The Men in the Cave: What Have We Stored Up for the Hard Moment?

Occasion: Transcript of an Isha khatira delivered at Bayt Al-Karim on October 14, 2026 Source: Transcript of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed AbouSeif, watch the original video on YouTube

Tonight, in sha Allah, we go over one of the hadiths of the Prophet ﷺ. He gave us a short story that carries a great deal of benefit.^[1] Perhaps you have heard it before, but we need to remind ourselves where it all ends up, what the last point of it is, as the Prophet ﷺ explained to us.

Three people went out on a journey together. Rain began to fall and they tried to avoid it, and they found a cave. They said they would go in for a few minutes or a few hours, until it stopped, and then either continue or go back. But when they entered, one of the big rocks came down and closed the mouth of the cave. They stayed there, thinking about what to do. They tried to push the rock away, but it would not move.

Stuck without having planned for it

Before continuing the story, I am trying to imagine myself going the normal way to my work, or anywhere, and finding myself in trouble, and that trouble ending my life forever. How many cases have you heard of someone becoming the cause of a crime he never touched, but he happened to be in that place, in that position, and it followed him to the end of his life? Have you heard of such a thing? Imagine my life being stopped, and I did not plan for it.

The first lesson I learn from this: if I am not protected by Allah, nothing in this life can protect me. The only protector I have is Allah, which means He deserves that I be closer to Him than to anything else. Do not think of your money; it can be gone in a minute, in a second. Your children can be far away. Your wife, your home, whatever it is.

They pushed the rock as much as they could, but could not move it even a centimeter. Then one of them said: the only way out of this place is to call upon Allah, and perhaps He will give us a way from Himself. That was the advice of the adviser among them: you will not get out of here unless you make dua with the most sincere thing you ever did.

A pause: what do you have prepared?

At this moment we can stop and review. If we are in a problem right now, what is the thing you already prepared for that time? A hard time needs a solid reserve. Most people save gold at home, so that when they face some difficulty they can sell it and have cash in a second. What is your gold? What do you have stored for when you face a problem, so that you can say to Allah: I did this one for Your sake, and You had no partner in it?

The first man: his parents

The story is long, but in short, the first man said: I had two parents, and I never fed anyone before them, even though I had many children. Once I came back from work, striving all day and still hungry, with my children crying from hunger around my feet, but I would not feed anyone before my parents. One day I came late at the end of the day and found them asleep. I already had the milk in my hand, my children were crying under my feet from hunger, and I could not feed my children before my parents. I stood there until the time of Fajr, until they woke, and I gave them to drink first, and then gave the rest to my children.

I am just asking a humble question: where is his wife? She is not in the story. What kind of wife did that man have, who let him stand through the whole night while her children cried from hunger, and who respected a man who honored his parents and fed them before anyone else? Now I can understand that Allah gives you according to what you are made of. What is your material? Allah will give you the same. If I have a problem with my partner at home, it means I have a problem first. Before blaming anybody else, we need to look at our own shortcomings. What is wrong with me, before I ask what is wrong with the other side?

He finished his dua, and Allah moved the rock a little. They saw it: wow, it works, this way is working.

The second man: his cousin

The second began his dua and told a story about his love for his cousin. He said he loved her more than anyone in the whole world, and used to ask her for something forbidden, and she would refuse and say: fear Allah. Then one time she was in need and came to him to ask for help, for money. He told her: this is the time you need money, and you know what I need from you. She agreed, as he put it, whatever he wanted. And when he was in the position to do it, she said: fear Allah. He said he turned back, though he was in a very different position than before, gave her the money and left her. If I did that for Your sake, release us from this place. Allah moved the rock further, until they could see the sky through the gap. But they still could not go out.

The third man: his worker

The third came with a different kind of action. He said he had people working for him, and each of them took his due except one. Imagine we have workers and give them, what is it called, the minimum wage? That man said it was not enough, and he left everything and went away. The employer took that amount and started investing it until it grew into a huge value. After a while, the man came and said: do you remember me? Yes, I remember you, what do you need? I am in need, I need anything, even the amount of money I did not take before. The employer said: see that valley? Yes. It is for you, it is yours. Are you making fun of me? No, it is yours: I invested your amount and it became all of that. The man took everything and left nothing behind, not even a word of thanks. If I did that for Your sake, release us. And Allah moved the rock for them until they were free.

Three questions

The first question I asked myself and my brothers, and sisters too: what are we hiding in our safe, our treasure? Do you have a safe at home, at work, where you keep papers and things nobody touches? What is in there? Nothing? Alhamdulillah. Anyway, the first question I ask myself and my brothers and sisters: what do we have in our safe for a situation like that? It may not be exactly for me; maybe for one of my children. Imagine you have a child in a problem and you are making dua to Allah because of him. You need to show Allah something you already did with sincerity, not cheating yourself or anyone else, not trying to be smart with Allah and showing your hand, saying I will give such and such for charity just to show people what you have.

The second point: how can we catch that second, that moment, and have sincere action? Usually we do good things, but can you consider everything you did during the day as being for the sake of Allah? How many times did we pray today? How many rak'as of voluntary prayer did we make? How many things did we do for people? Can we consider all of that as touching the heart, so that we say: this is the moment, or not?

Three generations in one hadith

The third point, and I will end with it: why did the Prophet ﷺ give us three different actions? The first was a relationship between a generation and the one above it. The second gave an example of the relationship between spouses, or people of the same age. The third gave us a chance to see the relationship between a man and the matters around him: an economic position, a marriage position, a parents' position. Do you see any relationship between them?

The first man had his parents and little children under his feet. What do you think his age was? Twenties? Maybe thirties, since he had a wife and children. And the man who loved a girl and played that game with her? Twenties, something like that. And the one who could invest that amount and make it that much in a short time? Is he a little kid, or maybe sixty and more, because he has experience in how to bet the money and bid? By the way, at the beginning he did not give the worker a big amount, which means he considered every penny. And this is our age and above: once we are counting pennies and cents, we have realized the value of this dunya.

Now we have three different generations in one hadith. If the young cannot work for the older, and both do not listen to the elders, nobody can move anywhere. When I talk about the old people, I am talking about the real treasure in this dunya. Without your advice, I cannot go anywhere. I can have the wisdom to run my business, but I still need the experience of the old people.

This is the picture the Prophet ﷺ tried to give us, to understand a few things. First, what do we have for a difficult time, for the time we will stand before Allah? Second, what is the relationship between me and my parents, between me and my wife, between me and the people around me? And third, how can I catch that second?

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The speaker retells the well-known hadith of the three men trapped in the cave in his own words, without quoting its wording or naming a source. It is reported in the two Sahihs from Ibn ʿUmar, may God be pleased with them both. The details of the second and third accounts follow the speaker's retelling and may differ from the reported wording.