Allah says in the Quran,
I am a man like you.
Right? He is when we say he's a
man like us, he's human being in nature.
That doesn't mean he's like us in our
deficiencies, surallahu alaihi wa
sallam. As the poet says. He's a man,
but he's not like me.
Lacking He's
like a ruby amongst pebbles
The ruby and the pebble are both stones,
but you know, the difference in their value
is great. So Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he's a human being, certainly.
We don't believe anything other than that. He
is a human being.
But, he's not like us in our human
deficiencies.
But the salient difference between him and
us is what?
That Allah
gave me revelation. He's Allah he's not just
a human being, he's a messenger from Allah
So and it ends up speaking about
At the end, it's in reverse.
But it's not just it's not as if
the entire Surah mirrors the end.
Just part of it. So it's again speaking
about the beautiful structure of the Quran.
Then between that beginning or that opening of
the Surah and the ending of the Surah,
which is starts again with the the the
the ending of this world and the ending
ends up with the beginning of the next
life, Allah
narrates to us 4 stories.
What are those 4 stories?
The story of the people of the cave,
the youth that took refuge in the cave.
The second story in Suratul Kahf, who can
tell me?
Yes.
Musa,
that's the third story.
The second one is about
the second one is about 2 friends. 1
of them was extremely wealthy and the other
one didn't have what he had.
The third one was about Musa, alaihis salaam,
and Khidr, alaihis salaam.
The first one The fourth one was about
what?
Yeah, Ijur and Majujes, but more importantly it
was about Dhulqarnayn.
It was about Dhulqarnayn.
What are these stories about?
Each of these stories, they're not just random
things. It's not like if Allah wants to
tell you bedtime tales in the Quran.
No.
You can certainly read them before you go
to bed, but it's not just to put
you to sleep.
Allah
tells us these stories so that we can
take lesson from them.
So what are the lessons to be found?
Each of these stories,
they represent a trial
that ordinarily or normally human beings experience in
this life.
What are these trials?
Asha wal kaf,
the sleepers of the cave,
their trial was in their faith.
The king wanted to kill them if they
do not worship him, if they do not
turn away from the worship of Allah
alone.
So they had a test. Allah tested them
in their faith.
But then Allah also coupled that with a
solution
to the test, but we'll get into that
later.
The second one is about the person, the
one friend who was wealthy
and who had beautiful gardens, and the other
one who didn't.
That friend, the first one that had, he
had a test in his wealth
whether he's going to be humble despite it
or whether he's going to be arrogant.
Unfortunately, he failed. He was arrogant.
Right?
But Allah couples that with the
solution to that test. How, if you are
one who has that test in life,
how do you
find your salvation despite it? How do you
act correctly so that you are not harmed
by that test? How do you pass that
test?
And Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, speaks immediately after
that about the finite nature of this dunya.
Right? You have to recognize that the that
this dunya will perish and that it's finite.
And even if you have a lot now,
you're not always going to have a lot.
And that will increase your immunity.
In the next story,
Musa alayhi sallam, he thought that he was
the most knowledgeable person because he was the
prophet of Allah, not out of arrogance, simply
as a matter of fact.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala introduced him
to a person by the name of Khidr
alayhis salam who had access to knowledge
that he didn't have access to.
So the test that Musa alaihis salam had
was when he was faced with a person
that had knowledge that he didn't have, would
he accept that?
Or would he be arrogant and say no,
I am
the
most
knowledgeable?
And alhamdulillah, Musa alayhi salam
responded with the highest degree of humility.
In fact, it's as if he treated Khidr
alayhi salam No, no. He did treat Khidr
alayhi salam as if he was his teacher.
And if you read the story, there are
so many lessons for the for relationships between
teachers
and their students,
between themselves,
and also their relationships with Allah
in that story, but perhaps for another day.
Because my mommy told me I'm a speak
about the first one. And
the last story is about
Dulkarnayn.
Zulkarnain
had power.
He had power. And when a person has
power,
hierarchically,
in the in the rankings of you know,
in power rankings in the world, if they
have power that they can exert over other
people, it opens up the opportunity for oppression
to them.
But it also opens up the opportunity of
of service to them.
So the test that Dhul Qurnayn had was,
is he going to use this authority that
Allah gave
him,
the might that Allah
gave him, is he going to use it
to benefit these people, or is he going
to use it against them?
And Dhulqarnayn
passed the test. He acted with extreme justice.
But Allah
represents in the story another trial that people
go through or experience in life
and how to find salvation or how to
pass that test.
So we had 4 stories.
Right?
Each one representing a trial, and then immediately,
Allah Allah presents the solution to that trial
so that we can learn how not to
fall into the,
the pitfalls of this dunya.
But right in the middle of these four
stories
so we saw how the beginning, merid, the
ending, and then we had these 4 stories,
each one representing a trial with its solution.
And right in the middle of these 4
stories,
Allah
speaks about the creation of Adam and
how shaytan refused to bow down to him.
The creation of Adam alayhis salam, because who
are the ones that experienced the trials? The
worms, the lions, the dogs?
