Courage of young believers; Allah protects the faithful
Imagine being a teenager in a city where everyone around you, your teachers, your neighbors, even the king, worships false idols. Imagine knowing in your heart that it is wrong, that there is only one God, Allah, the Creator of everything. Now imagine having the courage to say it out loud, even when it could cost you everything. Tonight's story is about a group of young people who did exactly that, and what Allah did to protect them.
Long ago, in a city ruled by a powerful and tyrannical king, there lived a group of young men. They were not prophets. They were not scholars. They were simply young people who used their minds and their hearts, and arrived at a truth that the rest of their city had abandoned: there is no god but Allah.
The Quran tells us: "They were youths who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance." These were young people, probably not much older than you, who looked at the idols their people bowed to and said, "These are just stones. They cannot help us, and they cannot harm us. Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will never call upon any god besides Him."
This was an incredibly brave thing to do. The king of their city was a cruel man who demanded that everyone worship the idols. Those who refused were punished severely. But these young men could not bring themselves to bow to stones when they knew the truth. Their faith was stronger than their fear.
They tried to reason with their people. "Why do you worship what cannot hear or see?" they asked. "Why do you bow to what your own hands have carved?" But the people would not listen. The king grew angry. Word reached him that a group of young men were spreading dangerous ideas about one God, refusing to worship at the temples.
The young men knew they were in danger. They gathered together and made a decision. They would leave the city rather than compromise their faith. They would trust Allah to protect them.
"When you withdraw from them and what they worship besides Allah," they said to each other, "then seek refuge in the cave. Your Lord will spread out for you of His mercy and will prepare for you from your affair facility." They had a plan: a cave in the mountains outside the city, where they could hide until the danger passed.
And so they left. Quietly, in the early hours, these brave young men slipped out of the city. With them went their faithful dog, who trotted alongside his masters, loyal and unquestioning. They climbed into the mountains until they found the cave, a deep shelter in the rock, hidden from the view of anyone below.
They entered the cave and lay down, exhausted from their escape and heavy with worry about what the king might do if he found them. They prayed to Allah for protection: "Our Lord, grant us from Yourself mercy and prepare for us from our affair right guidance."
And then Allah did something miraculous. He put them to sleep. Not an ordinary sleep, but a deep, protected slumber that would last not for a night, not for a week, not for a year, but for three hundred and nine years. The Quran says: "We sealed their ears in the cave for a number of years."
While they slept, the world changed around them completely. The cruel king died. Generations were born and passed away. The city they had fled was transformed. New buildings rose. Old ones crumbled. The very language people spoke shifted and changed. Empires fell and new ones took their place. And through it all, the young men slept peacefully in their cave, protected by Allah.
The Quran gives us a beautiful detail about how Allah cared for them even in their sleep. The sun, as it rose, would incline away from their cave on the right, and as it set, it would pass them on the left, so that its heat would not disturb them. They lay in an open space within the cave, comfortable and undisturbed. And their dog stretched his forelegs at the entrance, guarding them faithfully.
If anyone had stumbled upon the cave and peered inside, the Quran tells us they would have been filled with terror and turned away running. Allah had placed a protection over them so powerful that no one could approach.
Then, after all those centuries, Allah woke them up. They stirred, stretched, and looked at each other with sleepy eyes. "How long have we stayed?" they asked one another. "We have stayed a day, or part of a day," they guessed, for that is what it felt like. Their sleep had been so deep and so peaceful that three centuries had passed like a single afternoon nap.
They were hungry, naturally. One of them was sent to the city with a silver coin to buy food. "Let him be careful," the others said. "Let him not tell anyone about us, for if they find us, they will stone us or force us back to their religion."
The young man entered the city and was bewildered. Everything was different. The buildings, the clothes, the faces. When he presented his ancient silver coin to a shopkeeper to buy bread, the man stared at it in amazement. This was a coin from centuries ago. Where had this young man come from?
Word spread quickly. People gathered. The authorities were called. And then the astonishing truth came to light: these were the legendary young men who had vanished centuries ago. The story that had been passed down as a fable, as a myth, was real. They were alive.
The people of the city, who now believed in Allah, were amazed. The young men's story became a sign from Allah, proof that He can do all things, that He protects those who trust in Him, and that His promise of resurrection is true. For if Allah can put people to sleep for three hundred years and wake them as if no time had passed, then surely He can raise the dead on the Day of Judgment.
The Quran does not tell us exactly how many they were. Some said three, and their dog was the fourth. Some said five, and their dog was the sixth. Some said seven, and their dog was the eighth. The Quran tells us: "Say, 'My Lord is most knowing of their number. None knows them except a few.'" The exact number does not matter. What matters is their courage, their faith, and Allah's protection.
In the Shia tradition, the story of the Sleepers resonates deeply. These were young people who stood against the majority when the majority was wrong. At Karbala, the young companions of Imam Husayn (AS), some of them barely older than teenagers, showed the same courage. They stood for truth even when vastly outnumbered, knowing that standing with truth, even if you stand alone, is better than going along with falsehood.
Imam Ali (AS) said: "Do not be afraid of being few, for the truth has always been with the few." The Sleepers in the Cave were a small group. But their faith was true, and Allah honored them across the centuries.
Imam Sadiq (AS) said that the story of the People of the Cave teaches us that when you choose Allah over everything else, He will take care of everything else for you. The young men did not know how they would survive. They simply trusted Allah and entered the cave. And Allah took care of the rest, for three hundred and nine years.
Tonight, as we near the end of the second arc of Ramadan, the nights of forgiveness, remember the Sleepers. Their story is a gift, a reminder that courage is not about being unafraid. It is about being afraid and still choosing truth. Whatever cave you need to enter, whatever stand you need to take, know that Allah is with those who trust in Him.
"Innahum fityatun amanu bi Rabbihim wa zidnahum huda" "Indeed, they were youths who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance." -- Al-Kahf (18:13)