Surah Al-Kahf | Part 4 Ayahs 13-16 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | Weekly Tafsir

Opening: The Salawat Goal & Seedah Conference

Before we begin, I want you to take a quick look at what's on the screen. This is our Salawat goal. As you are aware, we made an effort here — the students and others came up with an idea that during these few weeks leading up to the Seerah Conference, which is next weekend, the goal was to have a dedicated amount of Salawat. Like a person before he goes for Umrah or Hajj — what is the first thing we should be doing? Weeks and months before that, we should increase in our Salawat. So with the Seerah Conference coming in, we thought, what better way to receive this blessed day in which we speak and celebrate the life of Rasulullah ﷺ, than by sending Salawat beforehand.

This is something that we have learned from our teachers and our elders — that when a person visits Madinatul Munawwara, before he does so, he should try to send a big gift, a big gift of Salawat. And so we may be going for Umrah inshallah this season, and if we're not, then at least we have niyyah to go, that Allah opened up the way for us to go. So if you can't go physically, at least you can send your gift through Salawat — and who is a better carrier of this gift than the angels? Allah has angels deputed to send these salutations.

So any type of Salawat is beautiful, beneficial, and rewarding. Something as simple as صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ — as short as that may be, but it is still very weighty in the eyes of Allah. That is two Salawat — صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ is one, and صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ is another. So as you can see now we're at two and a half million, and we are trying to reach seven million.

So all of you who are listening online and those of you who are here — we have approximately 10 days left. I ask every one of you inshallah to make a commitment to try to do about 2,500 a day yourselves, or 2,000, or 1,500, and ask your family members to join you in their own goals. And this is:

The Quran says you should compete with one another in things of this sort. The matters of deen is where the competition needs to be — not in the matter of material things. So how proud you could be, thankful to Allah, when you go to bed knowing your three children, your four children, each one of them did 2,500 Salawat. How people say الحمد لله, my child is in this college, my child is in that high school, these are his grades. Well, imagine the happiness that you can have when you know that every child of yours has done a few thousand Salawat on a daily basis. That's something to be really thankful for.

But this discussion doesn't even happen anymore. That's why it's our job to create the proper new culture. We have to. Our job is to not follow a culture, but create a culture — a culture in which these things are spoken about, looked upon highly, people compete with one another for. What we call mindfulness. To be alert and awake: how much Salawat have I done today? The day has come to an end, a couple hours before I go to bed — how much Salawat have I done today?

People are mindful of the footsteps they take through their various apps — they're counting how many steps they have. If you don't have those apps, you don't recognize how many steps. This was never a discussion 20 years ago. This is a new mindset: be aware of how many steps you're taking. Well, this is the mindfulness we need to have — how many Salawat, how much dhikr have we done today? And that's why having a goal, like the 10,000-step goal people often set, motivates them to complete it. So if we have a goal of 2,000–3,000 Salawat per day, then inshallah you won't fall asleep until you complete that goal.

Why is it that in every other aspect of this dunya, we're so goal-oriented — but in the matters of deen, there's no concept of a goal, that this is something I need to also work towards? My beloved listeners, I encourage you within this next 10 days — let's work as a community. All of those who are listening online, who will listen afterwards, who are present here — go back home today, look at each other, look at your family members, and say, okay, as a family we can do 4,000–5,000 a day. And by Jum'ah, we can do 10,000. And within this next week, we can do 20,000, 30,000.

As a source of encouragement, alhamdulillah, I asked the first-year students to compete with one another over the weekend to see how much they could do. And I'm so happy to say, alhamdulillah, one of them — mashallah — did over just this past weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday — 56,000 approximately. One youngster. Another youngster was doing 30,000 a day this past week. So how do you do that? They're not superhumans. They're simply mindful of this: I need to keep my tongue busy in the remembrance of Allah. And that's the benefit of durood and Salawat — that when a person says that, he is going to be saying Allah's name and Rasulullah's ﷺ name, both.

Hifz of Surah Al-Kahf

Let's ask: how many of you have kept up with your memorization, or have begun your journey of hifz of Surah Al-Kahf? How many of you make niyyah to start? Very good. And I'm sure the rest of you are reciting it on a regular basis, at least on Jum'ah. My beloved brothers and sisters who are listening now — make niyyah, inshallah. We still have many more months ahead. Just get started. Come on, just do one ayah a day. One ayah a day. And before you know it, you will be ahead of me.

So far, ten brothers and ten sisters have joined the Hifz of Surah Al-Kahf class. If you would like to join, you can meet Hafiz Omar here. And we do send out a link for those who registered for this tafsir for the class. So please make sure you do register, and inshallah join this effort of memorizing Surah Al-Kahf.

We should all make intention now: I am here for your sake, I am here to benefit from your kalam. O Allah, inspire the speaker with those words that are most beneficial for me. And inspire the speaker to say that which will give me the solutions to the problems that I am going through in my life currently. And O Allah, allow this dars to become a means of me rejuvenating my relationship with You and with the Qur'an. Ameen, Ya Rabbil Alameen.

