The Cave of Freedom

Occasion: A summary of a Friday khutbah delivered at the AIA Masjid on August 21, 2026, amid talk of the birth of the Prophet ﷺSource: A transcription of a video khutbah by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTubeEditor's note: This text summarizes what could be established from the lecture and is not a verbatim transcript; no explanation that was not in the lecture has been added.

Young men whom life had not yet tested and who had not yet tested it, with no wealth, no rank and no weapons in their hands; they had nothing they owned except that they knew they had a God, and that what was around them was not right. So they took refuge in the cave. These are the free ones on whom the khaṭīb chose to build a khutbah he named “The Cave of Freedom.”

Why the prophets were sent

The shaykh began by asking about the purpose Allah intended in sending His Prophet ﷺ and the prophets before him. The great aim in our life is that we worship Him: ﴿وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ﴾ (“And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me”) [al-Dhāriyāt: 56]. If the direction of worship deviates toward other than Him, there is a danger that needs urgent rescue efforts, so the prophet comes to tell the community that there is no god but Allah, and to turn its hearts and minds back to the One, the Unique.

The place of al-Kahf between al-Isrāʾ and Maryam

Then he looked at the position of Sūrat al-Kahf in the muṣḥaf. People notice that it is in the middle of the Qur'an, but the khaṭīb pointed out that it lies between the sūrahs of al-Isrāʾ and Maryam. Al-Isrāʾ, in his reading, is the sūrah of movement for the whole society, a horizontal movement that human beings are capable of. And Maryam is a spiritual reference point. Between them is al-Kahf: movement, but in safety, as though it were the cave that shelters all of humanity, and that is Islam.

Four shackles, and their root is one

What is the liberation called for that Sūrat al-Kahf speaks about? People say: we must be liberated from power, represented by the story of the People of the Cave; from wealth, which dominates the souls of its owners until its owner says: ﴿مَا أَظُنُّ أَن تَبِيدَ هَٰذِهِ أَبَدًا﴾ (“I do not think this will ever perish”) [al-Kahf: 35]; and from knowledge and its authority; and then comes strength, represented by the story of Dhū al-Qarnayn.

But the shaykh invited us to turn the page: instead of looking at these, let us look at ourselves, we who submit to these powers. And he asked: can we not be liberated from the fear that is deep within us? The one perched over your head, controlling your fate, did that only because he was certain that you are captive to something greater, and that is fear. If you come out of this dependence and cut the ropes of fear surrounding the heart and the mind, then you are free to say “yes” and to say “no.”

Young men who owned nothing but certainty

And since the matter was not easy, Allah set forth for us an example in a group of young men, free from fear. What tools did they have in their hands? Nothing, except that they inwardly rejected what was, and so they took refuge in the cave: ﴿فَضَرَبْنَا عَلَىٰ آذَانِهِمْ فِي الْكَهْفِ سِنِينَ عَدَدًا﴾ (“So We struck upon their ears within the cave for a number of years”) [al-Kahf: 11], ﴿وَلَبِثُوا فِي كَهْفِهِمْ ثَلَاثَ مِائَةٍ سِنِينَ وَازْدَادُوا تِسْعًا﴾ (“And they remained in their cave for three hundred years and exceeded by nine”) [al-Kahf: 25].

Whatever the number, it shows us that Allah changes the world around the one who wants to change. Was there a confrontation between these young men and the dominant authority? There was not. And when they returned, they found the world different, the landmarks different and the currency different. Allah knew their intention, their resolve and their initial movement, and so He changed things on their behalf, even though they were asleep in the cave.

A Book without crookedness

Then he returned to the opening of the sūrah: ﴿الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَنزَلَ عَلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَل لَّهُ عِوَجًا ۜ قَيِّمًا لِّيُنذِرَ بَأْسًا شَدِيدًا مِّن لَّدُنْهُ وَيُبَشِّرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ الَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُمْ أَجْرًا حَسَنًا﴾ (“Praise be to Allah, who has sent down upon His servant the Book and has not made therein any crookedness, straight, to warn of severe punishment from Him and to give good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that they will have a good reward”) [al-Kahf: 1-2]. That crookedness which dominates our conduct, our conditions, our patterns of thought and our standards of awareness, and which exists inside homes, factories, companies and partnerships, there is none of it in this Qur'an. And «قيِّمًا» (“straight”) stands opposite crookedness: what is the role of the Qur'an in your life? It straightens what is crooked in your behaviour^[1].

