Surah Al-Kahf - Part 14 Ayahs 60-78 - Mufti Azeemuddin - Weekly Tafsir

Sūrah Al-Kahf – Part 14: Āyāhs 60–78

Weekly Tafsīr by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Respected friends, dear brothers and sisters, and dear listeners and students — assalāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh.

Inshā'Allah, we will go over some of the points from the verses that we covered last week — the beginning of the story of Mūsā and Khaḍr. We did read maybe six or seven verses and translated those, but there are some points I still wanted to cover, inshā'Allah, before we move forward to the next verses.

The Context of Sūrah Al-Kahf's Revelation

Reminding us that this sūrah was revealed as a gift of Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā to all of us, and in response to the questions that the Yahūd asked the disbelievers of Mecca to pose to Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam. They said: go ask him about the soul, go ask him about the sleepers of the cave, and go ask him about that person who travelled the world — the east and the west. That last story, of Dhul Qarnayn, is still coming. The sleepers of the cave we have already covered. The aspect of the soul is in the previous sūrah, Sūrah Banī Isrāʾīl. But that became the means of this whole sūrah being revealed.

Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam was delayed in his response because he could not answer from his own — he said, "I am going to answer what Allah will share with me; I will answer tomorrow." You all remember he didn't say inshā'Allah, and the answer got delayed by over two weeks. In reality, this is actually a sign of prophethood. If he was making up his own things, he could have just made up the answers. But the fact that he delayed it — saying, "I don't have an answer yet, I'll let you know soon" — and then still not having it day after day: what does that tell you? He is not getting it from his own side. If he was making it up, he would have had the answer. Why would he want to face the people who are making fun of him every single day without an answer? If he wanted to, so to speak, "save his face," he would have just made it up. But that's the thing — he doesn't make up things. Everything he shares is from Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā. Hence, he did not share anything and waited until Jibrīl ʿalayhis salām eventually came and shared with him the answers.

So it's interesting — the delay in answering the questions was itself, in reality, what? The proof of prophethood.

Hidāyah Is from Allah Alone

But my beloved dear brothers and sisters, the reality is Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā chooses —

He gives guidance to whoever He wishes and allows to go astray whoever He wishes. You think those Yahūd accepted Islām after this whole story was revealed? You think the mushrikīn — who made all this big effort, going all the way to Medina to get a list of questions and then making a big fuss demanding answers — you think they accepted Islām when the answers came? Here are the answers, in great detail. Are you willing to accept Islām? No. Alḥamdulillāh, we got the benefit of Sūrah Al-Kahf through the whole show they put on. But they didn't accept Islām.

Those who are not going to do so — no matter how many questions you answer for them — they are not going to get hidāyah if it is not meant for them. That is a scary point you see from this story. There are people for whom hidāyah is not meant. As they say: you can bring them to the well, but you can't force them to drink. You give everything to them and they still don't get it.

So we need to ensure that you and I, and our children, our spouses, our parents, and our siblings are not from that wretched group of people who have been given every opportunity to believe in Allah, who have been given all the proofs, who have been given every sign needed in their daily life, yet — Allah forbid, hopefully not — continue to disbelieve and deny and not appreciate the blessings of Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā.

And when you are not able to explain something to the person in front of you, or he is not willing to accept it, that doesn't necessarily mean you are on falsehood. That is why when we debate with a non-Muslim on some issue and you lose the debate — what does that mean? It means that when it comes to mental gymnastics, maybe he is better than you. When it comes to eloquence, when it comes to presenting logical arguments properly, he knows how to do those things better. It doesn't mean anything about the truth and the veracity of the Qur'ān or dīn being compromised.

That is how we should go into a debate — I might lose, frankly speaking, because I am not the best person well-versed in all of these things. But yaqīn is something different. Īmān is something different. Debating and presenting arguments properly is something different. Our belief in the Qur'ān and the words of Allah is one hundred percent. There is no doubt in it. It is not based on some new proof that comes out. It is not based on a debate we heard online that was very convincing — because that type of faith may easily be shaken by another debate in which the Muslim debater unfortunately fails and doesn't do a good job.

So what are we going to do about our dīn? Hidāyah comes from Allah. That is why we need to keep asking Allah:

"Our Lord, do not allow our hearts to become crooked after You have given us guidance, and grant us Your mercy. Indeed, You are the best of those who give gifts."

