Sura Kahf v. 7-8

In continuation of our khutba’s on Sura Kahf (Chapter of the Cave), we come to Allah’s words:

Verily! We have made that which is on earth as an adoration for it, in order that We may test them (mankind) as to which of them are best in deeds

And Verily! We shall make all that is on it (the earth) a bare dry soil

If we go back to the first six verses, we find these two verses as a continuation and a break from the theme. It is a continuation in the theme in that it lays out why the disbelievers will not believe in the message of Islam, still trying to console the Prophet and letting him know not to grieve. But it is also a break from the other verses in that a new theme is introduced here. Not new to the Qur’an, but new to this Sura.

In fact, Allah mentions many times that he as made the things on this earth, including our families, an adoration. Later on in this sura, Allah will remind us again that:

Almaalu wal banuuna zeenatul hayatud dunya
The wealth and children are an adoration of this world

So we must always keep in mind the fact that the things we have in this world are flighty, they are here today, gone tomorrow; we have nothing one day, have a lot tomorrow, and next week we might be back to nothing; and so we should think of it as such;

This does not mean that we should not have or enjoy things in this life; as a matter of fact, whatever we are given is a blessing from Allah, and part of appreciating the blessing is that we accept it and use it, but not in extravagance, and not to show off, but rather to appreciate.

But Allah reminds us here that is in only an adoration of the earth because like any other adoration, in time it fades; for example, make up that women put on is to adorn themselves; they take what might be plain, and put beauty to it; or men might do the same with cologne or clothes; but at the end of the day, the makeup and the clothes come off; the cologne wears out, and one is left with the original; you don’t get too attached to it, because you know it will fade;

So similarly, when you are trying to look at a human being, you must look past the glamour and glitter to their true essence or you will miss what (s)he is about; in the same way, we must look past the adornments of this world, cause they will eventually fade; leaving nothing except for what we earn in deeds; and that is what Allah says in that it is a test to see which of us in best in deeds;

The good and the bad, the beauty and the ugly, everything in life is a test and some have more tests than others; some have harder tests than others; and the nature of the test is to show the winners from the losers; here Allah uses the words “ahsan” perfection, and one of the roots of this word is beauty, because perfection only comes through beauty; beauty not defined by us, but by Allah;

Allah is beautiful and loves beauty

And so you do things we goodness and beauty and the become perfect acts accepted by Allah; and this can lead us into an entire discussion about the nature of beauty and what is accepted by Allah. Suffice it to say here that the acts we do must be done with the proper intention of pleasing Allah and done to the best of our ability. When we begin to do these two things, then even everyday mundane acts become acts of beauty accepted by Allah;
And Allah says in the second verse, #8, that he will make everything on earth bare dry soil; going back to my initial point that when the adornment comes off, all is that is left on earth is its true nature, bare dry soil.

And this realization comes about on death, when you are put in the soil and that is all that is around you, but also on the Day of Judgment when all of us, the entire humankind, will be on a plain waiting judgment.