Tafseer Surah Al Kahf Part 06 Promise Of Allah And 7 Sleepers

Yasir Qadhi

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Channel: Yasir Qadhi

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Episode Notes

In this lecture, Shaykh Yasir Qadhi discusses verses 19 to 22 of Surah Al Kahf that deal with the crux of the story of the people of the cave -What is the promise of Allah? What caused them to be discovered?

The sleep of the people of the cave was so prolonged that when they became awake, it was nothing less than a resurrection. This sleep and wakefulness was a miracle of sorts since there was no decay of bodies, no food and water was consumed.

All this could only be possible because of Allah’s care for them in this duration and that He alone has power and control over every deed of ours. The youth passed away and their bodies were inside the Cave when the people went to see them when news got around of this incident.

 

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Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah who Allah Allah he was at b1 wala.

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We now move on to verse number 19 of suited calf. And in this verse and onwards the story of the Seven Sleepers continues and we learn Allah subhana wa tada says Waka beisner home Leah Tessa Urbina home and this is how we buy a home and buy it. Now home generally is used when you're resurrecting the dead. It's not used when you're waking up. But Allah subhanho wa Taala uses the word die for that because they slept for such a long time. It was as if they had literally died. It is as if we resurrected them what karateka is now home, Leah Tessa Albania home so that they began questioning one another, or the woman whom come live with them. One of them said, How long do you think we have

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slept, they saw that the situation had changed. They saw that the time of day had moved on. Some say they went to sleep in the morning when they woke up. It was late afternoon. So the time had been more than usual when you go to sleep for now. So one of them said we must have slept for a day or half a day or would have eaten a Yeoman about a young

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man will be madder with them. They said Allah knows how long you slept that's not the important point. The point is we're hungry now. We want something to eat so forever I thought I had taken hardy take this silver workers silver coins, take this silver and go back to the city for wonder au has gotta Harmon and see what is the purest food they can find with this money for your convenience. The men who will bring back this sustenance for us well yet a lot of and make sure that you are discreet, make sure nobody sees you. When are you around, they become a hoarder. And nobody should discern, nobody should detect you. And this shows us many things. It shows us that their city was a

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relatively large city so that they didn't worry about being recognized there was a large city over there. This also shows us that they had some money with them. Some of the scholars have said that these were all sons of nobleman, and when they fled they had taken some of the money that they owed so that they could they didn't know what they will do. So they took some money in order to go into exile. Also, we learned from this as in this is a very interesting point. They're being persecuted. They're trapped in a cave, and they want some food. And yet their leader says make sure you bring back Pure Food. Some of the scholars comment they said this was a pagan city and the Muslims are the

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righteous people are the people who slaughtered properly were very few. So they said don't go to the pagan slaughters. Make sure you get the Pure Food as

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they wanted the purest food. And this shows us that Pure Food has a very important relationship to answering our doors. Pure Food shows us how much we care about Allah subhana wa tada Riscal Hara. Pure risk is a real sign of taqwa. Because when you monitor what you're eating, and when you monitor where your money comes from, this really shows how conscientious you are how much taqwa you have. And here we have the people trapped in a cave. And one would think the last thing on their minds is what type of food they're getting. But no, it shows us they have a human. And so when they send the person, they say, get the purest food eschaton don't get the pagan meat, get the meat of our

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brethren and the scholars say there were some secret Muslims, there were some secret believers and Allah, they had slaughtered proper food. So they're saying go to that place that will give you that proper food as scelta Iman and bring forth from us some good sustenance and make sure nobody, nobody finds out who you are. This also shows us an interesting point. These people have clearly demonstrated their emotion. They have fled for their safety, they have sought protection in the cave. They clearly have to walk put in a law, but this doesn't mean they should act foolishly. tawakkol does not mean you act foolishly. their elders says Be careful when you're tough at

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discreetly whether you share on the cover. Make sure nobody notices you don't draw attention to yourself. You see, being a believer does not mean acting full heartedly. being courageous does not mean acting foolishly. courage and foolishness are not the same thing. What they did was courageous, but they said don't act stupidly. Don't act foolishly. Don't draw attention to yourself.

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So the movement is brave, the movement is not foolhardy. The movement has to look good, but the movement takes precautions. The believer doesn't just say, okay, Allah will protect me without having a plan. In fact, in the Battle of God, we learned the Prophet system had a plan. He had a strategy.