Surah Al-Kahf — Ayahs 13 to 16: Recitation & Translation

We will move on to the next ayah today. We are starting from ayah number 13.

Translation: We now relate to you their tidings with profound truth. Indeed, they were youth who believed in their Lord alone, so We increased them in guidance.

Translation: And thus We secured their hearts when they stood before the people. رَبَطَ means to secure. We secured their hearts when they stood before the people, and they proclaimed: "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. Therefore we shall never call upon any god apart from Him — for verily we would have then uttered an outrageous lie." Meaning, if they were to commit shirk, if they were to say there is a god besides Allah, this would be an outrageous lie, and they would never say something like that.

Translation: "These, our people, have taken gods and worship apart from Him." They are crying over the plight and condition of the ummah. "If only they would come forth with manifest authority for the worship of them." Where is the dalil? Where is the proof that there exists a god besides Allah? If only you would bring the proof, we would listen, we would look at what you have to share. "For who does a greater wrong than the one who forges lies against Allah?" The greatest oppressor, the greatest sinner, is the one who lies against Allah by claiming that He has a son, a partner, a wife.

Translation: "And so when the people of the cave said to one another: since you have withdrawn from them and from what they worship other than Allah, then take shelter in the cave. Your Lord will unfold for you something of His mercy, and He will furnish you in your present circumstances with good facility to meet your needs." Allah will give them two things: He will unfold something of His mercy, and He will furnish them in their present circumstances with good facility to meet their needs.

Tafsir: Ayah 13 — نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ

As I had mentioned at the end of last week — from verse 13 onwards, Allah now repeats the story in more detail. After giving the gist of it initially, He is now giving a more detailed analysis. This reminds me of how our ustad used to teach — Mawlana Sulaiman Choksi Sahib used to teach Usul al-Shashi and other books. Before the class would start, he would give the gist of the whole lesson without looking into the book, without getting into the details. He would say, this is what we're going to cover today. And then after that, he would move on to the actual lesson. So this is an interesting and beneficial way of teaching — go over the main points of what we're going to cover, and then after that go into the details. So the Qur'an does here in Surah Al-Kahf just that: gives us the basic details, and then goes into a more thorough discussion.

نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ — "We are the ones that will share this story." If the storyteller was someone besides Allah, there was a chance of mistakes being made, misrepresentation of the facts, missing out the facts, forgetting the facts. But when the narrator of the story is none other than Allah, then you can feel assured that you're going to get exactly what happened — the most important, most accurate account.

Additionally, we learn that there are two aspects to how Allah speaks of Himself. One is Allah's dhaat — Allah's being. And then there is Allah's attributes, af'al or sifat. When Allah speaks about His being, He says:

"Indeed, I am God. None worthy of worship besides Me." Here Allah uses the singular form, أَنَا — "I." And when Allah wants to speak about His attributes, usually in the Qur'an, we see Him use the plural form — what we call the royal "we." As kings may say, "we have decreed this," and "we have done this," even though it is one person making that decision. When does this get used in the Qur'an? It gets used when Allah is speaking about specific actions like narrating a story. This is not to do with Allah's being, which is one and only one, but rather with His attribute. So here you have Allah using the royal "we": We share with you, We relate to you their tidings with profound truth.

There were false narratives, false details, false aspects of the story shared by the people at that time. So Allah is saying: leave out those false additions to the story, I am going to share with you the actual story — بِالْحَقِّ. The real story, without any fluff, without anything added in or subtracted.

The Meaning of قِصَّة

The word قِصَّة gives you the meaning of detail — of tracing. Because قَصَص appears in the story of Kahf later on, with Musa and Khadr. What happened? When Musa couldn't find the place where he was supposed to meet Khadr, he started walking back. Allah says:

They both started walking back on their own footsteps to figure out where they had missed, where Khadr was waiting. Allah had said to them beforehand that a fish will jump out of their lunch basket — and that is where Khadr is. So they forgot about it. Musa was resting; his nephew Yusha' did not remember to tell him this had happened. So they walked back. So قِصَّة gives you the meaning of tracing your footsteps back. The one who is sharing the story, Allah, it is as though you are going back to the actual incident, walking back, watching the footsteps, replaying history.

نَبَأ is very big news. As in:

"What are they asking about? The great news." What is the great news? The Day of Judgment. So the Qur'an uses the word نَبَأ. And this is one of the possible root words of the word نَبِيّ — a Nabi is called a Nabi because he shares with you the نَبَأ. The Nabi shares with you the most important, biggest events of the future. That's what a Nabi comes for — to share the happenings of this world, the major happenings. So Allah says: We are going to share with you their tidings, their big events, with the truth. This tells us that smaller details which are not part of the نَبَأ are going to be left out. That's what the Qur'an does: it sticks with the meat. Focus on the gist of the story. Focus on the lessons. Don't focus on unnecessary details, because that takes you away from the maqsad.

