Ready to Withstand Challenges

To those great scholars, these scholars wrote books, and articles, and papers, and reflections on the lives of these not knowledgeable, not scholarly, no ijazah, and any tajweed young men. That's what happened here. This is the power of iman.

We don't glorify credentials. We don't glorify the appearance. What Allah glorifies is the faith you can stand by. If you can stand up to pressure, then these young people can become heroes to scholars, not the other way around, subhanAllah. That is what Allah did for those young people.

The Structure of the Story

Now, of the lessons that I wanted to highlight, it's so beautiful. The way the story is told, guys, it's so beautiful. And one of the areas of concentration for myself, is an exploration of Allah's speech in order. How does Allah tell the story? How does Allah narrate the events? And the way Allah did that for Surah Al-Kahf and Ashab Al-Kahf, is absolutely remarkable.

This is something that I'll give you now. This is again gonna be an oral exercise. Those of you who suffered the afternoon session, you shall suffer again. Repeat after me. There are going to be four ayat of introduction. How many ayat? Four introductory ayat.

The first of them:

"[This is what you have to remember. The first of them is, the youth turned for refuge to the cave. They head to what? The cave. That's the first ayah.]"

The second ayah, the ayah right after that. Allah says:

The first ayah was what? They headed to the cave. The second was, they went to sleep.

The third ayah is:

- so they could ask each other how long they stayed.

The first one was, they went to the cave. The second one was, they went to sleep. And the third one was, they woke up again. Allah woke them up again.

And the fourth one and probably the most important one is :

- We are telling you their story for actual purpose. It's not a story for your entertainment, it's a story with real purpose.

The Four Points Summary

There are four introductory comments in the surah. These four basically summarize the entire story. I mean, what happens in the story? They go to the cave, that was one. They go to sleep, that was two. Allah

woke them up, that was three. And then the story has a real purpose, that's four.

It's done. Finished. The rest of the ayat of the story actually go back just like you guys have, you know, in the beginning of a modern chapter in a book. You have bullet points. This chapter covers item 1, 2, 3, 4, yeah? What Allah is gonna do in this surah is He's actually gonna take a number of ayat and elaborate how did they end up running to the cave. So the next few ayat elaborate point number one.

The next few ayat are gonna be what happened, how did Allah put them to sleep?

- They were sleeping, you would think they're asleep. Allah will explain what that sleep looks like. In other words, Allah Himself will explain point number what? Two.

Then Allah describes how they woke up. And when they woke up, what happened?

- They started asking each other questions. I'll give you some lessons from that because that I think is one of the coolest parts of the story.

The Human Nature of the Youth

So they wake up.

- So they could start asking each other. So they wake up, now seven guys in a cave, not the most comfortable sleep. Well, they didn't think it would be. But it seems like they got some pretty deep sleep. They have no idea that centuries have gone by. They have no clue. They wake up and they start asking each other.

- One that speaks more among them says, how long were you sleeping? How long did you stay?

It's really cool that Allah did that because Allah is illustrating that one of them is more talkative than the others. You know, you have a bunch of guys that hang out and everything is going peacefully. But this one guy, he doesn't like conversations to remain peaceful. He introduces a subject that he knows is gonna stir up an argument.

And then he's gonna sit back and watch everybody eat each other alive. Right? So he's just gonna just throw it out that you bunch of guys are sitting there, you know, having some food or whatever. And he's gonna throw in, yeah, the warriors totally losing.

And then he's gonna just step back because he knows emotions shall rise. And then everybody... And he's not part of this conversation. He just wanted to watch the circus.

So one among them says, he doesn't say, how long were we sleeping? He says, how long were you guys sleeping? It's so good.

Then one of them says, We must have slept a whole day. No, no, no, part of it. No, not a whole day. Come on. Maybe like an afternoon or something.

And then this got so out of hand that one of them says, guys, who cares?

