As we all know, the prophet SAW told us to read surah al-Kahf every Friday:
“Whoever reads Soorat al-Kahf on the day of Jumu’ah, will have a light that will shine from him from one Friday to the next.”
(Narrated by al-Haakim, 2/399; al-Bayhaqi, 3/249. Ibn Hajar said in Takhreej al-Adhkaar that this is a hasan hadeeth, and he said, this is the strongest report that has been narrated concerning reading Soorat al-Kahf. See: Fayd al-Qadeer, 6/198. It was classed as saheeh by Shaykh al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’, 6470)
Now I would like to share some lessons I've learnt from lectures I've listened to on the tafsser of surah al-kahf. In this surah, there are four main stories about four different kinds of trials we face in our lives. The first is the trial of faith in the story of the 7 sleepers in the cave, and then there's the trial of wealth in the story of the 2 friends, the 3rd is the trial of knowledge in the story of Moses and Khidr a.s. and the last one is the trial of power in the story of Dhul Qarnayn.
For now, I'll focus on the 3rd story in the surah, the story about the trial of knowledge. There are so many lessons from this story alone, it would be overwhleming for both me and the readership to cover all of it in one post. So I will do it bit by bit, insya Allah.
The story begins:
"And [mention] when Moses said to his servant, "I will not cease [traveling] until I reach the junction of the two seas or continue for a long period."" Al-Kahf (18) verse 60
To understand this story, we need a little background information which we can obtain from the hadiths of prophet SAW on the matter. The whole hadith can be found here, but I will try to summarize the main points. One day Musa was questioned by his people, the Banu Israil as to who was the most knowledgable person on earth. Naturally, Musa said he was, since he was the prophet of the time. Allah however was not happy with this answer of Musa for he had not referred the knowledge to Allah, and so Allah commanded him to look for a servant from among His servants, who had some knowledge which he did not posses and this person could be found at the meeting of the two seas. (There is no need to get bogged down with the details of where these two seas were. Allah did not feel it important for us to know, and so we should just leave it be.)
Thus the story begins with the words of Musa as per the verse above. Perhaps the first lesson we can learn from this is Musa's enthusiasm to seek knowledge. Remember, he was THE prophet of his time, even greater than Khidr. He had no need of Khidr's knowledge because he had far more knowledge than Khidr. If we had been in shoes, we would've just told Allah (Musa is known as kaleemullah since he had the privilege of speaking to Allah directly without the agency of Archangel Jibril aka Gabriel), " O Allah, chill man. What's the big deal. I'm going to jannah anyway. Why the need for all the unnecessary hardwork??" Wal'iyazubillah!
But no, Musa would travel far just to gain some extra knowledge from this other slave of Allah called Khidr (peace be upon them both). He would not miss out on an opporunity to better his current level of knowledge despite him being guaranteed Jannah.
What then is our excuse for being so lazy when it comes to seeking knowledge, especially since most of us sadly, are hardly Jannah material?? Do we expect Allah to pop a book down from the heavens onto our laps while we're watching the latest Korean/japanese/English/Hindi/Spanish soap operas so we can browse through that Divince book while watching the dramas?(I am equally guilty of this *_*)
Knowledge requires hardwork and persistence.Knowledge is the first step towards improving ourselves and our relationship with Allah, for it is only with knowledge will we be able to distinguish right from wrong, deeds which Allah loves from those He despises even if they may seem right and etc. Was not the first word to be revealed 'iqra' which means read?? We should be an ummah of knowledge, for knowledge is power and it is with knowledge that Allah will raise our ranks.
"....And when you are told, "Arise," then arise; Allah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge, by degrees. And Allah is Acquainted with what you do." Al-mujadilah 58:11
May Allah make us of those who read, of those who strive to seek knowledge that is beneficial, to better ourselves and hence the ummah, and ultimately to gain His pleasure. Ameen.
to be continnued bizinillah....
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