Please renew your niyyah. Why are we here? We are here to please Allah. We are here to build our relationship with the Qur'ān. We are here to get our hearts rejuvenated through the Qur'ān. We are here to find answers to our questions and solutions to our problems. All of you who are listening online, those who are listening here — let's renew this intention: yā Allāh, allow this dars to become a means of rejuvenating my faith and bringing me back on the right path.

The Importance of Sūrah Al-Kahf

I want to remind you that Sūrah Al-Kahf is something we need to all work on memorizing if we haven't done so, and we need to make a habit of reciting if we're not doing so. Please — I remind myself and all of you — get back to recitation of Sūrah Al-Kahf every single day. All of it if you can. If you can't do all of it, then at the very least the first ten and the last ten verses every single day.

One of the brothers shared with me right before the tafsīr that when he's getting out of bed every single day, as he's forcing his blanket off, alḥamdulillāh, he begins his day by reading the first ten and last ten verses of Sūrah Al-Kahf — and Sūrah Yāsīn — while he's still in bed. What a great way to start. Please make this a habit and teach your children to recite the first ten and the last ten verses.

The second thing — you remember what we've shared from the beginning so many times — this sūrah is the antidote to Dajjāl, and not just Dajjāl but the Dajjālī fitna that comes before him. Dajjāl is the most powerful agent of Iblīs. Just as when the president arrives, the secret service and all the departments arrive two to three weeks in advance in a foreign country to make arrangements — Dajjāl is the greatest fitna the world has ever seen, and decades before his arrival the agents of Shayṭān are coming and preparing, making the ground fertile, making the hearts fertile to accept him. That whole stage is being created before his arrival — and that is happening as we speak right now.

How are we supposed to see through that? What are the special goggles you need to be able to see these shayāṭīn that have come in preparation for the arrival of Dajjāl? Those goggles will be given to you through Sūrat Al-Kahf. What our teachers have told us again and again is: recite this regularly. And if we know someone who is having problems of faith and īmān, then this is your medication for them.

Children Leaving the Dīn — A Warning to Our Community

The number of people who are reaching out for help — whose children are leaving Islām — is staggering. And what is so interesting is that the people who reach out to us are not people from irreligious families. Almost all of the people I speak with who reach out to me for help are children of practicing, religious families. There is not a week that goes by without us receiving these messages, meetings, calls, and texts. And it's so shocking — each one is more shocking than the previous — because you look at the father, you look at the mother, and you would never believe in a hundred years that this incident would be happening in such a home. Such practicing, God-fearing, knowledgeable people. Yet the children, unfortunately, are turning their backs towards Islām, turning their backs on their parents, refusing to speak to them, becoming disrespectful, stopping prayer, saying all sorts of things.

And this is starting as young as fourth and fifth graders, sixth and seventh graders. Many of these boys and girls have already completed the memorization of the Qur'ān. Many have spent time in Islamic schools, Islamic seminaries, madrasas, various types of Islamic settings. But in grade school, junior high, high school, and college — depending on where they are — they are turning their backs toward the dīn. You cannot say it only happens in college or university. It is happening at younger ages as well.

People are wondering, what should we do? We need to get a counselor involved. But what is a counselor going to tell you? Which counselor is going to understand? They will say: she has the right to do whatever she wants — freedom, whatever you want. Why are you sitting there trying to force them to be religious in the first place? Let them do whatever they want. That's what they are going to tell you.

One parent told me this week — subḥānallāh, such honest, bitter truths she was sharing. She said: "We don't drink, we don't go clubbing, we don't have bad company, we eat halāl, our income is halāl. We did everything. We sent our kids to Sunday school, maybe even Islamic school. But we thought this was sufficient." Now that her children are in college and graduate school, she realizes: "This is absolutely not sufficient. If only we could go back in time fifteen to twenty years and rewind — we would have made the decision of teaching our sons and daughters strong yaqīn, strong īmān, the words of Allah and His Rasūl, the ḥaqīqah of lā ilāha illallāh, the attributes of Allah, the names of Allah — and not just yaqīn, but also the knowledge of dīn. We thought Sunday school was sufficient. We thought going to Jumuʿah ṣalāh was sufficient. Now that our children are in college, when we suggest they go study some dīn, they laugh and scoff at us."

