1. I’m going to tell you a story… probably one you’ve already heard many times
before. But I’m going to tell it again because I think this is a story can present you
with a new lesson every time you read it.
The story is about one of my favourite Prophets/Messengers – Musa (as), and it
is the story of his that is mentioned in the surah we recite every Friday: Surat al-
Kahf.
So the story goes, Musa (as) finds out that there is a person who has been given
special knowledge and wisdom from Allah, more than what he has been given, so
he travels the sea to search for this man. When he finds him, he asks if he can
accompany this man on his travels. The man says to him “You will not be able to
be patient with me, and how will you be patient over what you have no
knowledge of?” so Musa responds “You will find me, by the will of Allah, patient”
to which the wise man gives a condition; Musa (as) can accompany him as long
as he does not ask about anything until the man himself explains it. Musa (as)
agrees and they head off.
The first thing that happens is, they get on a boat and this man makes a hole in
the boat. Musa (as) looks at him, bewildered, and says, “Did you make a hole in it
so that you can drown its people? You have done something that makes no
sense!” The man turns to Musa and says “Did I not tell you that you will not be
able to have patience with me?” Musa (as) apologises for his forgetfulness and
they head off again.
Then they pass by a boy, and the man kills the boy. Musa (as), not being able to
hold back the shock says, “Did you kill an innocent life for no reason? You have
truly done something evil” The man turns to Musa “Did I not tell YOU that you
will not be able to be patient with me?” Musa (as) asks the man to give him one
last chance, if he asks again, then there is no excuse and the man is free to leave
Musa.
Now they have been travelling for a very long time at this point, imagine the
prophet Musa (as) and a man that has even more knowledge than Musa, tired
and hungry and neither have anything on them. So they see a village and they ask
its residents for some food. The people of the village refuse and they are turned
away. As they are about to leave the village, the 2 men pass a wall that is about to
collapse, so the wise man builds it up straight. Now Musa (as) doesn’t ask a
question, really, but he gives a cheeky side comment “if you wanted you know,
you could’ve been paid for that.”
So the man turns to Musa and says this is a separation between you and me, but
before you leave, Musa, I will tell you what you couldn’t be patient over.
“Firstly the boat, it belonged to poor people and I wanted to damage it, because
you see, there was a king behind them who was taking boats left, right and
centre. So if he saw their boat was damaged, he wouldn’t take it. Now, the poor
people can fix a hole but if the whole boat is taken away how will they survive?

2. As for the boy, he had righteous believing parents, and from the Knowledge that
Allah has given me, I knew that this boy would grow to be an evil oppressing
person, so We wanted to take that son of theirs away and replace him with
another that is better and more merciful to his parents.
As for the wall, it belonged to 2 orphans in the village and underneath it was a
treasure for them, and their father was a good man, so Allah willed that they
would reach a strong age so they could retrieve their treasure themselves, by His
mercy.
That is what you couldn’t be patient about, O Musa”
Now I was thinking about this story and its relevance to our lives, surely if Allah
has asked us to read it every single Friday there must be a reason? But if you
think about it, there is not going to be anyone that will be given this amount of
knowledge and wisdom anymore – no one can claim that they know whether a
child will end up being evil or not. So what’s the point of this story?
In order to understand it in another light, I did something radical – I took out the
main characters – Musa (as) and the Man who was given special wisdom (!). I
know, who do I think I am. But bear with me, I’ll explain.
So I’m going to go through the 3 scenarios again, this time without either of the
characters.
Imagine you are the poor person on that boat – the boat is your livelihood, all
you have. Now, one day a hole appears on the boat. What thoughts could pass
into your head? “Ya Allah, I’m poor already! And now my only source of
livelihood is damaged! Ya Allah why me?!”
But what did you not know? You didn’t know that there was a king behind you
who was taking every boat he saw, and the only reason he left your boat alone is
BECAUSE it had a hole in it.
Now, lets apply this to our everyday life, a disaster happens, to you or your
family, and it’s a big blow and you don’t understand why it’s happening to you.
But maybe what you didn’t know is that this disaster was the reason you avoided
a bigger calamity. Maybe Allah allowed this thing to happen to you, so that
something worse misses you.
Onto the next situation, imagine you are the parents of this boy, and this boy is
killed. As a parent, how would you feel? You would feel broken, like you want to
die – losing a chid is one of the most painful things that parents can go through,
parents would give their lives up for their children. But what did you not know?
You didn’t know that he would grow up and become oppressive and evil and
treat you in a painful way. The main lesson that I think we can derive from this
story is that, sometimes Allah takes something away from you FOR YOUR OWN
GOOD. I’m not only speaking about people, just anything that means a lot to you,
all of your life savings for example. Maybe your savings being taken away all of a
sudden is for your own benefit, maybe Allah knew that that money would
corrupt you. Or maybe you lost a parent, now this doesn’t mean that Allah took
away your parent because they would become evil – no, but maybe, for example,
Allah knew that if they had stayed longer, you would have wronged them in

3. some way and so Allah took them away before that could happen, For your own
benefit.
The third scenario, imagine you are one of the orphans and you have literally lost
everything. Now, there is a treasure waiting for you, why doesn’t Allah give you it
straight away? Surely that would help? No, Allah knows that at that point, you
are too young so he makes you wait until you are ready and strong enough to use
it in a wise way. Now lets apply this to our lives, you have perhaps been waiting
for something to happen for a long time, or you’ve been making duaa for
something for as long as you can remember, or you’ve been working for
something and its just not working out. I want you to remember this story. Allah
did not give the orphans their treasure until they were ready. You are not ready,
even if you think you are, even if you think that it will make everything better.
Allah will give it to you once He knows you can handle it.
Ultimately the Man in this story was a character that Allah swt placed for us to
better understand His Wisdoms.
And despite all these gems, each being better than the other, by far the main
lesson we learn from this story is something that the Wise Man kept repeating to
Musa (as) “innaka lan tastatee’a ma’iya sabraa” – “You will not be able to be
patient with me.” We are impatient.
We need to learn to be patient; Allah is the best of planners, is he not? Let us
learn from Musa (as)’s mistake of being too quick to comment on situations and
reach conclusions, let us be a little more patient and Allah, eventually, will reveal
to us the wisdoms behind whatever we are going through.
And that, my friends, is why Allah wants us to read this story every single Friday.