I see this so often when I'm traveling, and here as well. Youth come and say, "Can I ask you a question?" Sure. But many times the questions are absolutely irrelevant to their life — things that not even scholars' councils of a country are discussing yet. Hypothetical scenarios. Why? Why not figure out: how can I get assistance in learning how to recite Qur'an properly? Why not ask: I made this mistake in Isha — do I need to repeat my salah? How do I even learn the rules of what invalidates my prayer and wudu? What are the rules of doing sajda al-sahw? No one wants to ask about that.

This is interesting. I wanted to teach fiqh when I came back. If people do not know how to pray, do not know how to do wudu, do not know how to fast — what deen have they got left? So I said we need to teach fiqh. But very quickly I realized the condition on the ground here, after returning from overseas, that people are not interested in learning fiqh. "We want something new, something interesting." What's interesting? Arabic, Qur'anic Arabic. So I said, okay, we'll run with this. If you all don't want to study fiqh, we'll teach it to you without you even realizing it. How do you give medicine? You put it in a sweet — in halwa — and you give it to them. So we said: we'll teach fiqh in the garb of Arabic. And alhamdulillah, it worked. MashaAllah, it's been now 13–14 years since we have the Summer Arabic Intensive. And it all started off with a niyyah of actually teaching people deen.

And it's sad that people don't want to focus on what they need to learn. Learning Qur'anic Arabic is important — that's why we're here. But it is not more important than learning how to pray. The very first thing you need to do is improve your method of praying, improve your method of doing wudu, know the rules of ghusl. The fiqh of marriage and divorce — unfortunately, people are not aware of it. Fiqh teaches you how to please Allah at any given time. How to follow Rasulullah's ﷺ path at any given time. That should be the priority. But what Shaytan does — he makes us focus on ancillary issues and debates, and makes us forget the actual meat of what we need to be headed towards.

Tafsir: إِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ — They Were Youth

Allah says: إِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدًى — "Indeed, there were youth who believed in Allah, and We increased them in guidance." Number one, they were young. When you have youth — and mashallah, we see so many youth in front of us here — this is a very good sign, an amazing sign of the rahmah of Allah upon all of us.

Where are people usually in their youth? Following their desires, their base desires, indulged in sin. That's why a youngster who leaves the desire to sin and comes towards Allah is valued so much more. He's got all the temptations around him, yet he says: I'm going to give up all my temptations, even when I'm young, to worship Allah. That person is special.

So all of you young women and men who are here listening — on site, online — you should thank Allah that He has brought you here. And He inshallah can make you and I from amongst those people who will be under Allah's throne. Seven categories of people, and one of them is:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 660; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1031)

A youngster who grew up worshipping Allah is so special that Allah will give him a place under His throne. So my beloved friends — uncles and aunties, moms and dads — if you and I want to become the fathers of those who will be gifted a place under the throne, what should we do? Bring your sons, bring your daughters to the house of Allah as much as we can. Connect them to the scholars, connect them to the gatherings of dhikr and ilm. Make them desire to be here. When they desire to be here, they will have a spot under the throne. And we hope inshallah they'll keep a spot for you as well — because as a father or a mother, you raised them like this, and you will get that reward.

So شَابٌّ نَشَأَ فِي عِبَادَةِ اللَّهِ is a youngster who is wanting to bring change. If we want to bring change in any society, we need to get to the young people. That's it. We need to motivate the young people. And this is what we need to look at in all communities: what percentage of the people coming for Fajr are young? What percentage of the people coming for our programs are young? What percentage of the people even coming for Jum'ah?

SubhanAllah, I just recently had a chance to speak at a Jum'ah, and I was in the middle of the crowd just looking. And I'm looking at this crowd of 300 people, and I'm trying to see — where can I find someone under 30? Almost all look very clearly to be immigrants. If this is the condition of Jum'ah — that you have 95%, 99% immigrants — what's the future? Where is the future of our masajid? Where is the future of our programs? That's what we need to think about.

Running the Masjid Like a Business — With the Heart

I've been thinking about this: how come there's no checkup on the Masjid? There's a diagnostic for everything — our phones, computers, microwaves, dishwashers, huge power plants. Self-diagnostics and external engineers checking everything. But what about the health of our Masjid? What percentage of people of the community are showing up to Salah? What percentage of them are younger than 30? What percentage of them are in school and yet coming to the Masjid? What is Fajr looking like? What's Jum'ah looking like?

How come the Masjid does not run in the manner that a normal office or small business runs? Every single thing we've got bookkeeping for — numbers, stats, data for everything. And the one thing that just runs completely haphazardly is the Masjid. "We're gonna pray Isha. You have one saff or ten saffs, doesn't make a difference. Allahu Akbar." One saff or ten saffs — what does it matter? The attitude of the Masjid is: it's not my problem, the Masjid is open. If you wanna come, show up. If you don't wanna come, don't show up. That's not how any business is run. That business will close down.

So masajid have to think: why are you open? Why are you running? If you are not filled, if you don't have a steady base of worshippers, then there is something really wrong with your model. You have to change it up. And it is the responsibility of all of us to bring that change. We need young people involved in the Masjid — and young people are not people who complain, but who do.