The Changing Landscape of Fitna

My dear brothers — why is this happening? It's because your generation — if you're forty or fifty years old, born overseas, sixty years old — the challenges your generation faced are very different from the challenges your children's generation is going through. If you had Sunday school, or your mawlānā ṣāḥib came to your house and taught you some Qur'ān back in the sixties, seventies, or eighties, you came out all right, and you thought: "What worked for me will work for my kids." But we don't realize — it's like coming from the tropics and moving to Chicago and saying, "In the tropics, I never owned a winter jacket, gloves, or earmuffs, so I guess in Chicago you don't need them either." You are going to be in for a very rude awakening when it's minus ten or minus fifteen degrees.

Similarly, the environment of dīn has changed. The attacks on dīn are intensifying. The closer we get to the Dajjālī era, the more forces are arriving on this earth to prepare for his coming. The attacks on our children and youth are skyrocketing. And as moms and dads who grew up forty or fifty years ago, this is all new to us. What worked for you is not going to work for this generation. The basic level of protection your mom and dad gave you is not sufficient for this generation. We must have continuous concern and worry — from what direction is the attack coming?

This is what Nabī ʿalayhi ṣalātu wa salām mentioned: when Dajjāl comes, among his quickest first followers will be women and children. And there will be men — with some sense and baṣīrah and īmān — who will be grabbing their women and children, saying, "Stay at home, for Allah's sake, don't step out to go see him." And the Nabī ʿalayhi ṣalātu wa salām said: al-qāʿidu fīhi khayrun min al-qāʾim — the one who is sitting in the days of fitna will be better than the one who is standing, and the one who is lying down will be better than the one who is sitting. Meaning whoever simply peeks into it will fall into it. That is how attractive it will be — there is no such thing as a quick glance. You look towards it and you'll get sucked into it.

The Tarbiyah of Our Daughters

You have programs for the boys — Team Fajr, Tuesday night tafsīr, Thursday night ṣalawāt program, retreats — open to men and women both. But how many of our women are attending? For some odd reason, fathers and brothers think that women are naturally protected from all fitna, that they don't need any tarbiyah, that they will naturally come out right, that they have ḥayā naturally and are so pious naturally that they don't need to be taken care of or nurtured. There is nothing further from the truth than that. They are very delicate human beings that Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā has given us — a great amānah from Allah.

I may be saying something which some may not like, but this is something I have learned from my teachers, who gave me advice on the importance of protecting our women and daughters. They said: whatever effort you're making on your sons — great — but you have to make more effort on your daughters. Because this is where Shayṭān knows the easy way in. He's after the men, of course — but he knows to get to the men, he goes through the women. You bring the wife down, the husband will automatically go down. You get the daughter — the daughter is the way to the father's heart. You mess her up — subḥānallāh — what can the father do? He can't say no to his daughter. This is the tartīb: you get through the men via the women. And so Shayṭān, Iblīs, and Dajjāl all know that this is an easy way in.

Many of the cases of children leaving the dīn involve both boys and girls. Don't think it's always the boy who becomes rebellious. There are too many cases where the father is extra shocked — he says, "If my son had done this to me, I would be sad and hurt. But the fact that my daughter is doing it is what is most shocking." So we must make extra effort on the preservation and protection of our daughters.

The Antidote: Sūrah Al-Kahf

Why did I say all of this? Because the antidote is not your medicine cabinet. Your antidote is Sūrat Al-Kahf. This is what we should do every single day. Allah forbid — may Allah protect you and I from having this type of fitna in our homes — but if any of you know anyone going through this, one basic step I will share: recite Sūrat Al-Kahf every single day, blow it on water — just as we recite Āyat al-Kursī and the muʿawwidhatayn and blow — and make sure everyone in the home drinks it, including that individual who is going through this type of doubt or is being pushed away from the dīn and from the parents.

And in all situations, ensure that your children stay at home — whatever you can manage, even if things are absolutely difficult and they are disregarding the dīn. Because at home there is at least some level of protection. At home you can give them this water I'm speaking about. You read Sūrat Al-Kahf, blow it on water, and give it to them to drink. If they step outside of the house or are living elsewhere, what control do you have over their environment? Zero. So no matter how angry you may be as a parent, what I've heard from ʿulamā is that no situation in this day and age should be pushing the kids out of the house. Because really, outside is what? Hellfire. They step out of the house, they're going straight toward Jahannam. If you keep them at home, there is still some chance — if not survival today, then survival tomorrow. So please use this antidote of reciting Sūrat Al-Kahf, blowing it on water, giving it to them to drink every single day, and ourselves reciting it with the niyyah of protection.

The Story of Mūsā and Khaḍr — Lessons from the Fish

In this story of Mūsā and Khaḍr, Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā mentions that they had a fish inside a basket — a fish that was barbecued, grilled, and according to some narrations half-eaten — and that the fish jumped out. So why a fish of all things?