And he drew attention to His words: «بأسًا شديدًا من لدنه» (“severe punishment from Him”), which is more precise than «عنده». And he linked two closely related verses: in al-Isrāʾ, ﴿إِنَّ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ يَهْدِي لِلَّتِي هِيَ أَقْوَمُ وَيُبَشِّرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ الَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُمْ أَجْرًا كَبِيرًا﴾ (“Indeed, this Qur'an guides to that which is most upright and gives good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that they will have a great reward”) [al-Isrāʾ: 9]. Here it is «حسنًا» (“good”) and there «كبيرًا» (“great”). He held that the goodness sought here is the goodness of life in its entirety when the Qur'an governs it, and that the word “great” and the magnification of the reward suit the psychology of those receiving the Qur'an there, whose concern was money. And that a claim of faith alone is not enough: there must be «الذين يعملون الصالحات» (“who do righteous deeds”).

The disposition of the Prophet ﷺ

When Allah the Exalted wanted you to be free, He wanted for you the disposition of the Prophet ﷺ. And what is this disposition? An anguish over the state of the community; he, upon him be blessings and peace, would be stirred at seeing a disbeliever who wants to thrust himself among those who are in the Fire, and he wanted to rescue people with whatever means he had. So Allah says to him: ﴿فَلَعَلَّكَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفْسَكَ عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ إِن لَّمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَٰذَا الْحَدِيثِ أَسَفًا﴾ (“Then perhaps you would destroy yourself with grief over them if they do not believe in this message”) [al-Kahf: 6]. And opposite them are those who went outside the frame of awareness: ﴿وَيُنذِرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدًا ۝ مَّا لَهُم بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ﴾ (“And to warn those who say, ‘Allah has taken a son.’ They have no knowledge of it”) [al-Kahf: 4-5]; when they went outside the circle of knowledge, they deviated.

The owner of the two gardens: behind denial lies fear

Then the Qur'an gives the example. We have four kinds of shackles: power, wealth, knowledge and strength. And the khaṭīb allowed himself to change the wording, and said: fear and anxiety. The owner of the two gardens said: ﴿وَمَا أَظُنُّ السَّاعَةَ قَائِمَةً﴾ (“And I do not think the Hour will occur”) [al-Kahf: 36]. Why does he deny the Hereafter? Because he is afraid of it. And why do we steal, cheat, covet, take bribes and betray? Because deep within us there is a fear of poverty.

As for his companion, whose heart and inner self were at rest with certainty, he said: ﴿أَكَفَرْتَ بِالَّذِي خَلَقَكَ مِن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ سَوَّاكَ رَجُلًا ۝ لَّٰكِنَّا هُوَ اللَّهُ رَبِّي وَلَا أُشْرِكُ بِرَبِّي أَحَدًا﴾ (“Have you disbelieved in He who created you from dust and then from a sperm-drop and then proportioned you as a man? But as for me, He is Allah, my Lord, and I do not associate anyone with my Lord”) [al-Kahf: 37-38], and then: ﴿وَلَوْلَا إِذْ دَخَلْتَ جَنَّتَكَ قُلْتَ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ ۚ إِن تَرَنِ أَنَا أَقَلَّ مِنكَ مَالًا وَوَلَدًا﴾ (“And why did you, when you entered your garden, not say, ‘What Allah willed; there is no power except in Allah’? Although you see me less than you in wealth and children”) [al-Kahf: 39]. The two men's standards of evaluation differ: one is dazzled by what is before his eyes, trees, fruits, land and expanses, and the other is dazzled by what has settled in his heart, and so he looked beyond the figures and events.