- Your master knows, he knows better how long you stayed. Can we leave it alone please? Can we leave it alone? I don't wanna know how long we slept. The fact is, I'm hungry.

Guys, can we not discuss whether this was a whole day or half a day. I need chicken. That is the issue.

So anyway, he literally says:

- When a bunch of guys get together and hang out, obviously what is the number one priority? Food heroes of Islam. And Allah goes out of His way to say they were just a bunch of guys hanging out with each other.

The Practicality of Faith

And then they said, man, we gotta eat something. And we need to find the right guy among us who's gonna make the most of this money that we've pulled together. He's gonna go to the right restaurant and order exactly the right amount.

Don't give it to this guy. He's only gonna bring four bags of ketchup and nothing else. Give it to the guy that's got the right... Because one of the guys knows all the restaurants. There's always a guy that knows all the spots. Where are we going, man? And there's always a guy that when they're all sitting together and they're all confused about what to order, I'll have some fries, I'll have a soup too. Shut up, I'll order for everybody.

There's always one guy that knows what to do. And they know which one that is and say, you take the money, you need to go. Because everybody else, you have those annoying guys that look at the menu for 30 minutes. I'm thinking, hold on. You know, uh-uh. We gotta get this done. We gotta keep moving.

And then He gives them advice about being subtle. Don't draw too much attention to yourself. You know:

- Be very careful and soft. Don't make a scene.

What did they know that the guy is going to be wearing 300-year-old clothes with ancient currency from a kingdom long ago and walk into the middle of a mall dressed like Shakespeare. And he's like, I'm trying

to not draw attention to myself, you know. And he's going to pass on some shillings at the McDonald's. And then he's going to be like, you know, what did I have may have some chicken thou has produced.

You know, like, you understand what's happening here, right? They're supposed to not draw attention, but this is not going to work out the way they imagine.

The Christian Origins of the Story

I wanted to highlight this part of the story because when we think of, you know, this is not, and this is connected to another piece of this study. A lot of people believe that this is a Jewish tradition. It has nothing to do with Judaism. This story has nothing to do with Judaism. As a matter of fact, this was a story of young, it's a Christian tradition.

The Jacobite church actually accounts this tradition. About 70 years before the birth of the Prophet (peace be upon him), this story was translated from Aramaic into Arabic. And it was spread among the Syrian churches and the Syriac churches across the region.

These people were turned into saints. They were called the seven sleeping saints. And the Jacobite church of the region was now celebrating every year the festival of the saints. Where they would actually fast and then have a feast commemorating the sacrifice of these young men. This was actually entirely a Christian holiday. It was as Christian back then as you think of Black Friday today.

You know, or you think of like something purely Christian. Like, you know, Christmas break or something like that. And what did the Qur'an, this has nothing to do with Muslims at the time. Nothing to do with them. And what does the Qur'an do? The Qur'an comes along and takes a story that is only being celebrated by who? By Christians. A purely Christian holiday, literally.

And says, actually, we own it. And these are our people. And they were Muslims and they weren't Christian at all. And they weren't saints. They were just young men. And they were very normal young men.

The Normalcy of Faithful People

What made them awesome was their confidence in faith. Otherwise, they were not hovering in the air only quoting ayat. They were just pretty normal people. In order to be great in the sight of Allah, you don't have to only spew out wisdom. A lot of young people, when they turn towards the religion, they lose their personality. Like even if they hang out with a bunch of guys and everybody is having a good time, they're like, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah.

Having a good time, clearly haram. You know, it's gonna hurt my iman. No, wait, hold on. You can relax. You can be yourself. You can be yourself.

And one of you can ask about food. I'm hungry. Astaghfirullah al-azim. We were discussing how long we were sleeping and which ibadah we should do. And here you are worrying about the food. No, there's no reprimand. Let's go eat, man. Let's go eat.