Our ustaḍ, Mufti Riḍāʾul Ḥaqq, mentions that the story of Mūsā and Khaḍr is the story of a ṭālib al-ʿilm — a student of knowledge going on a journey of seeking knowledge — and there are many similarities between a fish and a student of knowledge.

For example, Allah ʿazza wa jall says:

"And from water We have created every living thing." Just as water is a source of life for the fish, similarly knowledge is a source of life for every student — and for that matter, all of us. If you are sitting here right now listening, you are a student. Without ʿilm we will be hollow vessels, nothing. Through knowledge is where we get our life.

They were searching for a meeting place of two seas — Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn. This is also symbolic. The two oceans: one is the ocean of the knowledge of the exterior (ʿilm al-ẓāhir), and one is the knowledge of the interior (ʿilm al-bāṭin). One is the knowledge of Mūsā and one is the knowledge of Khaḍr. This meeting of the two oceans is the meeting of two oceans of knowledge.

In water, a fish is happy. Similarly, a true student of knowledge — what does he look for? He looks for his kutub, his sources of knowledge. As long as he is with his books, as long as he is with his teachers, he is content. The ocean is never-ending; similarly, the path of pursuing ʿilm never ends.

The Bird and the Ocean: The Vastness of Allah's Knowledge

It is mentioned in a hadīth that Mūsā and Khaḍr were on the boat, and as they were sitting, a bird flew by, perched on the side of the boat, and dipped its small beak into the ocean and took a sip. Khaḍr looked at Mūsā and said: "O Mūsā, you saw this bird? You saw how much water it put in its beak from the ocean? That ratio — the water in its beak compared to the ocean — is still greater than the ratio of the knowledge you and I have compared to the knowledge of Allah." All the knowledge that you have — you, Nabī Kalīmullāh, who has spoken to Allah and received the Torah — and my knowledge, put together, in front of Allah's knowledge, is like the water in the beak compared to the vastness of the oceans.

Just as the ocean is never-ending, true knowledge truly never ends. A fish doesn't sleep much, and when it does, it does so with its eyes open. A student of knowledge, similarly, is supposed to sleep minimally — devoting as much time as possible to studying. And when they do go to sleep, they will be thinking about the ummah.

One of the ʿulamā said: "I read and read and read with my tongue as long as I can. After I get tired of moving my tongue, I start using my eyes to read. And after my eyes get tired and I close them, I start using my intellectual power — thinking and processing the knowledge I studied for the benefit of the ummah." There is continuous twenty-four-seven effort. You are reading with your tongue when you can, listening to durūs when you can. When you are too tired, you simply read with your eyes. When you're too tired to even do that, instead of listening to other things, you are thinking about what you read and how you can develop solutions for people.

I remember visiting the East Coast long ago — a friend of mine was studying at MIT and took me for a tour. Late at night, passing through one of the many libraries there — many underground, without sunlight, where you cannot tell if it's day or night — I saw students literally sleeping on their books. It's great — it's the pursuit of knowledge. But the ajr? What's the reward for that? Just to get a patent, a higher-paying job, or make a breakthrough in research? Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā says:

"That is the extent of their knowledge." They cannot even think beyond that. What is the highest thing? A Nobel Prize. An amazing new invention. An amazing company. That's it. For us, ʿilm is something very sacred. It is ʿibādah — an act of worship. It is a way to understand Allah's greatness.

The Fish and the Student — More Parallels

When a fish moves around, it splashes; if it stays in the water, it at least bubbles. Similarly, when a student of knowledge goes to a place, he makes a difference — he makes splashes. And if he can't do that, he will at least make bubbles. It is not possible that a real student of knowledge can be in a masjid for one or two years without having some effect. Then there is something really wrong. If you're a student of knowledge, you need to at least start up a ḥalaqah, or give one piece of good advice to the person sitting next to you.

For example, many people come and join the imam in prayer when the imam has already said salām. And they go and join in the qaʿdah, join in tashahhud, and then stand up and carry on. No — you cannot do that. If you missed the salām and were not able to even get a second of tashahhud, you cannot latch on to the imam at that point. If you sit down and before you sat down he already said salām, you have to say salām both sides — your salah is over. You need to stand up, make a new takbīrat al-iḥrām, with a new intention not as one praying behind the imam but as a separate individual, say Allāhu Akbar, and begin your salāh. If you see something like this next to you — as a student of knowledge, how could you just ignore that? With wisdom and love, we have to explain.

