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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers. Muhammadﷺ, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family. Now, brothers and sisters, we are looking at the different lessons that we learn from Surah Al-Kahf. And the fact that these are things that, the tests that Allah SWT mentioned in Surah Al-Kahf, are the tests that the Dajjal will put on the people that he will encounter. We ask Allah SWT to save us from Dajjal and from all Dajjali influences.
We looked at the first two tests: the test of faith and the test of wealth. Today, we look at the test of knowledge. This is one of the paradoxes that even with knowledge—even with the knowledge of the Quran itself—if that knowledge is not rooted in Taqwa (righteousness), which means that the knowledge has to be in practice, and if that knowledge does not come from a heart which is pure, and does not enter a heart which is pure, then that knowledge itself will corrupt. Even though the knowledge itself is pure, but the way it is perceived, and the way it is received and understood, will corrupt.
And this is exactly what happened with Iblis. The knowledge that Iblis had was good. There was nothing wrong with the knowledge he had. What was wrong is what he did with the knowledge—where he used this knowledge in a wrong way. And even today, you have people who are people of knowledge. They are ulama. They have great qualifications. They are the hufadh of the Quran and so on. But then they will give a fatwa which is totally making haram into halal and halal into haram because they are carrying favor with somebody in authority, maybe a ruler, maybe somebody with money or something, and they will give this fatwa. So therefore, which means that the knowledge has not entered the heart. They are not fearing the anger of Allah. They are looking for benefit from some creature, from a human being. Or they fear the human being. They do not fear Allah. So what’s the good of the knowledge? So the issue is to ensure that the knowledge we have takes us to the right destination, which is the Rida (satisfaction) of Allah.
Ibn Kathirrahmatullah Ali quotes in his tafsir about the incident of Musa Alayhi Salaam and how he went in search of Al-Qidr. Ubayy bin Qaab narrated that he heard Rasulullahﷺ saying that Musa Alayhi Salaam got up to deliver a speech before the Bani Israel. When somebody asked him, “Who is the most learned person among the people?” Now obviously, Musa Alayhi Salaam is the Rasul. He is the Sahib al-Kitab, he is the Sahib al-Shariah. So obviously, he is the most learned person. Nobody can be more learned than the Nabi. And this is not just any Nabi, this is a Rasul. And he is a Rasul from the Ulul Azam, the Rasul. So Musa Alayhi Salaam, the man asked him, “Who is the most learned person in the world among the people?” And Musa Alayhi Salaam said, “I am the most learned person.” Now Allah SWT rebuked him because Allah SWT did not refer the knowledge to Allah. He did not say by the will of Allah, Allah has given me knowledge. He said, “I am the most knowledgeable.” So Allah SWT rebuked him for this.
And Allah SWT revealed to him at the junction of two seas, there is a slave of ours who is more learned than you. Right? Now you should think about this. First of all, Musa Alayhi Salaam is the Rasul of Allah. And he is the Sahib ul Kitab, he is the Sahib ul Shariah. Now Khidr is not mentioned in the Quran by name. We have the name from the Hadith, but in the Quran, Allah SWT said, “Abn Minna Libat,” one of our slaves. Obviously, that slave, whoever he is, is not Sahib ul Kitab. He is not Sahib ul Shariah. Right? He is a Nabi so in terms of status, he is not at the level of Musa A.S. Musa A.S. is much higher. But when Allah SWT said there is this person, Musa A.S. could have said, “Alhamdulillah, he didn’t say that Musa A.S. said O my Rabb how can I meet him. He said, ‘I want to meet him.’ The lesson here is Musa A.S. had the humility and the humbleness. He didn’t say, ‘I am this, I am this.’ No, he said, ‘Allah, you have told me this man has knowledge. I want to go and learn. I want to go and learn what is the need for Musa A.S. to learn if Musa A.S. whatever he needs to know, Allah will teach him. Allah taught him. Musa A.S. was not a you know all the Anbiya received but Musa A.S. spoke to Allah directly. He is Kaleemullah. He is not an ordinary man. Musa A.S. So it’s not just a matter of he actually spoke to Allah SWT right so he is a very very special person. So Musa A.S. said, ‘How can I meet him? I want to meet him.’