In other words, when you turn towards the deen of Allah, you don't have to become a social outcast. You don't have to become weird. You don't have to be depressed all the time because you're a person of the akhirah and you have nothing to do with the dunya. These people, yes, they left the world. They went into a cave because their lives were in danger. But they still went back to the restaurants. You understand?

We paint an extreme picture that the Qur'an itself doesn't paint. And our youth suffer from this sometimes. They feel like becoming serious about Islam must mean you can't have a life anymore. You can't have friends anymore. You can't have a personality anymore. You have to drop all of those things. Please.

It's such a beautiful religion. It brings color to your life. It gives you reason for joy. It's not a reason to be depressed, especially among young people. You know?

The Least Taught Lesson

So now... Okay. Now the lesson I really want to share with you. This is the one I might even get in trouble with. But it doesn't matter. Because I'm gonna leave now, so... I'll be back in the morning.

But anyway, so what I wanted to share with you is actually a lesson from this surah that is the least taught. The least taught, in my opinion, lesson of this surah, of this story. Of the four ayat I told you that summarized the whole story, the first of them was they went into the cave. The second of them was they were put to sleep. The third of them was they woke up. And the last of them was that he's telling the story for a purpose.

And by saying that:

- We're narrating the story onto you for actual purpose.

By saying that, Allah is teaching you and me that there is such a thing as learning the story and not understanding its purpose. There is such a thing as learning Islam and forgetting the purpose of Islam. There is such a thing as gaining a lot of knowledge without purpose. There is such a thing. And we have to be careful about learning with what? With purpose.

We cannot lose sight of purpose. Everything we do must have purpose. This is one of the most powerful lessons taught in this surah.

The Business Analogy

In order to help you understand this lesson, I'm going to give you a silly example and then come back to the ayat. The silly example will help you frame your mind in the right direction. You have a person who's very successful in business. He's launched several businesses. All of them have become multi-million dollar successes. And he has, money is no longer a need in his life.

And his businesses are running themselves. He doesn't have to spend 8-10 hours a day at work. He doesn't have to do that anymore. He decides that after all of these years of putting work in and running these businesses successfully, he wants to give back to the community. So he decides to go and become a teacher of business. So he goes to a business school and he teaches a business class, okay?

Now there's a difference between a business professor who's only taught business in the classroom and a multi-million dollar success teaching business. Who would you rather take a class from? The multi- millionaire or the business professor? The multi-millionaire. Because he's got real life experience. He's not just going to teach you what's in the textbook. He's going to teach you what's going on in real life. You understand? And you want to take him as a role model to emulate his success. Isn't that the case? So he's a really good teacher.

And he decides that one day he's going to teach his students several principles of good business by telling them a story. Because you know when you tell a story, it becomes easy to remember. Lessons become easy to remember. Of course Qur'an does that, right? Allah tells stories and teaches lots of lessons through the story so they're easy to remember. Unless instead of making a long list of lessons, he'll just tell the story. And you'll remember the lessons automatically anyway.

So here's how the story goes. There's a man. He wants to start a successful retail business. He looked at the right location. He searched out the location that has the most foot traffic. He found an appropriate rent. He did a lot of research into the inventory and the quality. He did a lot of work on the branding of his business. Then he set up good customer service infrastructure.

And he started running his business. And when he's telling this story, what is he telling students to do? Location is important. Pricing is important. Inventory is important. Quality is important. Customer service is important. These are things that go into running a good business, yes?

One student raises his hand. So, does he wear sneakers or shoes every day to work? Another student raises his hand. So, what brand of toothbrush does he paste with? Oh, does he brush his teeth? And another one raises his hand. What color socks does he wear?

And the professor is just looking at these idiots. I just told you a story, the point of which was for you to learn proper business practices, yes? And you, genius, turn around, and all you're telling me is what color socks does he wear? Or what does he eat for lunch? You know, or what kind of car does he drive? Do you not get what I'm talking to you about? Do you understand that you're missing the point entirely?

And the student says, well, at least I'm still asking about the same story.