Fish meat is soft yet has pokey bones. When preparing fish, you clean it, add spices, put it on the stove — and after all that, it tastes good. Similarly, a student of knowledge will "taste good" when they undergo the tazkiyah of themselves. A raw student of knowledge who has not been properly cooked and spiced will taste bitter. Knowledge will taste very nice from those who have had proper tarbiyah and tazkiyah — who have gone through sacrifice and mujāhadah under the guidance of a mentor or a shaykh. That mentor is the cook of the fish. A fish always remains surrounded by water; similarly, a student of knowledge must always remain surrounded by books and teachers.

These are some of the subḥānallāh interesting comparisons between a fish and a ṭālib al-ʿilm that Mufti Ṣāḥib mentions.

Mūsā and Khaḍr — The Conditions of the Journey

Moving forward — Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā mentions that when these two individuals decided to carry on, they made a condition. Mūsā ʿalayhis salām told him: "May I follow you?" — and notice, he did not say, "I have been sent by Allah, I must follow you." He humbly asked permission. He said: "I want to follow you on the condition that you teach me something beneficial — guidance." The word used is rushdā.

Rushdā is ḥusn al-taṣarrufi fī al-ashyāʾ — the ability to properly handle one's affairs. That's why we're told that when taking care of an orphan, don't give him his money until —

"Until you sense maturity and the ability to handle his affairs" — the word rushdā is used there as well. So Mūsā ʿalayhis salām, look at his humility: "O Khaḍr, please grant me some of the knowledge that Allah has given you."

"May I follow you so that you may teach me something of the right guidance you have been taught?" — ʿullimta is the passive form: "you have been taught." Because everything that Mūsā has and everything that Khaḍr has — it is all from Allah.

And Allah tells all of us — from Nabī Ādam until the last person who dies — in the story of the soul:

"They ask you about the soul. Say: the soul is from the command of my Lord. And of knowledge, you have been given only a little." This tells us two things. First, none of us have gained knowledge by ourselves — it has all been given to us. We were inspired to enroll in a madrasa, enabled to understand and comprehend what was being shared. None of it is our own. There is nothing to be proud or arrogant about. Second, qalīlā — all of it is nothing. This is called nakirah taḥta al-nafī: whenever you have an indefinite noun after a negation, it gives the meaning of generality — you really don't have anything at all except a little. The emphasis is on "nothing at all." All of Harvard, MIT, the Library of Congress — qalīlā. Nothing but a little compared to the knowledge of Allah.

And Allah told Nabī ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam — the most knowledgeable person — to say:

"O my Lord, increase me in knowledge." You can never be content with what you have. You need to keep asking Allah for more. That's why a poet said:

"The more I learned, the more I became convinced of my ignorance."

And another poet said:

"My nafs said to me: I know a lot. I replied: this 'a lot' is actually very little. A cup filled from the ocean seems to think it is the great ocean itself."

Where is all this youth today becoming misled? Because of this — the arrogance over their little teeny tiny bit of knowledge. They say they're enlightened. "Mom and dad, you don't know anything. I went to college, I took a philosophy class, I know more than you." This is exactly what led to Iblīs's demise — arrogance over knowledge. "I know something. Ādam doesn't have this knowledge." That was the nail in the coffin for Iblīs. And that is the nail in the coffin for the youth today who think they have more knowledge than everyone else. That's why you have to instill humility and humbleness into our children. Make sure they don't become arrogant. Make sure they don't start thinking of themselves as something. I don't care what medicine, law, accounting, or university they're in — you've got to keep bringing them back to the ground. Because Shayṭān has more knowledge than any ten PhDs. Pure knowledge alone, without the nūr of īmān to refine it, will actually mislead you.

Einstein said something similar — if you flash a light on a wall in a dark room and you back away from the wall, the circle of light gets greater and greater. And the greater the circle of light, the greater the area of darkness surrounding it. The more knowledge you have, the greater your realization of your own ignorance. The more ʿilm we gain, the more humility it should create within us.

One of the objectives of the Tanweer intensive or one-year program is to walk out realizing how little you know. Right now the problem is jahl murakkab — we don't know anything and we don't realize we don't know anything, so we think we know everything. That is the fatal element. When a person is going in the wrong direction thinking he's going right, it's a matter of seconds before a head-on collision. So all of us — youth and adults — need to humble ourselves. Come sit in a class of ʿilm, and inshā'Allah you will realize there is an entire universe you are absolutely unaware of.

