You Might be Destroying Yourself with this
While studying أصْحَابُ الْكَهَف (People of the Cave), the STRANGE THING that you come to know is that when they wake up from their deep sleep after 300 years, they are SERIOUSLY CONCERNED that if they go outside and are seen by the disbelievers, they would make them RETURN TO THEIR OLD RELIGION.
The reason why this is strange is that أصْحَابُ الْكَهَف were the people about whom Allah mentioned two things in particular:
- We increased them in Hidayah (وَ زِدْنٰهُمْ هُدٰي )
- We made their hearts strong (firm) (وَ رَبَطْنَا عَلَي قُلُوْبِهِمْ )
So, their FAITH WAS SO STRONG that they left their LUXURIOUS HOMES and settled in a CAVE for only one thing – THEIR FAITH.
More importantly, this is not just some random human being commenting on this. This is ALLAH saying about them.
Then the QUESTION ARISES why after being so FIRM IN THEIR RELIGION, they still are SERIOUSLY CONCERNED that if they are seen by the disbelievers, they would make أصْحَابُ الْكَهَف RETURN TO THEIR OLD RELIGION?
Allah tells us in the Quran about this incident.
“And similarly, we awakened them that they might question one another. Said a speaker from among them “How long have you remained (here)? They said: “We have remained here for a day or a part of a day”. They said: “Your Lord is most knowing of how long you remained. So send one of you with this silver coin of yours to the city and let him look to which is the best of the food and bring you provision from it and let him be cautious “If they (disbelievers) see you (أصْحَابُ الْكَهَف), they would stone you (to death) or they would make you return to their religion.”
STOP! REFLECT!
Despite of being so strong in their faith, they were still so concerned about their environment because they knew that
NO MATTER HOW STRONG YOU ARE, THE ENVIRONMENT CAN STILL HIT YOU!
The environment can still shake your faith! The effect of environment is so strong that it can make you change your religion even if you are very strong in your faith.
That is why Our Prophet ﷺ told us in his hadith
الرَّجُلُ عَليَ دِيْنِ خَلِيْلِهِ فَلْيَنْظُرْ أَحَدُكُمْ مَنْ يُخَالِلُ
الترمزي 2378 ، سنن ابي داؤد 4833
“A man is on the religion of his friend, so each one of you should consider, whom he makes his friend.” (Tirmizi 2378, Abu Dawood 4833)
What do we learn? We learn that
NO MATTER HOW STRONG YOU ARE IN YOUR FAITH, THE EFFECT OF COMPANY AND THE ENVIRONMENT IS SO STRONG THAT DESPITE OF YOU BEING FIRM ON YOUR FAITH, YOU CAN SLIP. That too, to the extent that you can change your religion.
DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH DANGER YOU ARE IN FROM YOUR ENVIRONMENT?
Now here is the question!
ARE YOU MINDFUL OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT?
- YOUR friends
- People who YOU spend time with
- The videos YOU watch online
- The movies YOU watch
- The TV dramas and seasons YOU watch
- The MUSIC you listen to
- The kind of books YOU read
- etc.
Why do WE think WE are not affected by OUR environment? Why do WE consider OURSELVES IMMUNE from all of this? Why do WE believe that this can never happen to US.
WE know that OUR FAITH cannot match THEIR FAITH who were increased by Allah in guidance and whose hearts were made strong by Allah, then how can we consider ourselves immune.
So here are the takeaways:
- ANALYZE your environment.
- KNOW that they are affecting you in fact have already affected you.
- ISOLATE yourself and know your true self, what are your own thoughts then you’ll be able to better know what are your real thoughts and to what extent have you been affected by your environment.
- REPLACE the bad influences with the good ones.
May Allah make us conscious of our environment and protect us from all the bad influences that we recognize and we don’t. Jazak Allah Khair!