So Allah SWT said, take a fish, put it in a vessel, and then set out. Where you lose the fish, you will find this man. Right? Now Musa A.S. took a fish, he put it in a vessel, and he set out. And with him was his servant; he was a boy, servant you shall be known. He was the servant of Musa A.S. So he was carrying this vessel with the fish, and then they went and then they traveled the whole day and you know whatever number of days and then they slept. They found a rock and they were sleeping on this rock now the fish this was the fish this was along this river. So the fish then jumped out of this vessel and went into the water and as it went, it created like a tunnel in this water. So Allah SWT stopped the flow of water on both sides of the fish, so the fish was moving in a tunnel. Now when they got up, this whole thing happened. Musa A.S. was sleeping; he didn’t see it. The boy saw it but when they got up and they started on this, the boy forgot to tell Musa A.S. So he is now carrying the vessel without the fish. So they carried on the journey and then they that whole day they walked or whatever it was and then they walked the whole night. Imagine Musa A.S. was a tough person. He walked and walked; you don’t know how many days he walked. Then they got up in the following morning. Musa A.S. said to the boy, “Bring that fish at least let us eat it because we are you know we are hungry and we so on.” So this fish carrying this fish for nothing. So let us bring the fish we have. We are tired from this journey.
Very interesting that Musa A.S. didn’t get tired until that point right? They were walking and walking for God knows how many days. Musa A.S. didn’t get tired, but at that point, he got tired. And when he asked for the fish, the boy said, ‘Oh, but the fish is gone.’ He said, ‘Where did the fish go?’ Because Allah SWT told him where you lose the fish is where the person will be. And this boy is saying, ‘The fish is gone.’ He said, ‘Where did the fish go?’ He said, ‘Two days ago, not now two days of journey has passed so and the boy said, ‘The fish jumped into the sea, and when the fish went in the water, it was like a tunnel.’ So Musa A.S. that is the place he said that is the place we should have gone. You know, we should have told me anyway. So now they went back. Imagine they traveled two days; they have now traveled two days back. So when they reached back, they found that there was a man sleeping on the rock and he was covered with you know whatever half or some garment. So Musa A.S. said salam to him, and he said salam alikum. So this man he got up and he said, “Is there such a greeting among your people? Do you people say salam alikum?” Musa A.S. said yes. He said, “I am Musa and so this person said, ‘Are you Musa of Bani Israel?’ He said yes, I am Musa of Bani Israel, and I have come to you so that you may teach me something of the knowledge which you have been taught.”
Right, so this is the conversation initial conversation that is happening between Musa A.S. and Khidr A.S. Now we why do we say A.S. because was he a Nabi? Yes, he was a Nabi because Allah SWT said he is from he is a slave from among our slaves and we have taught him we have given him some knowledge. So therefore, this means that Khidr A.S. is a Nabi of Allah SWT. So we say A.S. So Khidr A.S. said to him, “I will teach you a lesson. Do and that you should not but you you will not have sabr with what I tell you. You will not be able to understand that, and you will not have any patience with what I tell you.” So Musa A.S. said, “No, no, I will have patience. And I will inshallah minas sabirin. I will have patience and I will not disobey you in the slightest.” Khidr A.S. told him, “I have knowledge that I have knowledge that you don’t have and you have knowledge that I don’t have. So how can you say that you will be patient when you don’t know what I am talking about?”