How hurtful it is when someone asks a student of ʿilm: "What have you studied?" He says: "Three years of Qur'ān memorization, three years of qirāʾāt, the ʿālim program for seven years, two years of postgraduate studies." And the response is: "Oh, okay. But what is your education?" As if all of that counts for nothing. And within our community, there is this huge emphasis: "Oh, you have to get your undergrad degree from somewhere." Even a 2.0 in any subject from any random institution is proudly displayed at home. But if someone says, "I studied the Weekend Taʿlīm program or the Dhaniyah program" — where is the value? We have to change that mindset. When you overemphasize worldly credentials and underemphasize studying the dīn, you will have a very corrupt society — people with no ʿilm of dīn, unable to apply anything in their daily life.

What is the point of sending your child to university not knowing the names of the wives of the Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam, not knowing why they are Muslim? How can I be a proud father of someone who doesn't know how to answer the three questions of the grave?

"Who is your Lord? What is your religion? What do you have to say about this Prophet, Muḥammad ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam?" These are the three questions we must make effort toward. University is not teaching answers to these questions. You will have to come to the madrasa, come to the masjid, to learn them.

Khaḍr's Conditions for Mūsā — Lessons in Student-Teacher Etiquette

Mūsā ʿalayhis salām was told by Khaḍr: "You are not going to be patient. You will not be able to handle it." And he explained why — how can you be patient with an experience you cannot comprehend? Khaḍr was being brutally honest, yet with respect: "You have been programmed in a certain manner. To see anything that goes against the Torah is wrong. Anything that goes against the external sharīʿah is wrong. You're going to call it ḥarām. But there are certain exceptions which you are unaware of, and I am part of those exceptions."

Mūsā ʿalayhis salām said: "No, inshā'Allah I will be patient and will not disobey any command of yours." When you form a relationship with a teacher, the teacher may lay down rules and the student must be willing to accept those rules. If you don't follow those rules, you can be asked to leave. You cannot say, "How can you deprive me of knowledge?" — because these are the rules we agreed upon.

Khaḍr said, make sure you do not ask questions. So they proceeded. And at last, when they embarked the ship, he scuttled it.

The Three Incidents — Tafsīr of the Verses

First Incident: The Ship

They boarded a ship, traveling and conversing — this is where the bird came with the water in its beak. Then all of a sudden, Khaḍr took a small axe and started chiseling away, removing a plank from the ship. Mūsā ʿalayhis salām exclaimed:

"Have you made a hole in it to drown its people? Truly you have done a grievous thing!" We cannot blame Mūsā ʿalayhis salām — his job is to give fatwā, to say what is ḥalāl and ḥarām. You cannot damage someone else's property. So from his perspective, he was right. But Khaḍr said:

"Did I not say to you that indeed you can never be patient enough to bear with me?" Mūsā ʿalayhis salām replied:

"Please do not hold me accountable for what I have forgotten, and do not burden me with difficulty in my endeavor to learn from you. I genuinely forgot that I was supposed to keep quiet. Please overlook my faults of forgetfulness."

One of the points Mufti Riḍāʾul Ḥaqq mentions here is that you cannot be quick to pass judgments when people do things which apparently don't seem right. If you hear about a scholar who does something in his personal life, your response should be ḥusn al-ẓann — to have good thoughts about that individual. There must be another story. There must be another reality or perspective that I am not fully aware of. Someone comes to you and says, "This knowledgeable person did such-and-such — what do you say about him?" Your answer should be: "I say nothing about it. It is none of my business. And if it were, I cannot give my opinion on something taken completely out of context."

There are so many stories in people's own lives where someone rushed to judge them when in reality it was nothing like what people were thinking. The Qur'ān says:

"O you who believe, avoid much suspicion — indeed some suspicion is a sin." Do not point fingers at people's intentions. You don't know the specific circumstances of someone. There was a scholar who would not stand up straight from rukūʿ before going into sajdah. People judged him — how can this mawlānā ṣāḥib not know this basic thing? Then they asked his family and found out: he had a condition where if he were to stand up straight, his wuḍūʾ would break. That was his mājarā, his excuse, his ʿudhr. Who could know that? You should always try to come up with excuses before passing judgments upon someone.