No.
They not.
Allah's not going to take them to task,
hey, you lion, you ate another animal, you
were unjust. No.
However,
human beings are the ones who experience those
trials,
whom Allah
expects them to act with the correct ethical
code. Allah
expects them to act in a manner that's
pleasing to him.
So Allah speaks
in the middle of the surah about Adam
alaihis salam.
But not just Adam alaihis salam and the
creation of Adam alaihis salam, but also
the fact that shaitan refused to bow down
to him. It's as if Allah
is telling you, look here, in the midst
of life, in the middle of life, there
is an enemy and Allah declares him the
enemy of of,
Banu Adam, of human beings.
You you are facing all of these trials,
difficulties that come about on you on account
of your own nafs.
On account of your own nafs. You have
greed, you don't know how to manage it.
You have, you know, you have an imbalanced
inclination towards power, you don't know how to
manage it. You have weakness in your faith,
you don't know how to manage that. Comes
on account of your your intellect. You
whatever it may be, the problems can emanate
from you.
But at the same time, you must know
there's an external force who's your enemy, though
you don't see him, that's trying to pull
you into
that's trying to pull you into error.
He's trying to make you fail,
so be wary of him.
Be weary of him. Do you see the
beautiful structure of the Surah?
Sometimes you might you might read the Surah
of the Quran and you think to yourself,
hey. Now we're talking about people in a
cave.
Now all of a sudden you're speaking about,
you know,
Next thing we're speaking about, how do these
things stay together? Sometimes we the the erroneous
thought may cross our minds that the Quran
is not coherent,
or that it seems like there are there's
there's a randomness in the topics of the
Quran.
Oh, far from it. If you study the
Quran, you'll find that the Quran
is
more supremely coherent than any other text that
you would have read.
It's just not like human speech,
Because it isn't human speech.
It's a revelation from Allah
And I think some of this should give
you encouragement to engage with the Quran.
To read the Quran, learn the stories of
the Quran, and also, you know, engage with
the Quran deeper than that.
See the beauty and seek out the beauty
in the Quran.
But, anyways,
what I wanted to get to was the
first story in Suratul Kahf.
That first story was about a group of
youth.
Right?
This group of youth,
they lived amongst the people
who committed shirk. They were polytheists. They worshiped
other than Allah.
And that way of life did not make
sense to them.
So
they decided to worship Allah
They decided to worship Allah
But obviously, in so doing,
they are going against
the social order that exists in their place,
and they are going against the way of
life of their king.
And that upsets the people
who have that authority
or who have the
social standing on account of how things are
in their society,
much similar to the Arabs of Arabia or
the the the Quraish,
the mushriqin of the Quraysh. So
eventually, the king came to find out about
their deserting,
their polytheistic
way of life, their shirki way of life.
He called them
and he threatened them
that he would kill them if they did
not
if they did not return to the worship
of their people,
the way in which their people worship.
So these youth, but he gave them a
time to
repent.
He wants them to repent but he wants
them to repent to wrong things. So he
gave them a time frame. What happened is
that these youth,
they decided to retreat, to leave their place,
to seclude themselves from their people.
But they didn't know where they were gonna
go. They didn't have a plan. They didn't
have, you know, money and tons of supplies
to do whatever they want to. They were
youth.
So what happened is,
according to
the Mufasilin,
these youth, Allah caused them to meet up
with each other.
Allah caused them to
meet up with each other.
Each of them were individuals. They bumped into
each other. They they found themselves in the
same place.
However, they knew that their people are out
to kill them.
So initially, they didn't want to divulge
to the rest of the youth why they
were secluded.
But Allah
had it such that eventually,
one of them told the others why they
had left their people.
And Allah
inspired the others to speak up as well.
They found that they had secluded, they had
left the way of their people for the
same reason.
They could not find,
truth in what their people were doing and
they wanted to worship Allah
alone.
So Allah
gave them strength
in their coming together.
When you're one person fighting against the whole
society,
it's possible.
But you have to be a person of
immense strength.
But just have a friend on that path,
and it's as as if the load is
halved, if not, you know, made into a
quarter.
Because in your moments of weakness, the friend
is there to aid you and help you.
And in their moments of weakness,
you are there to help them. It's
You know, your friend becomes like he is
your taqwa when your taqwa fails you.
He's like your taqwa when your taqwa fails
you. So the manner in which Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala strengthened these youth is that he
gave them company.
And on account of having that company, they
found strength.
Eventually, they found a cave and they went
to sleep in that cave.
Allah caused them to sleep in the cave
for how long?
300 or 309
years.
Some scholars say it's 309
lunar years and 300 solar years.
Right? Because
309
solar years equals 3 and 309 lunar years
equals 300 solar years.
If you do the calculations,
they found themselves there. They secluded in there.
They were sleeping for that long.
But Allah
didn't just leave them like that. If you
sleep for 300 years,
your body will get pretty messed up.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave them a
deep sleep
such that they would not be bothered
by other things.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala turned their body
from side to side.
And Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, placed the the
dog at the entrance of the cave. It
looked as if he was awake.
And that was a terrifying sight for,
for anybody that would pass by.
And Allah
made it such that when the sun moved,
it would not move in such a manner
that was harmful to them or disturb their
sleep.
For these youth, on account of their belief
in Allah
Allah divinely facilitated all of these things for
them.
Your Allah is the same Allah.
They didn't have a different Allah to you.
What Allah was able to do for them,
Allah is able to do for you also.
Allah is able to do for us also.
So why is it that when, you know,
we are faced with choices, do I do
something? I know this is pleasing to Allah.
Or do I do that? I know that's
displeasing to Allah. Why is it even a
consideration for
us? When we should know that if I
do what's pleasing to Allah, even if it
seems like I'm gonna lose out on something
material, Allah will never let me lose through
pleasing him.
And Allah can facilitate for us in the
same way that he facilitated for
But one lesson that I want to take
out from this, our time has come to
an end, but just one lesson I want
to take from this
is that when Allah
mentions how many they were,
Allah says,
Soon some people will say about him,
There were 3.
And the 4th of them was the dog.
Some people will say that they are 5
and the 6th of them was their dog.
These people are just guessing.
They are casting in the dark, they are
shooting shots in the dark, they're just guessing.
And they will say 7 and the 8th
of them was their dog.
Say my lord knows their number better.
But the point is,
Allah said they were
some people will say 4 and the 5th
was the dog.
5 and the 6th was the dog.
7 and the 8th was the dog.
My question is, what did the dog have
to do with anything?
Was the king going to kill the dog?
Was the dog put on trial for having
iman
in Allah?
Or did the king want the dog also
to be a polytheist?
No.
But the dog got a mention in the
Quran
simply because he was with the Bais,
simply because he was with those youth
that, you know,
stayed firm in their belief of Allah
And the lesson in that is, as you
young people, not only as young people, as
elderly people as well,
we must
be very cautious and cognizant of who we
spend our time with.
Choose your friends wisely.
Says, a man will be on the way
of life of his close friend.
So each one of you should look closely
at we be friends.
Don't simply be the friend of somebody who
spend a lot of time with somebody on
account of circumstances because you happen to be
in the same place.
Choose friends who make you better people.
Choose friends
who
remind you of Allah
Choose friends who, like I said, when your
own taqwa fails you, they'll be your external
taqwa.
When you want to do something that's wrong
and they know that's harmful for you, they'll
drag you away from that thing, even if
it doesn't
feel nice for them in that moment.
Choose friends like that.
And if you choose friends like that,
Allah
will grant you both benefit from each other
in this life,
and Allah
will make you, your friendship be maintained even
into the akhir.
In one verse of the Quran, Allah says,
just the verse before Ayatul Kursi, Allah says,
Spend from your wealth before a day comes
wherein there will be no trade and no
friendship.
But elsewhere in the Quran, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says,
on the day of Qiyamah,
friends will be enemies
to
each
other.
The closest of friends will be enemies to
each other.
Except the people whose friendships were based on
Except the people whose friendships were based on
Taqwa of Allah
So may Allah
make us people who seek out good friends,
good company.
It sounds like a very simple thing, but
it can actually have the most profound impact
on your life.
It will have an impact on the way
you feel. It will have an impact on
the conduct that you display towards other people.
It will have an impact on really
every aspect on your life.
A good friend's weight can't be measured in
gold.
So may Allah
make us people who seek out those good
friends.
And if we find them hard to find,
then let let us make a start by
being the good friend.
Let us make a start by being the
good friend. And perhaps on account of our
desire to have a good friend, Allah
will grant him to us for the same
end.
May Allah
guide us. May Allah guide our communities. May
Allah
make us people of illumination.
People who inspire
others. People who
do good to others not because we are
focused on other people, but simply because we
are focused on Allah. And whoever is focused
on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he's looking,
you know, his gaze is turned to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he will make sure that
what he presents to Allah is beautiful. And
when he presents something beautiful to Allah, that
beauty will be seen
and it will inspire and it will open
hearts to the beautiful way of Islam. May
Allah guide us.
With this end.
For those beautiful words. May Allah
allow us to benefit from the stories of
Surakaf, and may Allah
grant
many more years filled with happiness and strength
so that Molana can continue to inspire us
all, Insha'Allah, amen.
We are requested to make dua for Sheikh
Hassan Badat and his family who wish to
bid salaams to all family and friends as
they will be leaving to perform Hajj Insha'Allah.
We make du'a that Allah
grant them the health and the strength to
follow all the obligations of their holy undertaking
and may their home and family be in
Allah, Subhanahu wa'ala, safekeeping
and may they be granted a Hajj Mahkul,
Insha'Allah, amen.
Alhamdulillah,
today, Islamic College has the honour of officiating
the jumah. The first Adhan will be made
by Mohammed Al Sadi, and the second Adhan
will be made by Abdul Balika in grade
11.
I kindly ask if all Mu solis can
please stand and fill any gaps so that
no time is wasted between the and the.
No.
No.