And the khaṭīb said that if this mentality is not corrected, we will be able to live only like beasts in pens, fearing that the fodder will run out in front of our mouths, so we panic, snap the ropes and rush across the land, snatching from it whatever we can. That is the behaviour of beasts; human beings have another behaviour. And the overarching frame of reference negates the notion of fear and anxiety: the one who is certain of Allah never thinks that he is destitute, and he knows that what is in his hands, even if little, is much and great, because the giver of blessing is Allah alone.

Knowledge that needs wisdom, and strength that needs a purpose

In the story of knowledge, Moses (peace be upon him) meets a man who has no renown in the world of life, but who has knowledge from Allah. And the shaykh said that knowledge alone is not enough, for Satan had a great deal of knowledge and yet he was a disbeliever. So the people of knowledge must add wisdom, especially in the matter of leadership^[2].

As for strength, it is represented by Dhū al-Qarnayn: ﴿إِنَّا مَكَّنَّا لَهُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَآتَيْنَاهُ مِن كُلِّ شَيْءٍ سَبَبًا ۝ فَأَتْبَعَ سَبَبًا﴾ (“Indeed, We established him upon the earth and gave him to everything a way. So he followed a way”) [al-Kahf: 84-85]. People mostly stop at the granting of strength, but the next step is «فأتبع سببًا» (“So he followed a way”), an indication that he was not content with what he had been given, and did not control people and dominate them, but rather followed a way. And there was no room to complete the talk about him.

The greatest losers in deeds

After the pause between the two khutbahs, he moved to the closing passages of the sūrah, in which there is a sentence often repeated but from which little is derived: ﴿قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُم بِالْأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَالًا ۝ الَّذِينَ ضَلَّ سَعْيُهُمْ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُمْ يُحْسِنُونَ صُنْعًا﴾ (“Say: Shall We inform you of the greatest losers in their deeds? Those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work”) [al-Kahf: 103-104]. He paused at «الأخسرين» (“the greatest losers”) instead of «الخاسرين» (“the losers”). What hurts a man most is to spend great effort and then see that it has been lost. A person may enter a deal in which he loses money and take it lightly, but to spend effort and then see no trace of it, that is grievous. And the strange thing is that they do not see this: he sees himself as the great reformer, the sole possessor of guidance.

So why did the sūrah come, then, if not to redirect people's movement toward what is right? It is as though He says to the community of tawḥīd: you are walking in the wrong direction; redirect yourselves from here. And at the end of the sūrah the conclusion comes in the language of acknowledgement and emphasis: ﴿قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ﴾ (“Say: I am only a man like you”) [al-Kahf: 110]. You must work, but before you do anything, let your first work be the liberation of your heart from the fear of an unjust ruler.

That we pray under pressure

And here he came to our own time: the slogans of Islamophobia and media pressure. And he said: We pray on the plane, in the airport and everywhere, and if we do not find water, we perform tayammum; we will pray under the force of media pressure. These successive, intensifying pressures need inner liberation: you are a Muslim and you have nothing but Islam.

That fear must be pulled out from the depths of souls; and be certain that it is Allah who extends provision and drives it to people according to His knowledge of your need for it, and with Him are the treasuries of the heavens and the earth.

Supplication

And he closed with a supplication: O Allah, teach us what benefits us, and benefit us by what You have taught us. O Allah, we seek refuge in You from the domination of the ignorant. Do not try us in our religion or in our worldly life, and do not make our children a proof against us in this country; rescue them by Your mercy and kindness and make the means of guidance easy for them. O Allah, establish faith firmly in our hearts, make Your remembrance flow on our tongues, and move our minds in the light of what You have commanded us. And he asked for Palestine and its people that Allah support them with help from Him.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Similar is «القَيِّم» in the words of the Exalted: ﴿دِينًا قِيَمًا مِّلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا﴾ (“a correct religion, the way of Abraham, inclining to truth”) [al-Anʿām: 161], and these are the methods of conduct, as the khaṭīb said. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The story of Moses (peace be upon him) with the righteous servant is in Sūrat al-Kahf [al-Kahf: 60-82], and in it: ﴿وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا﴾ (“and We had taught him from Us a knowledge”) [al-Kahf: 65]. As for Satan having had a great deal of knowledge and then disbelieving, that is from the khaṭīb's own words and is not attributed here to any text.