The 300-Year Sleep Was NOT What You Think | Al-Kahf - Ustadh Quran Hodge

All praise belongs to Allah. He is the Lord of the worlds. He is one and he has no partners. And we ask him to send his peace and blessings and salutations upon the elect of all creation, the prophet Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam. We come together on this beautiful day in worship of Allah in obedience to him as he tells us in his glorious Quran to come to the congregational salah to take benefit and then to go out into the world and implement those teachings that you were reminded with as a favor that is upon you and to implement those into your lives and to effectuate change out there into the real world and firstly into your own selves. Brothers and sisters, Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us in his glorious Quran. All of you Muslims who claim to believe, grant me my right. Grant me my rights, which means to obey what it is that I have commanded you to do and stay away from that in which I have prohibited you from. And do not die except for in that state. No other state beyond that. Not a state in which man has taught you and I to be and then we die upon that way. But the way of Allah subhana wa ta'ala and his messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Allah also commands us in the glorious Quran. He says all of you Muslims who claim to believe, grant me my rights as we just mentioned before. And then he says follow that up with two things. which is to have beautiful speech. Say words that hit the mark, that are truthful, that are honest, and that are encouraging. Why is because what you say on your tongue is a reflection of what your heart truly is. And then Allah subhana wa ta'ala follows that up with and he says, "Do good deeds." And therefore, that's how you earn the forgiveness of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Now, what is the relationship between the tongue and the rest of the limbs? That relationship is the tongue reflects what the in-word actually is. When good speech comes from your tongue, then that means the body is going to carry out good actions. And when vile and evil speech comes from off of your tongue, that means that's the state of the heart. And then your limbs will carry out bad deeds. So Allah says, "Say good words that hit the mark, that are truthful, that are honest, that are beautiful, and follow that up with doing good deeds, and therefore you will earn the forgiveness of your Lord, Allah subhana wa ta'ala." And he says, "Whoever does this, they will be forgiven of all of the sins that they have committed. And whoever obeys Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam has won the ultimate victory. And that ultimate victory, my dear brothers and sisters, is everything that you and I truly desire. No matter how good of a Muslim we may be or how irresponsible of a Muslim we may be, we all want the love of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. We all want the ti of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. And Allah tells us that that is the ultimate victory is to have his love and his nearness and his protection and to have with a place to live in forever in which we will abide where there's no more rules that we have to follow where there's no more sickness there's no more fears that you and I have to be confronted with just a life of pure bliss to live eternally with all of our loved ones and all of the best who have ever lived especially with Rasoolah. sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Now that's what you and I are striving for. Today I ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to grant me ti his endearing grace to speak to you about something that's very important and pertinent to our situation in which we are living in right now and that's respect respectively to the youth. I want you to pay attention and I want you to understand something about yourselves. And also for all of the adults in here, whether you be middle-aged or even a senior, may Allah subhana wa ta'ala bless you and protect you and grant you long beautiful lives of devotion to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Say, we have to understand our youth and we have to be vigilant for them and we have to be on their sides, dear brothers and sisters. So this is also going to challenge the elders inside of here, specifically parents who are in a household and have youth that they are actually raising. For the youth, I must also warn you, there is a comportment and there's an etiquette that one must have with their parents. So the information that I'm going to give you in speaking on your behalf, you must take this information with grace and not something to hold above your parents but but to understand what are some of your rights but also how is it that you should be leading your life in order for you to be benefited by Allah subhana wa ta'ala and again he grants you his ti which is his endearing and noble grace that he will help you out in this world and aid you to set the premise. We need to understand that this world has especially living in the west has set out to take the attention of the young people and even of the adults. And being a young person, you are already subjected with so much difficulty for the fact that you have desires. And so within this economy and within this society, it is always trying to pull at your attention and your desires and try to feed that to you. And what ends up happening with the youth because we are not so foundational with our dean and understanding of it in our connection with the Quran and that's not always our fault. But because that is the premise that we grow up with, we typically confide and go with what society says is best to do. and we fall into the ways of what the western society tells us the ways that we should follow. Therefore, Islam becomes weird and it becomes this strange thing