Second Incident: The Boy

Then they started walking again. At last, when they met a boy, Khaḍr killed him. Mūsā ʿalayhis salām said:

"Have you killed an innocent soul without cause of retribution for another soul? Truly you have done a horrific thing!" The way Mūsā ʿalayhis salām is reprimanding Khaḍr is increasing in harshness — because this is too much. Breaking the boat was not anywhere near as bad as this.

Khaḍr said:

"Did I not say to you that indeed you can never be patient enough to bear with me?" Before Khaḍr could even say anything more, Mūsā ʿalayhis salām himself said:

"If after this I question you about anything else, then no longer keep me in your company. You have already been patient enough in excusing me. I will not give you another reason." This is so important — so much of the learning happens outside the classroom, in journeys. You learn how a teacher interacts, responds, and acts with someone. That is why traveling with a scholar is such a great blessing.

Third Incident: The Wall

They proceeded until they came upon the people of a town. They requested food from its people, going door to door — they were hungry travelers; there were no restaurants — "Can we please have something to eat?" And the townspeople refused to even accommodate them in any manner. Not food, not shelter, not a word of hospitality. They were extremely stingy people.

As they were leaving, they found a wall that was about to topple over — yurīdu an yanqaḍḍa. Khaḍr reinforced it and set it upright. There is a long discussion in the books of tafsīr about the word arāda — "intended." Can a wall intend? Some translate it simply as "ready to fall." Others say that there can be a real irādah, a will, which would require something of a soul or life. And the scholars of tafsīr give many examples of apparently non-living things having some form of perception.

For example, the Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam said:

(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadīth 2277; also narrated by Imām Aḥmad in his Musnad)

"Indeed I know of a stone in Mecca that would say salām to me even before I became a prophet." The stone knew that this man would become a prophet of Allah. And he said: "I could hear it." Similarly, when the ṣaḥābah built a minbar for the Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam in Medina — he used to lean against a tree trunk while delivering the khuṭbah — and when he stepped away from that tree and ascended the newly built pulpit, the entire group of ṣaḥābah could hear the crying of that pillar. A piece of wood, weeping. The Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam then went and hugged it, tapping it the way you tap a crying baby, and said — had he not consoled it, its crying would have been heard until the Day of Judgment. Subḥānallāh.

The pillar is known as Usṭuwāna al-Ḥannānah — the pillar that cries a lot. When you visit the Rawḍah in Medina and are leaving Riyāḍ al-Jannah toward the salām of the Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam, look up at the top of that pillar — it is written there: Usṭuwāna al-Ḥannānah.

And Shaykh Shaʿrāwī makes an amazing point: don't say that the tasbīḥ of the pebbles only happened in the Prophet's hands. The pebbles would do tasbīḥ even in Abū Jahl's hand — in any hand — because that is the nature of the pebble. What was miraculous was that the Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam could hear them doing it. Otherwise the pebbles were doing tasbīḥ everywhere. Allah says:

"There is not a thing except that it glorifies His praise, but you do not understand their glorification." So yes — things which are apparently not living do actually have some form of sense and life in them. That's the point being made about the wall having irādah.

Mūsā ʿalayhis salām said: "If you had wished, you could have at least taken some ajr — payment for it. With that money we could have bought some food." Whereupon Khaḍr said:

"This is the parting between me and you. I shall now tell you the reality and interpretation of all that you could not abide with patience." How kind of him — that at least before parting, he said, "Let me share this with you." Taʾwīl means interpretation. Ṣabran means patience. Tastaṭīʿ means able. "I'm going to inform you of those things right now."

Who Was Khaḍr? — Prophet or Angel?

We discussed last week why he is called Khaḍr. Akhḍar means green. Wherever he would sit, that spot would immediately turn green — regardless of the nature of the land. So his name was given as Khaḍr.

We also said he had to be a prophet — he couldn't merely be a walī. Why? Because he had to receive revelation to be able to do things that are completely contrary to the sharīʿah. A friend of Allah cannot say he was inspired to break the command of Allah. Ilhām and kashf happen to awliyā, but a walī cannot say he was inspired to kill someone or break the aḥkām of sharīʿah. That has to come directly through waḥy — and who receives waḥy? Prophets. So he was a prophet of Allah, receiving a different type of waḥy.

Another opinion is that he was an angel. Many books mention that he is still alive and narrate incidents of him being encountered. But the Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam said — after gathering the companions one night after ʿIshāʾ — that whoever is alive right now will not be alive a hundred years from now. Some based on this said Khaḍr must be deceased. But the scholars who say he may be an angel point out that this statement was not referring to angels. And if he is even a specific human being, he is a very special one who can be excluded — just as Nabī ʿĪsā ʿalayhis salām is excluded. Nabī ʿĪsā did not die — Allah lifted him and will send him back — so Khaḍr can likewise be excluded. Allah knows best the reality of it.

