Summary: السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته<br> Assalam o' Alikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu<br> الحمد لله رب العالمين ، والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين و على آله واصحابه اجمعين ثم ام بعد آمين<br> Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin, Wassalatu Wassalam Ala Ashrafil Ambiai Wal Mursalin Wa Ala Aalihi Wa Assahbihi Ajmain summa Amma Baad. Ameen<br> <br> So I am not gonna talk about my topic. So I just wanna let you know ahead of time. So everybody is okay with that. In sha’ Allah. It is a wonderful topic but you know in these kinds of opportunities, I rather get some specific messages across that I think are relevant to youth that I don’t get to talk about in other forums. In sha’ Allah oTa’ala. So these 20 minutes may be at the most 25 minutes or so that I have, I am gonna talk about just some specific lessons from Ashab-ul-Kahf or highlight some things and discuss some things that I feel very strongly are missing in Muslim discourse especially which has to do with our youth.<br> First thing I am going to talk about is the cultural onslaught. The first thing we will take from the people of cave, Ashab-ul-Kahf, is that they drew themselves away from a dominant culture. They pulled themselves away when they saw that there was overwhelming evil and they had no way of escaping that culture and actually the verdict was given that they were to be executed as a result of their faith, they pulled themselves out of that culture. And one of the most important things to draw from that for ourselves is until our life is in danger we have to engage in society. It is only when their lives were actually threatened that these young men left society. That they, you know, withdrew towards the cave, because their actual lives were in danger.<br> Muslims cannot have the attitude that we are not going to engage in society and some how everything outside is a fitna and we have to protect ourselves and we have to shelter ourselves and the only way that we are gonna keep our faith is if we keep guarding ourselves totally shunning ourselves from the outside world. This is, this attitude actually means we already accepted defeat, because at the end of the day that attitude means defects. That attitude means that everybody else is attacking us and we gotta save ourselves and pull back and stay strong within our fort etc. But the entire idea of Islam being the truth, the imagery that Allah presents of Islam, you know, Allah ’Azzwajal says, you know that Allah hurls..<br> بَلۡ نَقۡذِفُ بِٱلۡحَقِّ عَلَى ٱلۡبَـٰطِلِ فَيَدۡمَغُهُ<br> Bal naqzifu bil haq qi alal ba_tili fayadmauhu (21:18)<br> That We hurl the truth against falsehood. Allah gives the image - truth being a weapon, and falsehood being the victim of that weapon running away. And the truth attacking falsehood and falsehood being on the run so who is on the offence and who is on the defence, who is actually questioning the wrong that’s happening in society and engaging with it and saying we are here to change things and who is actually supposed to go into hiding and supposed to hide behind shelter - that’s supposed to be falsehood. So the mentality of the Muslims generally, especially of Muslim youth, isn’t supposed to be I have to save myself but actually I have to engage and I have to help the world become a better place. That’s the first thing I wanna get across.<br> The second thing I wanna get across is Allah ’Azzawajal usually does not do this. He usually does not highlight the age of people when he talks about them. He doesn’t normally do that. We don’t learn the age of Musa (a.s.) when he went to the mountain, we don’t learn about that. Very rarely does He do that, like for example Allah ’Azzawajal talks about Musa (a.s.) when he became a mature adult or when Yusuf (a.s.) became a mature adult.<br> وَلَمَّا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ<br> Walamma balagha ashuddahu. (12:22)<br> Their ages are talked about. But usually the peoples ages not mentioned,