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He told us when he marched to the bottom of our process and was wearing two armors to double layer protection, is anybody going to accuse the process of not having to tell what cool means you take the necessary precautions to what cool means you act sensibly. So here they are trapped in a cave, they have to get food so they said at discreetly don't bring undue attention to yourself. Now in a very beautiful way, Allah subhana wa tada tells us, how were they discovered? What was it Allah mentions one fact go with this coinage go with this one. And we know that coins they keep on changing. They keep on changing. So Allah alludes to how they were discovered. And Allah subhanho wa

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Taala says of the next verse, in the home in the auto, it is still the conversation continuing. If your people figure out who you are, you're a Jew muqaam they will stone you, all your ego confirming that to him, or they will force you to return to their midlet to their ways. And if that happens, what unto flipo Abba, you would never be successful. In this verse, we learn why they fled. Why did they run away, their people wanted to kill them because they refuse to worship the false gods. So they fled away from that persecution. And when they fled away, they said, careful, we don't want to get caught again, if we're caught, we will either die or we're going to be forced to go back to

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*can Kufa and this also shows us something that we all know common sense sensibility. Our religion doesn't want us to become martyrs for no reason. Our religion says if you can preserve your life goal and preserve it, don't become martyrs foolishly. Don't just stay there and be punished and be killed. If you can flee for your lives. Go ahead and flee our religion, values life, our religion does not throw life foolishly. And this is also a point of using your life in the best manner possible. These people could have become martyrs, if they stayed where they were. But what is the point of dying for no reason? What is the point of staying there when they have the option of

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fleeing, and our religion says preserve religion and preserve life and preserve sanity and preserve wealth. All of these are the Macalester or the goals of the *tier that we are supposed to preserve. So Allah says what I thought when I lay him, this is how we cause the other people to find them out. This is how they were discovered how because of the coinage. It is said that when he came with this coinage, he was amazed that nobody was accepting this coin, and he couldn't recognize anything in the city. 300 years had gone by, and nobody seems to be familiar to him, all the shopkeepers, all of the most everything is different. So he goes to a mall and he hands over this

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coinage, and they say, what is this coin, we don't know this coin. So the coin goes to another trader, another trader, until finally they thought he had come across some treasure, because when you have silver dating back 300 years, this is very priceless. Even in our times, if we discovered treasure going back 300 years, this was a fortune. So that people accosted him, accusing him of finding a treasure until finally he was forced to go to the senior bishop. And again, this is if we take the Christian narrative, and we'll talk about that in a little while that if the story involves Christians, the story goes as follows that when he returned to the city, 300 years later, the city

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had become Christian. The city had embraced Christianity, and instead of becoming pagan, instead of being pagan, they worship Allah subhanho wa Taala. And the cloud is Jesus Christ. So when this man comes back, he sees the whole city change, he is caught, he is accosted, he tells the people his whole story. And he mentioned to them the Emperor that was persecuting them. And he says, Where is that Emperor? And they say that Emperor, that Emperor has long gone 300 years have gone so the he shows them the coinage they take him to the bishop, the bishop cannot believe destroyed. He says, Come with me. Let me show you my companions. So he returns with the senior bishop to their cave, and

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they see in reality, yes, their utensils, their coinage, the clothes they're wearing. Everything is from that epoch. Everything is from that era, and everything fits and it has said and the Quran alludes to this that when the bishop returned and he saw all of the seven at that point in time Allah subhana wa tada caused the seven to pass away the he they basically died at that time and natural death when they were discovered by the people what catches the eye for now it him. This is how we cause the community to discover them. Why Leon underwired de la Huck so that they may know that the promise of Allah is true. What is the promise of Allah that Allah will help

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His servants that Allah subhana wa tada will save his believers that Allah subhana wa tithers Nasir is always on the side of the believers, as Allah says in the Quran in surah comilla who follow hardy bellicum If Allah helps you nobody can overcome you, as Allah subhana wa tada says, one

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minute mini sebelah never will those who reject have the upper hand over those who believe this is the law. This is the promise of Allah and Allah subhana wa tada his promises never broken. So Allah says that in the wider law he has let them know that the promise of a lot is true. And let them also know that the Day of Judgment, there is no disagreement about it. Where did the Day of Judgment come from? Wonderful law can cause the person to sleep for 300 years, then bring them back. Surely a law can cause the dead to come back as well. So this was a sign that the Day of Judgment is true, it was a living sign that they could see that the Day of Judgment is true, idiot and as

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they began debating amongst themselves, what should be done with their bodies, what should be done with this area here for

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him banyana one group said, Let us build a monument. Let us erect a monument and obey Him. Allah knows all that happened on living under him, those who eventually won in the end of the day, they said, then attack it and it he must Judah, we will do a place of worship where these people are. Now it is very interesting to note and some of you asked me about this all going to just a bit of a tangent here that the story as we said does exist in other cultures. And the earliest reference we have to the story of the Seven Sleepers. It is the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus ep htsus, the seven snipers of emphasis and it is first recorded from a historian of the Syriac Christian church by the