Missing the Point in Islamic Studies

Is it possible that people will learn about the people of the cave? And they're supposed to learn how to hold on to their iman, and stand with confidence, and rely on Allah, and all of these things, but get lost in details that don't even matter? Is that possible? Do we do that with Islamic studies?

Do we study the story of Yusuf (peace be upon him) and obsess over, what was the minister's wife's name? How old was she? Did they get married eventually or what? Where is Yusuf (peace be upon him)'s mom? I want to know about his mom, because Allah didn't talk about his mom, so I want to know about his mom.

What are his brother's names? Do they rhyme? You know? Where did they live? There are lots of questions you can ask. Even about the story of the cave, people can ask, hey, so their dog, was it spotted? Was it big or small? Was it like one of those Chihuahua things? What was it?

And I've actually read classical tafseer, four or five pages dedicated to the color of the dog. And I have literally pulled my hair out saying, why, why is this in the tafseer? Why?

Because the purpose of Qur'an, part of the teaching of the Qur'an is not just knowledge, part of teaching is, what should you focus on, and what should you learn to ignore? There are some things you have to learn to not ask. Not every question is healthy.

Allah's Teaching About Useless Curiosity

So what does Allah do? He says:

Look at these people, all the 4th one was the dog, and 5 and the 6th one was the dog, and they even say they were 7, and the 8th one was the dog. Why are they talking about this?

Why can't they learn from the people of the cave, that they should leave useless conversation?

Remember when they were asking, how long were you sleeping? What was the answer? Allah knows better.

Allah says now again:

- Allah knows better about their number. What do you care? How is it gonna increase your iman that they were 7? Aha, 7, I knew it. Because it wouldn't have been epic if they were 5. You know.

And then there are some other people who really have a problem with the fact that they had a dog. Right? Because dogs are... If you're from Pakistan, dogs are like shaitan. You know.

So then they try to reinterpret the book. The kalb actually means khadim, it's their servant. His name is dog, because he's a dog, you know what I'm saying? He was their dog. So, what are you talking? They had a dog, it's okay. They had a dog. You know.

And even the ayah says:

- The dog had his paws stretched out. How are you gonna say their servant had his paws stretched out? I mean, visualize this for me, please. And they're running for their life and they have a servant? Are you serious? Even in the state of emergency, you take your butler with you? I mean, come on.

It doesn't make any sense. But anyhow, we got, what I'm saying is, even in the study of Islam, a lot of young people here have become inspired and they want to learn more about Islam. And they want to take classes and courses and increase their knowledge.

The Importance of Balanced Learning

But you know, one thing I will really remind you of, don't lose sight of purpose. Don't go overboard in learning something that is not making you into a better person. If you know enough tajweed to recite the Qur'an without mistakes, it's okay. You don't have to have 13 ijazat in tajweed. It's okay. Allah will not ask you about it.

You're relaxed. There are other things you need to learn that are a bigger priority for you. Those of you that want to become specialists, go ahead. But for the rest of you, don't overindulge in one subject over another. Don't give something priority that Allah Himself didn't give this much priority. You know, and we do that.

We tend to have this ghuloo, this overboard excessiveness in our learning of the religion. That's why Allah says:

- Don't become excessive in your religion.

So how do you know and how do I know that we're becoming excessive or not becoming excessive? This is one of the greatest lessons of this surah. Allah will teach us, you and me, what kind of questions we should be asking, and what kinds of questions we should not be asking. If Allah wanted me to know where the cave is located, wallahi, He would have told me. If Allah wanted me to know how many there were, He would have told me Himself.

If Allah wanted me to know what the names of these guys were, He would have told me. He wants, He keeps details from me on purpose. Because He's telling me, I don't want you to focus on that. Focus on

what I did give you. The tragedy of even Islamic studies has become, our entire focus becomes on what Allah didn't say. What He didn't say, not on what He did say.

The Three Other Stories in Surah Al-Kahf

And then after teaching this incredible lesson of focus, there are three more stories in this surah. How many more? Three more. Let me tell you what they are.

