Surah Al Kahf- Ayah No 19

Assalam o Alaikum 

Juma Mubarak. Time to recite and understand Al Kahf- the Cave of protection and hope.

Moving to today's Ayah No 19, the scene changes from last Ayah where the Boys were asleep and were being looked after by Allah swt. As per law of sleep, it ends in awakening. For example, our every day sleep, sleep of spirits after taking oath of allegiance (عہد الست) which ended in our awakening in to this world and sleep of death which will end in awakening at the Day of Judgement. Likewise, the Boys also woke up. Their sleep for three centuries along side century old sleep of Uzair AS are two major exceptions to general law of human sleep. In here, laws of physics were suspended by The Creator of physics just to make us understand the concept of awakening in the Hereafter. The Boys took to the Cave because Oneness was being challeged and the first victim of this onslaught is always the faith in Hereafter. Weakening of faith in Hereafter weakens faith in possible accountability. And life becomes a meaningless pastime.

Death remains the greatest human philosophical dilemma. Rather, philosophy fails to fathom death unless it accepts the knowledge of unknown by The Creator of known and unknown. Accepting death as sleep solves the riddle. Death makes us ordinary mortals, whereas, continuation of life after death (in another form) makes us extraordinary immortals. 

Let's get back to our Ayah of the day. So like being  awake from any sleep, the Boys got up unaware of the time they had slept for. As natural reaction, they wanted to know how long they had slept? Again, the Boys carry the day by making a calculated guess of a day or part of it and leaving the matter totally to All Knowing to know how much they had slept. Their level of faith and its manifestation in words, actions and submission was par excellence. No wonder, to this day and in this moment, we talk about them. Now, as it happens when boys hang out, they shift their focus to food. After all, they were mortals laden with immortal sincerity. Look at the fine details. They decide to get food from city and ask for it to be good one along with other provisions. Not only that, they unanimously decide to remain cautious/ polite. Interestingly, this seven alphabets word وليتلطف comes in the center of Quran. More precisely, alphbets ت and ل bifurcate Quran into two equal halves in terms of word count. How amazing, this one word with its nuances becomes complete code of life i.e. be polite and careful. 

May Allah make us polite and careful. Ameen