I remember once, I saw a group of young people sitting together after Salat al-Zuhr in one Masjid. I said, what are you guys doing? He said, we're having a meeting. I said, what's your meeting about? He said, we're going to have a fundraiser. I said, what are you going to do with that money? He said, we'll just probably do another youth fundraiser after that. And I'm like, where's the direction of the youth? If you're sitting together, the first thing that comes to mind is a bake sale? We don't need money. We need people in the Masjid. That's it. You can hand out free cupcakes to whoever comes for Fajr — do that, no problem. But there's no need for a bake sale.

I want us to start reflecting on our mindset — how it really is not productive. The main thing is not budgeting. The main thing is getting people to the house of Allah. That's what you've got to budget. How many people are here?

I remember one scholar, when this Masjid was being built, he assisted me in fundraising. He sat with me and said: you're building a Masjid — like any other business, you have to have goals. And if you don't meet those goals, then you know you're doing something wrong. You have to have stats: on the first day, how many rows for Isha? How many rows for Fajr? And over a period of months and years, there has to be a study in growth. Otherwise, you're failing.

Some people don't understand why I'm so focused on numbers. I tell the students here: give me stats for Isha, give me stats for Fajr. We need that recorded. Because we need to run this like a business. If people are coming less, we have to find out why. Is it the snow is not being cleared? Is the entrance sign not clear? Is the salah timing too early or too late? We have to figure out what needs to be changed to get people into the Masjid.

Look at how many billions are spent in marketing. The smartest and most intelligent people are working in that department — studying how to attract the mindset of people, attract their attention towards an app or a website and keep them clicking and watching. There's a whole massive science, a multi-billion dollar science, that goes into that. Where's the science in the deen? We're not even thinking along those lines. And that's our problem — we've never even made it our goal that we have to fill up the Masjid.

If an airline runs empty, they cancel that flight. A Masjid — I'm not saying cancel a Masjid — but we have to think before we end up becoming like churches that are going on sale. Why? Because the people who built them are dead, and their grandkids don't care about it anymore. And we're already seeing a huge number of people leaving the fold of Islam every single day.

Most masajid don't have imams. I speak to board members of masajid and give them a whole model of how to raise the money. I say: money will come when you have the imam. Why would the local people want to give you money when you don't have an imam? Sometimes local people say their board doesn't want it. I say: forget the board. You do it yourself. Go to 20 houses, ask people to sign up for $200 a month with an ACH, and just tell the Masjid board, you don't have to worry about it — we've got an imam, we'll take care of it. And if they still say no, find another Masjid to pray in.

So I hope you understand that this problem is a very massive one in this country — masajid being empty and especially devoid of youth. The solution has to come from within this room. You are the future of this country. You need to stand up and say: okay, I've got to do something about it. I don't want you to just show up for once-a-week tafsir — which is huge and beautiful — but I want you to make a loftier goal beyond this. That you will give back to the Masjid. That you will go establish deen in the masajid all around in your communities wherever you are from. And for that, you have to have some ilm. That's why any youngster — boy or girl, young man or woman — who wants to do something: I encourage you to take a step towards seeking knowledge. Without knowledge you're not going to be able to guide.

You need knowledgeable people in a position to lead. What is an imam going to do alone? He needs to have ministers around him — and that's usually the board. But if the board members themselves have no knowledge, no concern, are not on the same page, and value everything from a materialistic perspective with no spiritual dimension, the best of imams can't do anything. So he needs to be surrounded by people of knowledge. People of tazkiyah. People of fikr for deen. People who care about deen. And this leader — the Amir — surrounded by his knowledgeable brothers and sisters, will actually be able to bring change.

So what I envision for our masajid is not only that we have learned scholars leading them, but that they are surrounded by a board of directors — an executive board — who are people of ilm. Who have studied at least one year, like the one-year program that we have here, or the Summer Intensive. These are the basics. In order for you to become a board member, you should have some credentials. Imagine having someone on a bank board whose credentials are that he's a software engineer or a cardiologist — it has nothing to do with banking. Similarly, we need community members whose sons and daughters are educated in deen, who have themselves chosen the path of education, who can then be actively involved within their masajid. And that is where the change is going to come from.

So all of you sitting here — make niyyah that you will study ilm, and you will have your children study ilm. And inshallah, you will not stay on the outside, but you will get involved in your local masajid and provide solutions to the ummah.

The First Two Attributes: Youth & Faith

So the first attribute of these brothers who entered the cave: they were فِتْيَة — they were young. Number two: آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ — they had faith in Allah. When you have these two things, you can pretty much conquer the world. When you're young and you have iman, Allah will help you conquer the world. You can achieve great heights.

And what does Allah say? وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدًى — "We increase them in their guidance." Iman, in its quality, increases and decreases. When we come to Allah with some basic level of iman and a desire to increase, Allah will definitely increase us. The Qur'an says:

Those who are rightly guided, Allah increases them in their guidance, and Allah gave them their taqwa. Another famous Qur'anic ayah:

Those people who strive to get to Us, who make an effort to get to Us — لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ, with the Lam of emphasis and Nun of emphasis — most definitely We will guide them to Our paths. This is a responsibility Allah has taken upon Himself. You make an effort to come to Me, I will pave the path for you to find Me. But you have to make that effort. You have to swim towards Allah.

When a toddler is learning how to walk, you hold out your arms and say, "Come, come," and how happy you get when that baby starts walking towards you. And right before he falls, you go and grab him. That's the happiest moment — the baby is trying to make its way towards you, and you give everything you have to grab him. We have to show up. We cannot walk towards Allah on our own strength. Our job is to simply attempt, to show Allah that we are trying to walk towards Him. And then we will most likely trip and fall. And before we fall, Allah will grab us. We cannot walk towards Allah ourselves — but we can attempt, and we can show our desire to go towards Him, and Allah will take care of the rest.

Tafsir: Ayah 14 — وَرَبَطْنَا عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ

Allah says: when they stood up in front of the king, Allah secured their hearts. رَبَطَ means to tie, to secure. This word appears multiple places in the Qur'an. Let's take the story of Musa alayhi al-salatu wa al-salam in Surah al-Qasas, ayah 10. Allah says:

This is the story in which Allah told Musa's mother to put him in a box and throw him into the River Nile. A newborn baby — you're being asked to throw it into a box, and then into a river, and let the current take it away. Allah told her:

"Throw him into the river. Do not be scared. Do not grieve. We will bring him back to you. And We will make him from amongst the prophets." Three miracles: he's not going to die; he's going to come back to you; and he's going to become a prophet. SubhanAllah. You have to blindly listen to what Allah tells you and believe in the promises, although everyone around you is going to say you're crazy.

It's not easy to make decisions like that. So Musa's mother did something beyond what we can imagine. She made this leap of faith and threw him. And my beloved friends, we see people making leaps of faith like this almost every day. And you say, how is this person able to accomplish that? How are they making that sacrifice?

Look at — mashallah, may Allah preserve and protect our students — those who have left their jobs for a year to come take the one-year program. Today, one youngster told me something that was unexpected from others' perspective, but I expected it. He said: after high school, I'm trying to take a one-year gap year to come study at Dar al-Salam. He told his non-Muslim classmates, and they said, "Oh man, that's so interesting. Go ahead and follow your dreams." He went to his counselor, who said, "No, you've got to follow what your religion says. This is really good. You're doing it for your God, for your religion. Could be nothing better. Don't worry about college, everything will fall into place." And every Muslim in school said: "Are you crazy? Why would you do that? Why would you give up your chance for a good school?"

Right here is an example of what I'm trying to say — your own people, influenced by a certain pattern of thinking, cannot think outside that box. Although outsiders look at us and say, you're different and you're surviving fine, no problem. But our own people who think we still have to follow what everyone else does — they don't understand. When non-Muslims studied gap years — my beloved brothers and sisters, there are multiple studies that came out about 10 years ago, when President Obama's daughter decided to take a year off, showing statistics that people who took a gap year did much better than their counterparts in college. They were more mature, they knew what major they wanted to take, and they excelled. And that was for camping and hiking for one year. Imagine how much better you would do in university if you take time off to study deen. But people look at you weird today. They don't see it.

So for those who have taken a year off to study here — their parents, cousins, uncles and aunts look at them and say, have you lost your mind? I know many of the students tell me this. And this will happen, and you have to be willing to be called crazy amongst your own family. That's a price you've got to pay. If you want everyone to give you big hugs and say you're on the right path, it's not going to happen. My beloved friends, if they thought you were on the right path, they would be following your path. The fact that they are on a different page tells you they don't see eye to eye with what you are.

So don't expect them to agree with what you're doing. Musa's mother was about to make a decision that everyone in the whole world would say was crazy. And this is directly linked with the fitna of Dajjal — you have to be willing to take the road alone. Musa's mother made that leap of faith, and the people who stand up to Dajjal will be just like her. Everyone else will be saying, "You're crazy, why are you standing up to this?" And there will be a few people who say, "I'll stand up with you, and if you don't, I'll go on it on my own."

Now, how are you capable of standing up on your own? This is the question. The Qur'an says, when Musa's mother did it:

She was about to spill the beans — she would have become emotional, start crying, pouring her heart out: "What have I done with my son?" — had We not tied and strengthened her heart, so that she could be from amongst the believers. Allah is saying: I gave her the strength to control her emotions. I gave her the strength to take the bold step, to put her son in a box and throw it into a river, and look the other way, and not scream out and cry. Because if she had, people would have asked, and she would have spilled the beans. And Musa would have been caught and killed.

So being overly emotional is not good all the time — especially hysterically crying or being uncontrollably angry. And that same Allah gave strength to the people of the cave — وَرَبَطْنَا عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ — He strengthened them and said: speak truth to power. Tell the king and the mushrikeen that you're not going to follow their ways.

La Hawla wa la Quwwata — The Dhikr for Strength

What do we learn from these ayat? That Allah is the One who gives us the quwwah and the himmah. What dhikr do we know?

The full meaning: there is no ability to keep me free from sin (لَا حَوْلَ عَنِ الْمَعْصِيَةِ), and no strength to keep me steadfast on goodness (وَلَا قُوَّةَ عَلَى الطَّاعَةِ), except while seeking assistance from Allah. This is the wird and dhikr we need to do on a daily basis.

The ulama have said — based on hadith — that there are hundreds of benefits of this dhikr, and the smallest of benefits is the removal of depression. Why are people depressed? Because they feel they have no control over their life. Their life is going in a direction different from what they anticipated, and they feel hopeless. لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ is telling you: yes, you don't have control. But it is in the control of someone who is far more knowledgeable, far more superior, and far more powerful than you are — and that is Allah. Just let Him run the boat. Let Him run your life.

When you know your life is on autopilot, being controlled from somewhere else, alhamdulillah, you can rest assured and relax. But if you think you're the only one controlling the ship, most definitely it's going to be a very scary moment when you realize everything is on your shoulders. No, my friend. Your life and my life is not in our hands. It is in the hands of Allah. Submit to Allah by saying:

Share this with your family. Share this with your children. And make a habit of it. Every single day, 100 or 125 times. Our teachers have told us that if you are suffering from laziness in ibadah — you feel not motivated to study, not motivated to worship Allah, not motivated to recite Qur'an — recite this dhikr with this niyyah: Ya Allah, whatever shayateen and nafs is holding me down and not allowing me to achieve what I want to achieve, through the barakah of this dhikr, destroy those shackles on me. And inshallah you will see, the more you recite it, the stronger you'll get spiritually. Start with 100, 125, 150, and increase gradually. And our teachers have shared that 500 is an ideal number to work towards per day — specifically with this niyyah of removing the shackles and chains of laziness from our souls.

This also reminds me of the hadith:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1469; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1053)

Whoever tries to remain patient, Allah will grant him patience. So even in the most difficult circumstances, when you are on the verge of losing it — say, Ya Allah, I can't handle this difficulty, give me sabr and patience. And when Allah chooses to give you that, you will get it.

Secondly, we understand that being emotional can cause a lot of problems. Had Musa's mother spoken up and started crying, Musa would have been caught — and, Allah forbid, killed. So being hysterically emotional is not always good. That's why the Prophet ﷺ told us: if you're angry, then say أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ. If you're standing, sit down. If you're sitting down, lie down.

Anger is, in my words, like the leash of Shaytan. Once he throws this on you and yanks you, you are no longer in control of anyone besides Shaytan. He will push you to do things. Because when we're angry, we cannot think for ourselves, and we end up saying and doing things we will regret for the rest of our lives. How many marriages have ended horribly for no reason, simply because one of the spouses became angry and lost control of themselves. So as soon as you get angry, say أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ.

The Four Types of Hearts

The ulama have said there are four types of hearts:

Number one is قَلْبٌ أَجْرَدُ — a heart that is completely connected to Allah, free from anything and everything besides Him. An example is Abu Bakr al-Siddiq رضي الله عنه. When Umar رضي الله عنه was asked about the iman of Abu Bakr, he said iman is just anchored into his heart — وَقَرَ فِي قَلْبِهِ — there are no ifs and buts, very strong anchoring.

Number two is قَلْبٌ أَغْلَفُ. From قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌ — غُلْف means a covering. أَغْلَفُ is a heart that is wrapped up, doesn't understand anything. This is the heart of a disbeliever. No matter how much you explain to him, he's not going to understand.

Number three is قَلْبٌ مَنْكُوسٌ — the upside-down heart. This is the heart of a munafiq, who knew what was right and then decided to turn his back afterwards.

Number four is قَلْبٌ مُتَذَبْذِبٌ — a heart that changes back and forth. Most people have this heart. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, and things of that sort.

The Hadith of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman on the Fitna of the Hearts

I want to share a very powerful hadith from Sahih Muslim regarding the mankoos heart — one I feel applies to our era.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 144)

The companion says: we were sitting with Umar رضي الله عنه, and he asked, "Who amongst you heard Rasulullah ﷺ mentioning the trials?" Some said they had. He said: are you speaking about فِتْنَةُ الرَّجُلِ فِي أَهْلِهِ وَجَارِهِ — the fact that a man goes through fitna in his family and through his neighbors? And they said yes. He said, I know that. تُكَفِّرُهَا الصَّلَاةُ وَالصِّيَامُ وَالصَّدَقَةُ — if you pray on time, fast, and give sadaqa, all of this will make up for that fitna. I'm not speaking about that. I want something bigger than that.

وَلَكِنْ أَيُّكُمْ سَمِعَ نَبِيَّهُ ﷺ يَذْكُرُ الْفِتَنَ الَّتِي تَمُوجُ مَوْجَ الْبَحْرِ — which one of you heard Rasulullah ﷺ speaking about the fitna that will come at you like the crashing waves of the ocean? I'm speaking about that fitna.

Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman رضي الله عنه — the keeper of the secrets of Rasulullah ﷺ and the greatest narrator of hadith regarding trials and tribulations — said: everyone remained silent. Then Hudhayfah spoke up and said, "I did." Umar said, in the name of Allah — what did you hear? He said, I heard the Prophet ﷺ saying the following — and I want you to listen attentively:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 144)

Trials — fitan — will be presented to the hearts like a straw mat, straw after straw. It means that trials will be hitting the hearts of the believers like waves at the seashore — one comes crashing at you, and within a minute the next one comes. And many times the next one is larger than the previous. The tide comes in, things get very, very tough. He's saying here that fitan will be crashing against the hearts just like those rocks on the beach get beaten up by the waves of the ocean. And they won't be just one — there will be new ones every single day, every single year. Just like in a straw mat there is no gap between the straws, there is no gap between the fitna. As soon as one finishes, the next one shows up.

Also: these straw mats are man-made — similarly, these fitan will be man-made. And like straw mats, even after you walk away, they leave an impression on your body. Similarly, these fitan — even after you have walked away — will leave a lasting effect on your mind and your heart. The thoughts, the ideas that have polluted your mind, it's very hard to get them out. They have long-lasting effects on the mind and the soul.

Now, how will the hearts handle it? He said: whichever heart takes in that fitna and allows it to seep in — like a sponge soaking up water — a black dot will appear in that heart. But whichever heart says, "No, I'm not in for this, I refuse to accept this, I push back" — not only will you be protected, but a white dot will appear on your heart. Every single time you say no to a fitna, every single time you say no to a temptation, every single time you say no to an ideology that is anti-Islamic, and you don't allow it to enter into your home — a white dot will appear.

Until the entire ummah and all humanity will fall into two categories: one group of people will have a heart so white, enlightened, and munawwar — as pure as silver — فَلَا تَضُرُّهُ فِتْنَةٌ مَا دَامَتِ السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ — no fitna will be able to harm this heart as long as the heavens and the earth are around. Why? Because you built up your immunity. Every single time you've been exposed to a virus, you took the right course of treatment. And now your body has become super immune — no virus will be able to harm this body.

And then the other heart Rasulullah ﷺ describes: وَالْآخَرُ أَسْوَدُ مُرْبَادًّا كَالْكُوزِ مُجَخِّيًا لَا يَعْرِفُ مَعْرُوفًا وَلَا يُنْكِرُ مُنْكَرًا — the other heart is like an upside-down cup, extremely dark, that does not recognize anything good as good, and does not recognize anything evil as evil. So scary. Any good you share with them, they brush it off. And إِلَّا مَا أُشْرِبَ مِنْ هَوَاهَا — this heart only recognizes that which coincides with its desires. If something speaks to the desire of the heart, he lights up. But anything that doesn't go along with that base desire, he's not interested.

The Closed Door — Umar ibn al-Khattab

Hudhayfah رضي الله عنه then told Umar: Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned that there is a closed door between you and this fitna — بَابٌ مُغْلَقٌ. يُوشِكُ أَن يُكْسَرَ — it is very close and very near that this door will be broken.

Umar asked: did he say broken or did he say opened? فَلَوْ أَنَّهُ فُتِحَ لَعَلَّهُ كَانَ يُعَادُ — because if he said opened, there's a chance the door will open and then close again. Hudhayfah said: no. He said the door will be broken — بَلْ يُكْسَرُ. And that door is a man who will be killed or will die.

Later on, when the narrators were asked: did Umar know what this was about? They said: of course — Umar knew that the door was himself. Rasulullah ﷺ is saying that Umar is the door that is keeping the fitna out of this ummah. And when he is broken — meaning when he is killed and martyred — the fitan will begin. And we know that from the time of Uthman رضي الله عنه, what type of difficulties the ummah went through.

My beloved friends, if this hadith is talking about the fitna that began 1400 years ago — where are we today? I want you to just think about how far we are and what a tough situation we're in. This hadith is telling us that we must protect our hearts. Fitan will come; you need to learn how to keep our hearts clean from taking in these ideas. Don't read, they say, you are what you eat. I also tell you: you are what you read. Whatever you read, be it filth, that's what you become. Be it a movie, a show, social media, TikTok — the things we watch, hear, and read will definitely change the way we think. We are in the midst of fitna right now, my friends. And Surah Al-Kahf is a solution to that.

I have discussed this idea with my asatidha as well: the LGBTQ movement is part of the pre-Dajjali era. Just as reciting Surah Al-Kahf is a protection from Dajjal — as I have shared many times — it is also a protection from the fitna of the pre-Dajjali era. So we are recommended to recite Surah Al-Kahf, and make our children recite it, for protection from this aspect as well.

