Surah Al Kahf- Ayah 32

Assalam o Alaikum 

Shab-e-Juma Mubarak. This Juma, let's seek protection of Allah swt from all the evil particularly the evil carnate, Al Jajjal (The King Deceiver). A polite reminder to recite whole or at least first/ last ten Ayahs of Al Kahf on this day and if possible understand its message. 

With today's Ayah 32, begins fifth Rukuh or should we say 5th Speech of The King of Heavens and Earth to us the earthlings. It also marks the beginning of second story of Al Kahf i.e. The Men of Two Gardens.

Important point to note is that the first story was about a society where Oneness (Tauheed) of Allah swt was under attack by polytheism. Our heroes, The Kahf Boys stood up to it and became eternal. 

There are interesting parallels in all four stories of Al Kahf with our times. In our times, along with polytheism (in few parts of the world), atheism has emerged as a serious challenger to Monotheism. We are into great struggle with atheism and the second big challenge, humanity came to confront with is materialism. We are at the peak of this pandemic and second story of Al Kahf is about materialism. Wait for next few Ayahs for this story to pick its pace. It will captivate and blow you away. More interestingly, this story is about people of faith. No wonder, Ka’b ibn ‘Iyad reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, every nation has a trial, and the trial of my nation is wealth (materialism).”

Coming over to today's Ayah, wherein Allah swt addressing Prophet PBUH asked to tell the story of two men. One of them was granted vineyard surrounded by palm trees (like a fence). And between the gardens there were crops of grains. How explicit, how brief and yet detailed is the description of these gardens by the Creator of all story tellers.

Two pints to keep note of: firstly, everything is granted to us by Allah's accord and we can't claim to have earned anything in this world including life, health and wealth. Secondly, in this particular case, the bounties are abundant. Two gardens rich with fruits and grains. Pretty much a dream estate. And remember that last Rukuh ended with the description Allah's eternal Eden Gardens. Difference between the both gardens is crazy interesting. Gardens of this world are 'granted' and are temporary whereas the gardens (Jannah) of the next world are 'earned' and are permanent. Gardens or Blessings of this world are a test and the gardens of the next world are a reward of this test.

May Allah we pass this test to earn those permanent gardens. Ameen