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name of Yaqoob a settle you settle up Jacob of Cyril and he died around 520 or so CE II. So this is before the Prophet system before the the revealing of the Quran by over a century. So he records and he says this goes back a few 100 years. So he doesn't tell us his original source. But we have the original Syriac manuscripts, the original manuscripts of this Jaco person of this Jacob person, and this predates Islam. And he tells us the story that there were seven Christians in the time of the Emperor, one of the pagan emperors I forgot his name now. Sorry, it is written here, the Emperor decius, the Emperor decius, who died 250 See, the Emperor decius was a pagan, and he persecuted the

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Christians. And he caught a group of seven young men, and he typed them up to kill them. A lot allowed them to escape. And the seven young men escaped This is according to the legend here, not according to the Quran, this is the legends story, and they fled to the cave. And according to the legend, this is where it differs from the Koran. According to the legend, the king block them up so that they would die a miserable death, they can block the cave, and according to the Quran, the cave was open and the sun would rise and set and the sun would give it shade into the cave. So there's one difference between that story and the Quranic story. And they stayed there for 300. According to

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the legend, it says 370 years a little bit more than the Quran. The legend says 370 years, those seven men remained until finally one of the farmers wanted to use those wells that brick so he hammered down he used the brick and the seven men a walk and they saw the light coming out. And when they went, they discovered the city had become Christian because the Emperor was now Christian. Now what I found very interesting here, that this is one of the earliest in fact it is the earliest report of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. Another early report mentions one tidbit that actually fits very perfectly with the Koran. And this report is by another early historian, theocracies and he

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also died before the coming of Islam. And he mentions when the Seven Sleepers exited This is exactly from his, from his article or from his translated article, he says that the heresy of the Sadducees were spreading, and they denied the resurrection. This was found in one of the earliest histories written at the time, and he says Sadducees was a group at the time of people who denied yom Okayama as seussian and they denied your McKevitt, they denied resurrection. So he said the heresy of the Sadducees was spreading, and they denied the Day of Judgment, they denied resurrection. So this story proved to them that Allah subhana wa tada can resurrect the dead. And this is exactly what the

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Quran says. That was added, namely, under the law,

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that the Day of Judgment, there is no doubting it. And this in fact, affirms it, even though in the end of the day, as I said three days ago

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We don't know for sure who these seven people were. But if there is a candidate and if there is a likely story, then the story of the Seven Sleepers of emphasis is the strongest candidate. And in fact, most of the details match up. And this particular detail I found very interesting that one of these historians literally says that these Seven Sleepers they called a fitna a theological fitna, what was that there was a debate can allow, resurrect the dead or not. And these Seven Sleepers, Allah allowed them to be discovered right at the time when it appeared that the debate would be lost. And the ones who would win would be those who deny your military ama, and by the seventh

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sleepers coming into whole communities seeing that Allah has allowed 300 years to go by and these people are sleeping there and then a law cause them to die. It was an open miracle. Then they debated what should be done. One group said, Let us make a monument let us erect a monument to honor them. And another group said no, let us build a mosque let us build a church or a monastery where they are and the phrasing on a Latina Umbra him, those who eventually went over there seems to be a bit of a distaste this should not have happened. And this proves to us the Quranic and the Islamic and the Hadith point of view, which is we do not build messages on the graves and tombs of righteous

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people. This is a clear prohibition in the shady app. Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the worst of people on the Day of Judgment are those who build a Masjid on top of recovery. We do not mix graveyards and messages they don't occupy the same space. Why? Because this is the easiest stepping stone to venerating a grave. graveyards are separate messages are separate. We don't build a Masjid on top of a grave and we don't bury a person inside them as Jim and the Quranic phrasing here, those who eventually went over and they had the power, they decided to build a Masjid. And of course, just as a historical tidbit these seven slippers of emphasis, there is a monument that

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claims to be theirs. In fact, in 1925

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emphasis is now in the country of Turkey. They actually excavated a site which had in Syriac and inscription here lies the Seven Sleepers and whatnot. And this caused a big deal in the Christian circles. As for us, as we said, Allahu Allah will be him as Allah says, we don't know for sure whether that is actually the place or not. Nonetheless, if there is a candidate we said, then the Seven Sleepers of emphasis is the actual or the one that is the closest other than this, as I said, and I said this a little bit humorously every culture of the Muslim world. In fact, I checked online, even some of our Chinese Muslim Brothers, they say the Seven Sleepers were from China, and

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they have a place over there, it has the seven slippers. And we have enjoyed in that we have in Syria and we have here and there, if there is a strong candidate, it is the city of Ephesus, and this is now in modern Turkey. And there is in fact a shrine in the site to this day where tourists can go that is this site. Allah knows best and in the end of the day, it doesn't matter to us where the actual location is, the story is what is important and inshallah tomorrow we will conclude the story of the Seven Sleepers and then after that move on to other stories I was set on wanting from Warhammer to LA who about a castle