Khaḍr at the Time of the Prophet's Passing

There is a narration mentioned in the books of ḥadīth that at the time of the passing of Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam, Sayyidunā Anas رضي الله عنه mentions that a person came — with a black and white beard — tearing through the crowd of people, reaching inside where the Prophet ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam was lying, and started weeping. Then, turning to the noble companions, he said the following words:

"Indeed, in Allah there is endurance against all distress. With Allah you will find recompense for everything taken away. And you will find something to replace everything that has been lost. Hence, to Allah alone should you turn. And to Allah alone should you aspire. Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā is going to look at you with compassion in this difficulty — so look toward Him as well. Indeed, deprived is he who has been deprived of the reward of enduring distress." The real muṣībah is not the difficulty itself — the real muṣībah is going through difficulty and not being able to earn forgiveness and reward because you did not have patience.

After having said these words, this man with the black and white beard departed. Sayyidunā Abū Bakr and Sayyidunā ʿAlī رضي الله عنهما said: that was Al-Khaḍr.

The Duʿāʾ Taught by Khaḍr

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā mentions that ʿAlī رضي الله عنه met Khaḍr, who taught him a duʿāʾ which, if recited after every ṣalāh, will bring great reward, forgiveness, and mercy:

(Mentioned in Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī and cited in Maʿārif al-Qurʾān)

"O the One whose hearing of one thing does not hamper His hearing of another — while one person speaks, a million others can speak simultaneously, and Allah understands each individually. O the One who never errs in responding to millions of requests simultaneously — one asking for a child, one for sustenance, one for another thing, all in their own languages. O the One who never becomes weary of the repeated plaints of those who are persistent in their duʿāʾ — Allah never gets tired of His servant saying, 'Yā Allāh, I want this,' every single ṣalāh. Allow me to taste the cool taste of Your forgiveness and the sweetness of Your pardon."

The question of whether Khaḍr is alive or deceased, prophet or angel, is something we will not be asked about in the grave. It is not one of the main or even minor issues of our dīn — I shared it only for the sake of knowledge. Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā knows best the reality of these affairs.

Looking Ahead

We are now at the point of separation between Mūsā and Khaḍr. Inshā'Allah, next week we will cover the explanations Khaḍr gave for the three incidents — the wisdom behind the ship, the boy, and the wall — before we move on to the final and last story of Sūrah Al-Kahf: the story of Dhul Qarnayn.

As we are nearing the end — perhaps another two or three weeks — let us use this as an excuse to get a higher attendance. Alḥamdulillāh, we had such great attendance at the beginning, around two hundred and fifty people in the first week. If all of you make the ʿazm to invite at least ten people next week and tell them the tafsīr of Sūrah Al-Kahf is coming to an end — you never know. Just one lesson, one session of this tafsīr, might be a solution to the problems that anyone is going through. This is the Qur'ān. Every āyah, every verse, every page has solutions to our problems.

We ask Allah to make us amongst those who understand the entire Qur'ān and are able to benefit from it. We ask Him to make ourselves and all of you amongst those who recite Sūrah Al-Kahf on a regular basis. May He make it a means of protecting all of us — and our children — from the fitna of Dajjāl. Āmīn.

Announcements

Saturday mornings we are continuing our Team Fajr program — alḥamdulillāh, a great way to start your weekend with your brothers and sisters, with a talk, with dhikr, and alḥamdulillāh a wonderful breakfast. Please make a habit of joining us, inshā'Allah taʿālā. Thursday nights we have our dhikr program. Tuesday nights is the tafsīr. These are the three weekly programs.

Also, there are laptops and a kiosk outside — please purchase your tickets to the benefit banquet, which has been moved to February 19th due to the anticipated spike at the end of January. If you have not already purchased your ticket, please do so. Those listening online — one of you can post the link in the chat. And if you know anyone who would like to advertise their business and give ṣadaqah to the Muslim community — a physician, dentist, travel agent, home services provider — please reach out. By becoming a sponsor of this event, all overhead costs are covered, so that every dollar from ticket sales goes straight to the projects of the masjid and the seminary. We ask Allah subḥānahū wa taʿālā to make this and all other programs successful and accepted in His sight. Āmīn.

Ṣallallāhu ʿalā Muḥammadin ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam.