Khutba Lessons from V. 1-6 of Kahf

Wanted to speak over the next few Jummas, as I am in town about Sura Kahf, the Chapter of the Cave, the 18th Sura of the Qur’an;

We have the importance of this sura recorded in an authentic hadeeth reported in Bayhaqi and Al-Hakim: “Who ever recites Surah Al-Kahf on Friday, Allah will give him a light to the next Friday”

So who wouldn’t want the light of Allah on them from one Friday to the next; and the reason for this light is that this sura has many lessons we can learn from the stories it tells: story of the people of the cave; story of the two men and the gardens one was given; story of Musa and Khidr; and the story of Dhul Qarnain; So the best thing to do is to read sura kahf every Friday; but if you can’t read all of it because of time, then at least read some of it; and if you can’t event do that, then listen to it while riding in your car, on the bus, walking on campus, etc.

And it is equally important that you understand what is being said so that you ca derive benefit not only from the letters of the Qur’an, but more importantly, from following the words of Allah; so, over the next few weeks and months, I will try toexplain these stories and try to put them in a context of how we can benefit from them in this day and age;

1. “All Praises and thanks be to Allah, who has sent down to His slave the book (Qur’an) and has not placed therein any crookedness”

So Allah begins the Sura with Praises and thanks to Allah, and this is one of only 5 suras in the Qur’an that has this beginning; and we praise Allah for all things that we have and do not have because both things can be a source of trial; but specific to this verse, Allah is saying that we should give praise to Him for sending down a book, the Qur’an, through his messenger, Muhammad, and one of the great things is that it has not crookedness;

So 2 things here: it is straight forward book and is not contradictory in any way and that it is not blemished with mistakes, as we find in the books of old; second, that through this aya Allah has established a miracle in that if this book every became corrupted with mistakes, then this aya would no longer hold true, and thus it would no longer be the book of Allah; As such, Allah is guaranteeing itself survival with ayat such as these; kind of like a self checking mechanism;

2. “He has made it Straight to give warning to the disbelievers of a severe punishment from Him, and to give glad tidings to the believers, who work righteous deeds, that they shall have a fair reward.
3. They will abide therein forever”

One of the aspects of its correctness is a balance between a warning and a glad tidings; and throughout the Qur’an you find that Allah, and in the seerah, the Prophet, are giving glad tidings to the believers and warnings to the disbelievers; but this balance is more profound than this, in that wherever Allah mentions hellfire, he follows up with paradise; if he mentions a punishment, he tells you how to get away from it; and if you think about it, the only way to be straight is to have balance;

4. And to warn those who say “Allah has begotten a son;

5. no knowledge have they of such a thing, not had their fathers. Mighty is the word that comes out of their mouths. They utter nothing but a lie

And so this qur’an is a book that has been sent down to eradicate the myth that Allah has a son; and most particularly Allah here is referring to the Christians, but we can use this for Hinduism and Buddhism and any other that says such a lie; Allah says they have no knowledge of this because the people who believe this were not around when these Prophets, like Jesus, was alive, so they don’t really know; and their fathers don’t know either; in fact for example in Christianity, it took 350 years before the divinity of Jesus became part of their creed;

And what they utter, if they only know, is very serious; and is a an outright lie; a covering of the truth


5. “Perhaps, you would kill yourself in grief, over their footsteps, because they believe not in this narrantion”

and this verse brings out the true nature of the Prophet Muhammed, in that he truly cares for the well being of others and how they behave; that he is not teaching them about Islam because he feels he is better than them, but rather because he cares about them; to the point of almost killing himself with grief; and in another verse Allah says: Verily in the messenger of Allah, you find an excellent example; and here in this verse we find a most excellent example of a da’i, or a person who calls people to Allah and Islam; that he has to truly care for the people he is talking to;

this, in my opinion, is lacking in the Muslim Ummah today; that we look down on people who are not blessed with Islam, and all the while, we are not true Muslims ourselves; in order to call people to Islam in America, you have to care for the Americans, be of them and not separate from them;

so what we can derive from the first 6 ayat of Sura Kahf are the following points in summary:

1. We should praise and thank Allah in all situations; and in particular for sending a book to us that is uncorrupted; no other religion can claim this; in fact, no other religion claims that its book is perfect and then challenges others to disprove it
2. That just like Allah in the Qur’an uses balance to indicate what is straight, right/wrong, heaven/hell; punishment/reward; we in our own lives need to have balance so that we walk on the straight path; balance between extremism and apathy and Allah defines as a balanced nation: ummatan wasata
3. That associating partners with Allah is very serious, but also, that you shouldn’t blindly follow what your fathers have taught you; they could be wrong or worse, lying to you; you should use your intellect to question it and come up with answers
4. That in order for us to be influential with non-Muslims, we have to genuinely care about them; not preach to them, but talk and discuss the errors of their way; and before judging others, judge yourself

Jena 6: Where is the Outrage?