In terms of understanding that you know in a logical sense, you are saying, “I will be how do you know? You are saying, ‘I will be patient.’ So he said inshallah he said it the correct way, but he said, “You have no idea what I am talking about, and I don’t know he said you have knowledge I don’t have this knowledge. So he is acknowledging it. He said, “You know he is not saying you are ignorant. No, you have knowledge. Allah has given you knowledge. Allah has given you the Torah the Kitab so but at the same time he said I have knowledge which you don’t have and you are saying you will be patient but how do you know you will be patient because you don’t know what I know. So anyway Khidr A.S. so he accepted. He said, “Ok,” Musa A.S. said, “No, I will I will not disobey you. I will I will follow you know whatever you tell me to do I will do it, and so please accept me as your student.” Now many lessons inshallah tomorrow we will look at those in detail but one important lesson here is if you want to learn something you have to submit yourself to the teacher you can’t order the teacher to do this and that today this is one of the biggest problems that we have in terms of especially with regard to Islamic knowledge. I mean other things we go and submit we go and admit yourself into a school you will pay the fees and you will do this and that you know you have some level of humility but with Islamic knowledge this is not there very sad. You expect the teacher to come to your house. You expect the teacher to come at his expense and teach you and so on and even when the teacher comes you know we know how the imams and so on are treated when they go to somebody’s house to teach right and and ! I am dead against going to somebody’s house to teach no way the masjid is a place to learn if you want to learn come to the masjid don’t don’t call the imam here and there you will not go but people I mean people are dependent for living this that so they do it but we we as the people who are calling these people who as the potential students we need to fear Allah in this matter because just because somebody has a financial need you cannot treat that person like a servant he is not a servant this is somebody who has the knowledge of the kitab of Allah the knowledge of the sunnah of Rasul and therefore that knowledge adds value to that individual and therefore it is wajib and it is fard on us to treat our scholars to treat the imams to treat the ulama with the highest level of respect don’t go by whether that person is wealthy or not wealthy they have you spent your time acquiring wealth that person spent his time acquiring Islamic knowledge your wealth will stay here in this world that man’s knowledge will go with him right so never look down on somebody who has Islamic knowledge that’s a very important thing to understand. Our wealth it will be here where will it go? It’s not going to go and not only will it be here but you will account for it you will have to give Allah a hisa for this wealth but for the Islamic knowledge that knowledge will go with this person and Allah will reward him for this. So there’s a very big difference in this world maybe that person you know doesn’t have your money that you have he doesn’t have your properties he doesn’t wear the expensive clothing that you wear and so forth none of that has any meaning in the sight of Allah none of that has any meaning what has meaning is taqwa what has meaning is the knowledge of the deen which is practiced and therefore it is one of the biggest lessons we learn from this whole story of Qudaibislam and of course many other lessons tomorrow we’ll talk about but to begin with is the importance of respecting the scholars of Islam importance of respecting teachers and we have the finest example because here is Musa A.S. we’re not talking about any ordinary person this is the this is Musa A.S. this is not just a scholar this is the one of the biggest of the messengers of Allah one of the Rasuls of Allah one of the five who are called Ulul Azim means the Rasul the five Nuh A.S. Musa A.S.
Ibrahim A.S. Isa A.S. and Rasul A.S. So among the five, Musa A.S. is Nuh A.S. Ibrahim A.S. and then of course Musa A.S. and Isa A.S. and Rasul A.S. Musa A.S. is one of those five yet despite that when Allah SWT tells him there is a person who has you know this knowledge Musa A.S. submits himself and he says Ya Allah take me there send me there I want to go meet this person so on so on right so it’s very and again also think about this whatever knowledge Khidr A.S. had was not essential for Musa A.S. Musa A.S. knowledge is complete in itself Allah SWT made him Rasul he gave him the Kitab and so on he is done he is complete he doesn’t need to know what you know Khidr A.S. knows this is just love for knowledge love for curiosity love for learning even though it’s not I don’t need it for my you know for my duties and my work but I will I want to know something which is which is different so it’s very important to have this attitude of curiosity the attitude of of humility and the willingness to take the time and travel and then go and learn today the whole thing you have a even if you have a you know session some class going on you don’t go why no I have to go here I have to go there no somewhere you have to prioritize the knowledge of the Deen above something else nobody is any any you know useful person will not simply be sitting there doing nothing there’s always something to do so if you have something to do you have to prioritize that and say no this is more important I will go to this thing which is more important think about it like for example if you have a medical appointment what will you do doctor gives you an appointment what do you do if the whole world is upside down I have to go and meet the doctor or else I will die this is the last resort my brother meet the doctor you have to go and meet the doctor this is the last resort anything whatever in America all these appointments this that but if there is a medical appointment you drop everything I have got I have got an appointment doctor I have to go to see the doctor so this is this is what this is this is appointment of the Quran appointment of the Deen there is no difference in that I have to do this I have to do that there is no difference there is no difference there is no one sitting everyone has a job so it is very important for us to understand that we have to give priority to the Deen to the knowledge of the Deen to learn it and to practice it not just to learn we have to learn and to practice it.
We ask Allah to make us among those who have this curiosity and we ask Allah to reward us and to help us to be among those who learn and to help us to be among those who practice. We ask Allah to forgive us our shortcomings, to forgive our faults, and to help us to reach His Reda. And peace be upon the Holy Prophetﷺ and upon the companions of the United States and upon the merciful and merciful.