In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Souls feel affinity with others according to the nature in which they were created. 'Although they are all souls, they differ in different ways, so a person will feel an affinity with souls of one kind, and will get along with them because of the special quality that they have in common.' [Qurtubi]
هَـٰؤُلَاءِ قَوْمُنَا اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ آلِهَةً ۖ لَّوْلَا يَأْتُونَ عَلَيْهِم بِسُلْطَانٍ بَيِّنٍ ۖ فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَىٰ عَلَى اللَّـهِ كَذِبًا (١٥ ) وَإِذِ اعْتَزَلْتُمُوهُمْ وَمَا يَعْبُدُونَ إِلَّا اللَّـهَ فَأْوُوا إِلَى الْكَهْفِ يَنشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّن رَّحْمَتِهِ وَيُهَيِّئْ لَكُم مِّنْ أَمْرِكُم مِّرْفَقًا ﴿١٦[Qur'an Al-Kahf 18:15-16]
These, our people, have taken besides Him deities. Why do they not bring for [worship of] them a clear authority? And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah a lie?" (15) [The youths said to one another], "And when you have withdrawn from them and that which they worship other than Allah, retreat to the cave. Your Lord will spread out for you of His mercy and will prepare for you from your affair facility." (16)
"The Ashab al-Kahf (companions of the cave) were the progeny of kings and chiefs among their people who were idol-worshipers. Once their people went out of the town to participate in some religious festival of theirs. This was a place where they met every year, worshiped their idols and sacrificed animals to please them. Their king was a tyrant. Called Daqyanus, he used to force his people to worship idols, That year, when everyone had gathered together in this festival, these young men identified as the Ashab al-Kahf also reached there and saw their people taking rocks carved with their own hands as God, worshiping them and sacrificing for them. At that time, Allah blessed them with the good sense to shun this absurd practice of their people. Thus, when they used their reason, they arrived at the conclusion that this worship belongs to none but that supreme Power who has created the heavens and the earth and everything therein. This thought crossed the minds of those few young men simultaneously and they started moving away from there to avoid the absurd practice of their people in the fair name of worship.
The first young man who withdrew went far from the crowd and sat down under a tree. After that, came another and he too sat there. Similarly, came the third, and the fourth, and each one of them kept taking a seat under the tree. But, none of them were familiar with each other, nor did they know as to why they had come there. The truth of the matter is that they were brought together on that spot by the Power that lit the light of faith in their hearts." [Ibn Kathir]
Ibn Kathir comments that people tend to take nationalism and common race as the cause of cohesion and union in social life. But, the reality lies in what has been said in a Hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari, that unity or disunity first germinates in souls, then it affects the bodies in this world. Souls that have experienced congruity and unity among them in 'azal (eternity) go on to become mutually connected and get molded into the form of a confraternity. As for those that did not have the experience of this mutual congruity and unity - in fact, remained separated there - they will remain separated here too.
May Allah join us with the righteous. Ameen.
Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.
And Allah knows best and is Most Wise, and He alone grants success, and to Him is the final return of all.
Wassalaam
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