There's a story of two gardeners. This is followed by the story of a journey taken up by Musa (peace be upon him) with Khidr. Then there's a story after that of Dhul Qarnayn.

The story of the two gardeners that Allah mentioned their names. Does anybody know if Allah mentioned their names? Or the location of the garden? Or the century in which it occurred? Or which prophet they followed? Did He give those details? No, because that's not what you're gonna learn about. You need to focus on what you've been told.

Then Allah told us the story of Musa with Khidr. And even Khidr's name is not mentioned. Who is this Khidr? Is he a man? Is he an angel? What is he? Where is he? Where did Musa (peace be upon him) go? Who's the servant next to him? Where is this place where the two oceans meet? Where did they go first? Did Allah answer any of these questions? No.

But do we become obsessed with those questions? Absolutely. We become obsessed with what Allah does not want us to focus on. In other words, the first story taught us a lesson. Learn to ignore your useless curiosity. It's okay to be curious. But there's such a thing as a useless curiosity.

And He tested my useless curiosity with the story of the gardeners. Then He tested it again with the story of Musa with Khidr. And what's the last story in this surah? Dhul-Qarnayn.

Do we ask silly questions about Dhul-Qarnayn instead of focusing on what we are told? Who is this Dhul- Qarnayn? Is it Alexander the Great? Are Yajuj and Majuj really behind the China wall? You know, we get obsessed with things Allah chose not to tell us. This in and of itself is a powerful Quranic teaching.

Holding On to the Book with Purpose

In times of fitna, you have to hold on to the book. That's what I started with. You remember? You have to hold on to the book. But you have to hold on to the book with purpose. You can't just hold on to the book artificially or for your own silly curiosity. You must emphasize what your Lord Himself emphasized. You must pay attention to what He said and what He wants you to know and what He wants you to learn and internalize.

One of the most beautiful ayat of this entire story is:

- Allah knows better about their number.

When do we say, Allahu a'lam? When you know something or when you don't know something? When you don't know something, you say:

Alright everyone, (رَبِّي أَعْلَمُ - اللهُ أَعْلَمْ) - Isn't it? So when Allah says: (رَبِّي أَعْلَمُ) What is He saying? You don't know. He knows.

Leave it alone. Leave it alone. And the beautiful language is:

- My master knows better about their number.

Meaning were they 3, 5, 7, 85? I don't know. Allah is the one who knows. But then He added something. He said:

- For those of you that are familiar with the Arabic language, this doesn't say, Allah knows their number, nobody knows it except a few. That's not what he said.

He said Allah knows their number, nobody knows them except a few. Meaning most people get lost discussing the number and very few people actually focus on them. We have to be the few people that focus on them, their heroism, their iman, their strength in action. Their desire to leave what they left behind.

The Youth Without the Qur'an

Now I want to conclude inshaAllah ta'ala just some comments about these young people that are such an incredible inspiration in the Qur'an. They, like I said before, they didn't have the Qur'an. They didn't have the Qur'an. They didn't have the greatest miracle of Allah Azza wa Jal. By the way, Allah put them to what? Allah put them to sleep.

And this Qur'an is actually one that will keep us awake. Our miracle is that when the world will be sleeping, we'll be the only ones awake. Our miracle is gonna be the one where the world is lost in ghaflah. The whole world is lost in ghaflah. And the only ones awake are the young people.

And when these same young people, all they can care about is how many likes on their stupid joke did they get. How many LOLs did they receive. When they keep taking eight different selfie angles and then fixing the color correction and learning the photo, you know, changing all of that and then posting it. Just felt like taking a selfie out of the blue.

When you're so lost inside of yourself, when this device is basically your soul, when that's what's happened to you, then you're a lost cause. The enemy of Islam doesn't have to come and destroy you. He already did. You're already done. You've already been cooked, you know.

Rising Above Social Pressure