Just before I started my tafsir today, I read about someone I knew — subhanAllah — who has begun publicly aligning himself with this movement. It really broke my heart. Someone who knows ilm, who studied deen — and yet how you can fall into the entrapment of Shaytan. The heart has taken in that fitna, and now he's becoming a vocal representative of that whole effort. May Allah guide him, may Allah bring him back. But this is not the last one — there will be thousands, unfortunately. What makes you and I think it can't happen in our family? This person's teachers never dreamed it would happen. And here, today, that sad day has come upon his family and upon him. Surah Al-Kahf — please use this as a vaccine. Recite it, have your children recite it, with this niyyah. Anyone can slip. Anyone can slip.

Tafsir: Ayah 14 — Standing Up & Ayah 15 — The Challenge to the Mushrikeen

Let us wrap up with this ayah. وَرَبَطْنَا عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ — when they stood up, there are two opinions: they stood up to the king to speak the truth, or they stood up to leave for the cave. Even to leave for the cave — giving up your job, your home, moving away — that requires guts, that requires strength. Where does that power come from? That comes from Allah. قَامُوا — either they went out to the cave, or they stood up against the king.

And they said: we will not accept what you are saying. Then they spoke about the people and said, these people are mushrik. If you want to say something, bring the proof. فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَى عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِبًا — the greatest oppression on earth is not an oppression against a fellow human being. From a Muslim perspective, the greatest oppression is to deny Allah. Human rights and every other right come afterwards for a believer. The number one right is the right of Allah who created you and who created all of humanity. This is an issue of aqeedah right here.

Tafsir: Ayah 16 — The Hijrah of the Mind and Heart

And then Allah says: when you eventually left them — وَإِذِ اعْتَزَلْتُمُوهُمْ — what did they leave? They physically left the people of the town, and they spiritually, mentally, emotionally left them as well. You cannot just move away with your heart attached. You have to move away mentally, emotionally, and physically from those ideas and mindsets. Today, to do hijrah physically in the world may not be the hardest thing to do. What's the harder thing? To make hijrah of the mind and the heart from evil ideas. That's the real hijrah we have to do.

And they took shelter in a cave. What are they saying? Go and take shelter, and your Lord will unfold something of His mercy for you. My beloved friends, they're not going to La La Land, they're not going to an island. They're leaving the palace — as I spoke about last week — and going into a dark cave. How can you expect anything nice there? But look at the trust they have in Allah: if we're giving all of this up for Allah, even though we're going to a cave, Allah will take care of us. How? I don't have the answer. But يَنشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّن رَّحْمَتِهِ — Allah will open up and unfold something from His mercy.

Number two: وَيُهَيِّئْ لَكُم مِّنْ أَمْرِكُم مِّرفَقًا — and Allah will furnish you in your present circumstances with good facility. What is مِرْفَق? Mirfaqa is the basic ingredients of life — what you need to live. Allah will provide for you your means of livelihood. And what was the means of living? Sleep. Allah put them down for 300-plus years so they could just wait till the storm of shirk and kufr passed over.

Summary & Call to Action

We will inshallah start from ayah number 17 next week. We covered very important points today: the role of the youth, the role of us as community members in ensuring that our masajid are fully functional to the highest capacity and run with the highest efficiency — run like a business in terms of analytics, looking at how many people are coming, how many are increasing or decreasing. Think about marketing, think about how to make an effort to get people into the house of Allah. We need fresh talent. We need marketing majors as board members — people who have studied ilm and deen and also come with a background that helps them focus on the latest ways to reach people.

I was just thinking: if we had 20 brothers here who would say, "Next Tuesday, I'm going to give half an hour — from 5:00 to 5:30, or any time — to personally text-message 20 people," if I have 20 people here, I can promise you our crowd will be double next week. Why can't we have 20 people say that? On Tuesday, I'm going to give half an hour to messaging people. We need to start thinking like that.

Alhamdulillah — so these 20 people — we're going to definitely see inshallah a big difference. And those of you who are students from out of state, and those listening online — you can text-message people from out of state to listen online. Maybe the future board members will be listening and will get inspired. SubhanAllah, what a bright future we have in front of us.

We want to see change — not here only. We want to see change throughout the country and the world. And we have to start somewhere. So we're starting from this dars. But our niyyah is not this Masjid only. Our niyyah is the world — that we want to bring change in all the masajid, in all the institutions across the country and across the world, that they start running at full capacity, with the heart, the soul, and the mind.

May Allah allow us to see the day where the masajid are filled with young people. And may Allah protect our minds and hearts from all the evil fitan that we have spoken about in today's dars.

Closing Announcements & Du'a

Alhamdulillah, my father came back last night, alhamdulillah, safe from overseas. He is recuperating at home. We continue to ask all of you inshallah to remember him in your du'a for a complete shifa. And we thank from the bottom of our hearts all those brothers and sisters from across the globe who made lots of du'a for his health and his safe return. May Allah reward you immensely. May Allah allow you to enjoy the company of your parents in this world and the next. May Allah allow us all to have the blessings of our parents and our grandparents with us for many, many years. And those of us who have lost our parents and grandparents — may Allah allow us to do such great good deeds that they become a means of sadaqa jariyya for our elders who have passed away.

Also a request for the brother Ayaz Ali — he has a back surgery tomorrow. May Allah grant him shifa and make that surgery successful.