• Today, in this khutba, I would like to speak about an evil that has been around since the creation of mankind; Allah mentions in the Qur’an the story of the creation of Adam, where after his creation, he told the Angels and Jinn (Iblis) to bow down to Adam and all bowed except Iblis, and Allah describes him is Istakbar, proud, arrogant, etc.

“And when we said to the angels “prostrate yourselves before Adam”. And they prostrated except Iblis, he refused and was proud and was on of the disbelievers”

• And in another part, when Allah asked him why, he said “I am better then him (Adam), I am made of fire and air and [Adam] is made of water and clay”; and in this statement; and so why did Iblis think this way? The mufassireen have said because fire and air rise to the heavens, while water and clay stick to the ground; but this is in the material world; the spiritual world has nothing to do with this; Iblis, in one sentence, uttered the one sentence that has lasted with mankind throughout the ages: the idea that one person is better than another because of origin, skin color, economic status, or whatever else one can think of;
• And throughout the ages, the prophets have come to tell mankind that all these things are not what make a man good or evil, but rather the deeds of the heart; Allah says in the Qur’an:

Inna akramakhum, ‘indallahi atqaakum
Veriy the most honored of you with Allah is the one that is most
God-Conscious

• And the reason why Allah is mentioning this and why the Prophet in his last sermon mentioned “All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action”, is because it also existed during his time;
• And we find this now not only throughout the Muslim world, but the entire world; In the Muslim world, it is between Shia/Sunni, Arab/non-Arab, one tribe vs. another tribe; one town vs. another town; even within families, one vs. another; and in this country, there is a history of pride and arrogance, or better yet, racism against blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, basically anyone that is not White; and this is not something that has gone away; it still exists, but just don’t hear about it in the media
• So we need to be aware of its existence, first and foremost, within ourselves, then within our family, and finally within society; and if we find it anywhere, we need to fight it out of us, out of our family, and out of society
• Within yourself, you need to ask yourself, whether you are black or not, Arab or not, whether you feel better than someone else; how do you know you are better? We should be so much preoccupied with our own state with Allah, that the thought should ever even occur to us; before criticizing others or faulting them, we should look at ourselves and fix our own situation;
• And within our families, we should strive to make sure our kids, our siblings, even our parents stay away from this as well; usually with kids, it is easy to teach, but sometimes with parents and siblings, if they do make comments that are prideful, arrogant, prejudice and racist, we should object and tell them it is intolerable, because if you don’t, then we are condoning the act;
• The reason why I speaking about racism, whose root is pride and arrogance, and which has been around since the creation of man, is because we find blatant acts of it even in the US today; it is obvious in the Muslim world, where Arabs look down upon non-Arabs, tribes look down on other tribes; etc. and this is not unique to Arabs, it happens in South Asian countries as well;
• One of the things people mention most is the way the South Asians are treated in the Arabian Gulf states; but they forget that merely 200 years ago, the tables were turned and it was the South Asians who used to treat the Arabs in this way; but our ability to change that is minimal since we don’t live there, and so we need to look closer to home, here in the US and it is not difficulty to find;
• The number of blacks that are incarcerated; the lack of economic and educational opportunities available to them; and most recently there is a case going on in Louisianan dubbed the Jena 6: the six African American high school students in Louisiana who are charged with attempted murder for a schoolyard fight with a white student. The fight took place amidst mounting racial tension after a black student dared to sit under a tree in the schoolyard where only white students sat. The next day, three nooses were hanging from the tree, it was reported, in the school colors. The first of the Jena Six, Mychal Bell, was recently convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy charges for the fight. He now faces twenty-two years in prison. He’ll be sentenced on July 31st; the other 5 are looking at life in prison!!! Would this have been the case for white kids? They usually get a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again; whereas for these black kids, they will end up spending the better part of their adult life in prison; where is the outrage?
• Why is this not being reported in the media? And what can we do about it? I don’t know what we can do for them in Louisiana, but if it happened here in Bellingham, it would be mandatory upon us as Muslims to stand up against it; Allah says to stand up for justice, even against your own souls; but even in this case of the Jena 6, we need to tell as many people as possible about this and somewhere, somehow, someone will be able to do something against this injustice;