A Droplet Of Nectar From Surah Kahf

One of the widely practiced sunan by Muslims today is reciting surah Kahf every Friday.

Narrated by Abu Sa’id 

The Prophet   said, “If anyone recites Surah al-Kahf on Friday, a light will shine brightly for him till the next Friday.” ¹

Apart from the merits the recitation brings; the whole chapter is but a deliverance of priceless guidance for mankind. Each and every verse has been given its own divine inspiration. One particular verse from this surah has been stimulating my inner feelings so much, to the extent I ended up writing this piece of work. I am writing this as a reminder to myself first, and then for the rest.

“Wealth and children are [but] adornment of the worldly life. But the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord for reward and better for [one’s] hope.” (Al Kahf, 18:46)

The above verse talks about the entire journey of life in a nutshell. Allah  Himself says that indeed our properties and children are surely the beatifications of life. We all love to increase ourselves in terms of worldly standards. As humans, we will never get satisfied with worldly possessions even if we were given the whole world. This is our nature. In the same verse, Allah  says that the final thing He would count is the bunch of good deeds we do. In other words, all that matters is the concentration we invest in doing good deeds by fighting worldly temptations.

Abu Huraira  reported Allah’s Messenger  as saying:

“The world is a prison-house for a believer and Paradise for a non-believer.” ²

In the above hadeeth, a parable is made between a prisoner and a believer.

• Prisoners are provided with provision that may be restricted in every aspect.
• They dream and strive for their freedom with patience and prudence. 
• They survive serving their purpose and that necessarily doesn’t mean they enjoy their time. 
• Prisoners obviously don’t live a happy life.

The same is applied to the lives of the believers. We are granted health, wealth, families, financial authorities and many more blessings, which can be attributed to that of limited provisions that are given to prisoners. Just like the prisoners, the believers too should make use of the blessings for the survival but in permitted and good ways without breaching the limits set by Allah .

The disbeliever’s life is compared to that of the life in paradise.

• Paradise gives a person eternal happiness.
• Enjoyment at its peak is guaranteed and none is answerable to anyone in paradise.
• Provisions overflow and anyone can enjoy anything they wish.

This is how disbelievers find this world a paradise, even though this world is not meant to be so. They enjoy the world at its best; as they strongly believe that this life ends in this world once and for all.

If our aim is to suck “only the enjoyments” out of blessings; we would be falling into the latter category of people, to which the world becomes paradise. And that plainly means we will surely lose our faith and become disbelievers na’oodhubillah. If we solely enjoy this worldly life; we would be the losers in the hereafter. If we sacrifice this life, we would insha’Allah be the Muflihoon (The successful)

Yet another verse of the Qur’an reminds us of the same message.

Your wealth and your children are but a trial, and Allah has with Him a great reward. (At Taghabun 64:15) 

I would like to ink some takeaways from this beautiful verse of surah Kahf.

1. We came into this world with nothing. Everything we receive after birth are blessings from Allah. Thus, we own nothing in this world.
2. “Adornments” of life are but temporary beautifiers.
3. Provisions of life are tests from Allah.
4. Worldly possessions are used for life, but life isn’t lived for possessions.
5. “Good deeds” are going to be counted and not “good enjoyment”.
6. We should wisely invest all our possessions in akhirah.

May Allah  nourish our eemaan with this little droplet of nectar, from surah kahf.

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