that we start to have issues with whenever we hear someone speak on the mebar or if we read something in the Quran, it doesn't sit too well with us. Why? It's because we've been taught a specific way about how we should be, how we should believe, and how we should implement certain acts into our lives. But young people, I want you to understand there is a way that Allah subhana wa ta'ala wants you to be. And if you follow that way, he will create miracles for you before your own very eyes. If you stay patient, if you stay penitentive, if you stay upright before Allah subhana wa ta'ala, if you make your salah, if you lower your gaze, if you have good adab with your parents, then Allah will open up doors for you just as he did for the people of the cave in that we should be reading every single Friday. I want to tell you a short portion of this story and who these people were. Firstly to set the foundation for you all. They were the these were young people who lived in a time in between the time of Isaam and the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And during this time they were followers of the true message that was given to is to to Isaam the what ends up happening after the passing of Isaam polytheism starts to spread very far and wide and wide and this becomes the norm and the standard of societal beliefs and you and I know it's so easy to go with what everyone else is doing. You and I have been presented with the old adage, if everyone were to jump off the bridge, would you? Generally, that is actually what we follow with inside of this society that we live in. We typically are jumping off the bridge because everyone else is doing it. In relation to these people of the people of the cave, there were young people who wanted to stand up for that which was right. That which is truth that which is in the way of Allah subhana wa ta'ala and his messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam but specifically that me messenger at the time that Allah is one that Allah is to be worshiped that none should be associated with Allah subhana wa ta'ala. So we'll recite this story inshallah and look at what it is that Allah subhana wa ta'ala wants us to emulate in our lives from these beautiful stories because again Allah doesn't give us stories for the sake of saying mashallah that was an excellent story. Allah gives you and I these stories in the glorious Quran to associate them with us to put them on the forefront about what it is that we can do and achieve and how Allah subhana wa ta'ala is always with us and he will bless us even through our hardships and he will grant us a way out of that thing. You may be facing scrutiny young people amongst your parents and you feel like you can't overcome what it is that they want you to do. A lot of times the young people feel like they aren't heard when they try to speak to their parents. They feel this disconnect and as a parent sometimes we have lost our ways and what is our true responsibility in relation to our children. And the one who was speaking to you here now definitely falls short of that. But there's a responsibility that we have parents and I want to ask you this. There was a point in time in your life when your baby was born. When they cried, you get up in the middle of the night and you answer to their calls of distress. You listen to them and you were observed and you will observe them and you will be present about their complaints because they were crying. But what has happened today now that they have grown in age and that they actually have a voice? Have we stopped listening to their complaints and what it is that they go through because there are words that are coming from them and perhaps those words don't sit right with us or maybe there are some words that we don't necessarily like or some actions that they may be subjected to or that they have done that displeases us. So now there's a barrier between us and our child and effectuating good communication to try to help them out regarding issues of their dean and everything that they're faced with inside of this society. The first thing that pulled our father Adam and his wife Haw may Allah subhana t be be pleased with them both was what? Advertisements brothers and sisters. The shaitan was the first advertisement and he tells them he calls to them and this is how it ends up getting to the youth. The youth are very impressionable and there's things that they want to do. So when they see something that they want and especially when it calls them, you expect them to just do the most perfect thing, but they are human beings. And then also if you're not living upon the sunnah of the of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and you're not connected with your glorious Quran in order to help your child out given the circumstance that they're living in they fall short and they become harmed within the process because you don't properly understand your religion and the context in which your youth are living within. I can tell you there have been many of the young people who I deal with on a day-to-day basis. There's a young brilliant man who comes to me. He came to me crying and he spoke to me and told me that he wanted to commit suicide. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala forgive us and protect us. Because he feels so caged within his own household that he can't speak and express himself to his parents about what it is that he's going through. I tell you something. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has told us that this dean started off as something that was strange and it will go back to being something that is strange. And I want to ask you all, are you content with allowing that strangeness to come back to our dean? Are you content with being a part of that strangeness? Because America says, for example, when the young man or young woman is interested in getting married, if they are 17, 18, 19 years old, it's considered young in the west. So the rest of society says, "Oh, what? That's weird of you. You would like to get married. How backwards." Yet the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, "If the young person is able to get married, then they should be married. And if they aren't are unable to, then they should fast." parents, how many of you have had these conversations with your with your youth? How many of you know about your the relationships that your children may be having outside? And if they were, would you just solely be become upset or would you forget that they actually have a fra that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has created within them and they are entitled to certain rights to be able to fulfill themselves so they don't feed the beast that already lies within them? Are you helping them aid them against their own selves? Or it's because you've been so conditioned by what the West says. No honey, no son. Go to college first. Then get your degree. Then you know what? Do some more extra schooling. Earn your masters. Then get a home. So while they're in their adulthood, their young adulthood, 5 years pass, 10 years pass, whatever the case is, what do you think they're doing in between that regarding their nature? What do you think is what what are they thinking about? And are you an actual good avenue that they can come to to express themselves and how they're feeling? Or do you become upset because you weren't doing that within your time? Or are you so ostracized in your way of thinking that because culture tells you to behave a certain way of your own background that you say, "No, this is how we do it within our culture and our family and this is the way that we go." Or do you actually follow the way of sallallahu alaihi wasallam? Because society says marrying young is strangers. Some of you probably get the heebie-jebies when you hear me say young people marry me. Some of you will probably say, you know what, don't listen to that brother. That's strange. This is the way of sallallahu alaihi wasallam. So if you got a problem, it's you. It's not sudden. Young people are faced with if they have cell phones, the scrutiny and all the advertisements that go in there to tell them to have relationships that aren't in the way of Allah subhana wa ta'ala to spend their time and to waste it. And these young people are becoming less and less of what a true human being is supposed to be. And we see it right before our very eyes. People would rather connect on a cell phone or through TV screens and monitors rather than to be with each other in person. This is how weird in reality our society has become. But I do digress. I would like to relate to you young people about why is it important and what is your responsibility before Allah subhana wa ta'ala to live an upright life? Because although you face all of these hardships and these difficulties and how the society is is pulling at your attention, you still must remain upright. It doesn't give you a pass to say, "Hey, because I have a cell phone and I'm scrolling here and I happen to see the opposite gender that I don't have to lower my gaze." Or the fact that I wish to get married, you know what? I can keep my gaze up because hey, no one else is helping me get out of this situation. I'm now going to relate to you the story of and you will see how Allah subhana wa ta'ala will bless you especially in your youth because Allah subhana wa ta'ala knows what you are up against. But if you remain firm within your dean, if you stay connected with the mosque, if you surround yourself with actual Muslims and good people, you will find yourself in a much more protected state just like these young people. a regime. What do these young people do when times were very hard against them and society was pressuring them to follow what society says. But they know that this goes against the way of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. There were two young groups who happened to run away at the same exact time and they ran to seek refuge. Firstly by doing what is called physically doing some type of worship to show Allah subhana wa tala that they are trying to be obedience of him and that was physically by running to a cave. When they ran to this cave and they came together, they made dua which was the next step regarding whatever issue that they were facing. They pleaded to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Oh Allah, we have come here seeking refuge from uh in you away from what the people on the outside is encouraging us to. So please show us some type of mercy in our desperate situation and find for us a way out. I want you to parallel that to yourself in your lives and whatever your constricted situation is. Allah subhana wa ta'ala can help you out of there. But you have to be able to take the means first and then you must have tawuckled in Allah that he will bless you through that means in which you took young people. If you just think that you're going to somehow just only make dua and it goes away, then you have lied to yourself. This is what Allah wants from you. Continuing the young people or Allah subhana wa ta'ala says this for shallow. What now happens? A miracle manifests before these young people. When they made this dua to Allah subhana t seeking refuge within him and then they made dua, Allah says then he covered them with a type of sleep for a number of years. And some of the tapas here it is said that they were asleep for 300 years. And this is a miracle. So Allah subhana wa ta'ala can do anything as he tells tells us in the glorious Quran. When you wake up on the day of judgment, you're going to say it's only as if we lived for one morning and slept one night and now we happen to be here on this day. So imagine what is 300 years. Time is nothing to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. He can make anything