Now let us continue the story...
"But when they reached the junction between them, they forgot their fish, and it took its course into the sea, slipping away.
So when they had passed beyond it, [Moses] said to his boy, "Bring us our morning meal. We have certainly suffered in this, our journey, [much] fatigue."
He said, "Did you see when we retired to the rock? Indeed, I forgot [there] the fish. And none made me forget it except Satan - that I should mention it. And it took its course into the sea amazingly".
[Moses] said, "That is what we were seeking." So they returned, following their footprints."
Al-Kahf verses 61-64
Allah told Musa a.s. the servant (Khidr a.s.) who was more learned than him could be found at the meeting of the two seas, and that he should take a fish kept in a vessel (it is said that the fish was dead) along with him on the journey. The point where the fish comes back to life and jumps into the sea in a miraculous way is where they will find Khidr a.s.
The journey was long, and as expected, Musa and his servant boy Yusha' ibn Nun, perhaps stopped a couple of times to rest. At one of those rest stops, Yusha' saw the fish jumping into the sea miraculously but did not alert Musa immediately as he was sleeping. Unfortunately, when Musa woke up, Yusha' forgot to inform him of the miracuolous sign, and so they both continued on their journey. They stopped to rest again, some time later and Musa told Yusha' to bring out the food they had prepared for the journey so they can have something to eat before moving on. While Yusha' was taking the food out from his bag, he suddenly remembered that the fish had escaped miraculously way back during the earlier stop. So he tells Musa about this and attributes his forgetfulness to Syaitan. Musa said that was the point at which Khidr was supposed to befound and so they retraced their steps.
There are a couple of lessons we can take from the story thus far. First is that they prepared food for their journey because tawakkul requires effort on our part first. Musa did not just set out on his journey hoping for sustenance to come from the heavens. He got his boy-servant to prepare some food so they could eat and rejuvenate their strength along the way. The seerah of our prophet SAW is full of examples where he did all he could in his capacity as a human being before placing his trust in Allah, in all of his affairs. The true believer doesn't just 'place his trust in Allah without doing anything. That is laziness, not tawakkul. Some even have the audacity to say " Apa nak buat, ini semua takdir..." when in fact they did nothing to prevent the calamity that befell them. The true believer does all he can first, and then places his trust in Allah. Remember Maryam the mother of 'Isa a.s when she was in labour?
"And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates." Maryam 19:25
Subhanallah! She was in labour (see previous verses in your own mushafs for full story), and yet Allah told her to shake the trunk of the date palm tree so the dates would fall down. Shake the date palm tree! Can u imagine telling that to your wife when she is labour?? You'll probably get a tight smack across your face, or maybe a punch. Of course Allah knew she was in no state to shake the trunk of a date palm tree, which is not some small soft stemmed plant believe me! But Allah just wanted to teach her that NOTHING comes for free. Her effort wouldn't have caused the fruits to fall. It was Allah who made the dates fall, but she had to put in some effort first!
Thus Allah says:
"So pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter. And when you have decided, then rely upon Allah . Indeed, Allah loves those who rely [upon Him]." Ali 'imran verse 159
Even when making decisions, one has to first do whatever one can to make an informed decision like consulting others, and then only place one's trust in Allah. Not wait for an angel dressed in white to come down and deliver the answer in a scroll on a platter of gold!
The next lesson is about how forgetfulness is attribtued to Syaiton. This happens twice in the Quran, and the lesson is that we should always seek refuge in Allah from Syaiton if we are of those who frequently forget things (provided one does not have alzheimer's or dementia of course!). A friend has written a short post on this particular subject which you can read here.
And the last lesson for today, is that of Musa's composure upon hearing what Yusha' said. Now imagine for a second if we were in a similar situation. We have walked so far so as to require another round of rest, when a companion says the point we were looking for was at the previous stop we made. I would probably go berserk and shred him to pieces for wasting my time and energy!! But look at how calm Musa was. Not a single word of rebuke. He just said that was the place they were looking for and so they both began to retrace their steps. There was not point whatsoever in blowing up in anger because that wouldn't have changed anything. The mistake was genuine, and anger was not going to solve anything. In fact, it would've made the remainder of the journey very difficult because Yusha' wouldve felt bad for being scolded and Musa would've felt awkward to communicate with him further. Such scenarios often happen in our lives, especially with children. They make mistakes, but there is not point in rebuking them when the mistake was genuine. Instead pardon and forgiveness is always better but certainly more difficult to practice.
I hope this post has been beneficial insya Allah. We will continue the remainder of the story next week insya Allah.
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