manifest. So he covered them with a sleep. He covered their ears with a type of sleep. Kept their eyes open and would turn them side to side so they didn't get bed sores as they rested. Allah subhana wa ta'ala then allowed them to awake. So then that they can have a conversation between themselves to estimate about how long have they been sleeping. So between these two groups who are with each other, some of them estimated we've only slept maybe a few hours. Some of them say no, it's probably been a day or so. And so they didn't realize what was their actual condition until what? They came up with a plan to take some money of one of the youths and to go out into the city. The rest of the group told the one who was brave enough to go out to the city, hey, make sure you don't let yourself known by the people, okay? When you go and spend this money because how hungry we are, make sure you stay covert. All right? Stay on the low. So when they did this, the young man ends up finding out that they were in a totally new and different time. And these people became so venerated that Allah subhana wa ta'ala even mentions them in the glorious Quran. And that's why he relates the story to them based off of the efforts whilst in their youth. They put forth that effort, that valiant effort to show Allah subhana wa ta'ala that we don't succumb and fall to the pressures of what society tells us to do. We follow the way of you, oh Allah, and we seek your protection and we rely upon you young people. That's why your parents, if they are able to, and why they put you in Islamic schools, why they sign you up for Sunday school, why do they benefit you and tell you and teach you about stories? You have to be a person who uses your intellect whilst you are young so that you can benefit now and even more so in your future. But you have to take heed, especially when you're young. When you implement these teachings into your life, Allah subhana wa ta'ala will grant you answers and openings from places that you could never expect and that's for us who is even of middle age and even elder age. Continuing Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us that he gives us this story in truth and surely that these were a young group of people. They weren't some what we call as teenagers today like 18 and 19 years old. They were even much younger than that. And some of the tapas even around the ages of 14, 15, and 16 years old, right when the youth hit puberty. So Allah is showing you, no, you don't wait until you get older. As if an angel came to you and say, "Hey, young man, you're going to pass around uh the age of 45 uh March 14th, God forbid." No one ever came to you young people and said that there's a specific time and when you're going to return to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. And Allah loves the young people who are worshipful and beautiful to him. It is said that the prophet the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says that on the day of judgment there will be seven types of people who will only be covered with the shade of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. You know what one of those are? Is a young person who were very um astute in their relationship to Allah subhana wa ta'ala and implementing his rights as a as a youth because Allah knows the difficulty of how it is to be a a youth and have all of these desires yet you keep yourself onto the path and you implement what you know that you have been taught from your dean. Finishing up this story, these youths they come to a conclusion amongst one another when they were raised and elevated within their city and for later uh for uh centuries years later for even the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to be asked about them. Allah subhana wa ta'ala uh elevated them within their lives by the people um uh helping them out. They even built a sanctuary regarding them and even buried them inside of that cave in which they lived in because they were a sign of Allah. They became an example for the rest of creation for the rest of eternity. So what can happen for you young people for living just an upright life trying to remain patient. I can tell you this right now. Every older person in here would wish that they were in your shoes. You can look at your fathers right now. The young ladies, you can look at your mothers right now. They would wish to exchange their youth. They would rather give you their old age in exchange for you with with with your youth. I promise you. But what you have to do is take advantage of your youth in the best way. And parents, you need to help encourage your children and you need to feed them al Islam. You need to feed them truth. Young people, you need to be receptible to that truth. You need to show honor to your parents and try to invite that into your life and try to understand too where they're coming from. But parents, you have to be able to understand your youth and know what it is that they're going through. It takes two. It takes both sides within a relationship. Alhamdulillah. I have said my first speech. I seek the forgiveness of Allah subhana wa ta'ala for myself and for you all and for the entirety of the Muslim ummah. So take this time right now to reorient yourself to the way of Allah subhana wa ta'ala and his messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and know that he is the all forgiving, the most merciful. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, we're short on time. The last thing that I will like to remind all of the parents in here about and also for the youth, the way that you are raising your children, just like how your parents raised you with all of the traumas that you suffer from and how much of that do you invite onto your children, that same cycle is going to continue to happen for the rest of your lineage even when you are dead and gone. You and I have to understand that there's a responsibility in which the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam has told us in an authentic hadith that the man is a shepherd and he will be asked about his flock in which he was supposed to take care of meaning his wife and his household his children. He also says to the women that you are all shepherds as well of your husband's household and of his children. Are you effectuating change by looking up to the blessed and virtuous women that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has sent to you being the wives of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam first and foremost or do you just follow the standard norm of what society says as well because there's responsibility on you sisters and that's for you to look up to the best of examples within the best of women that were sent to this nation Allah will ask you and will question us as men and women about our youth and how did we spend that? Allah will ask us about the education that we received and how did we implement that into our lives. There are four questions in which no slave of Allah subhana wa ta'ala their feet will be able to move on the day of judgment until they answer those. And what does it mean to be responsible? Responsible means that yes, you have responsibilities, but you are able to provide an adequate response regarding that thing in which you were left in charge of. So parents, just because your children are grown doesn't mean that the relationship must be uh can remain broken. You and I have to learn to lessen our egos and the same for you as children. Effectuate change or good change in your household by learning to see brothers and sisters. If you don't know the way and life of your prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, then you will never affect change. And that's the whole purpose of why we're even here in America. We're supposed to ones we're supposed to be the ones that inculcate change and affect and affectuate people. But if we're not implementing these things into the microcosm of society, which is the household, which then affects the larger society, the greater microcosm, then what are we doing? So it starts with you, not what others and what they must be doing in order to make change. It starts with you and your heart. It starts with you and your connection to suham. And you can judge that based on yourself. You know if you know any of the s of the prophet you know how connected you are to the Quran or not. So I challenge you to challenge yourselves to become a better person in your households. And that's where society will actually change. That's when we start stop seeing all this oppression that is happening because the oppression first happened inside the household. That's why these same people are carrying it out onto other people. Be the change that you want to see. Alhamdulillah. Oh Allah, we ask that you guide us in your straight path and that you forgive us of our sins and our wrongdoings and that you make us people uh who are astute within regarding this religion and implementers of this beautiful dean. Oh Allah, we ask that you encourage us in our hearts to to want to be of the way of the righteous. Oh Allah, like the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and his companions. Oh Allah, we ask that you make us people who are not afraid of strangeness. That we don't take what society says and then we follow what they say because we feel some type of pressure. We ask that you make us real men and real women who stand up for this for Islam and for truth for righteousness. We must be a community brothers and sisters. You want to know how you know what last thing that I must say. How are we going to in inculcate beautiful change within our communities if we don't even know each other? How many beautiful marriages can happen from within this community right here? How many people are at our reach right now in our disposal for benefit but we don't come together to actually learn each other? This is how communities actually affected change. They knew each other. They knew the nearby scholars. They knew the people within the community the the families and they got with each other. So they they had this familiarity and they didn't put their children in these very desperate and difficult situations. May Allah subhana ta forgive us and guide us to the best of of this life and the next. May Allah forgive us for all of our trans uh our transgressions and be merciful on us. Oh Allah, because we have simply tried, oh most merciful of those who show mercy, we ask that you relieve the oppression around the world that are happening to our Muslim brothers and sisters and humanity in general who are suffering mentally, physically, and spiritually. Oh Allah, and if your your decree is for them to go through what it is, may you allow us to understand that, to have patience, and grant them a beautiful patience in bearing that and strength, oh Allah, and grant them. We ask that you grant us the best of what it is that we have asked for and the best of what it is that we may have forgotten. Allah subhana wa ta'ala commands you and I to doing good deeds, to join them in the most upright way and to giving to those who are around us, whether that be a smile, whether that be some help, whether that be charity. And he forbids you and I from three things. That which is shameful, blameworthy, and oppressive. He teaches you and I so that we may take heed and that we benefit ourselves. Young people, take heed. Don't let these words pass through one ear and out the other. Know that Allah subhana wa ta'ala loves you and he loves especially the fact that you are young and that you worship him in the correct manner in which you are supposed to. Mention Allah subhana wa ta'ala the grand much and he shall surely mention and remember you and I and thank him much for what it is that he has given us and he will give us even more.