Surah Yusuf #91

“They said: ‘By Allah! Allah has indeed preferred you above us, and we certainly have been guilty’.”

Allah made them so exasperated that they had to beg in order to fill their stomachs and only after this were they ready to confess that their plans were in ruins and they could see the reality of their wrong thinking.

The verse says:

“They said: ‘By Allah! Allah has indeed preferred you above us, and we certainly have been guilty’.”

The brothers had sworn on several occasions employing the holy phrase /tallah/. 

When the cup was discovered they swore to Allah that they had not come to that land to commit theft or any other kind of corruption.

Swearing to Allah, they told their father that he was always repeating the name of Yusuf,5 and by doing so he showed his extreme love towards him being in his ancient error.

Now they swore Yusuf was superior to them.

Of course the brothers could not look Yusuf in the eyes because of their shame, and they were probably worried whether or not their crimes would be forgiven.

Reflection

‣ They respond to him and say “surely you were favored over us by Allah, and we were wrong.”

‣ When Prophet came to meccah in 8th year, victorious, he had conquered mecca, he could do anything to people of mecca

• Rule is when you conquer a city, you can kill all the men or make them slaves, or you could forgive them and let them go

• Prophet was expelled and tortured from meccah. 

He had to escape because they were after him trying to murder him

• These were his own relatives who did this, and now they are under his mercy.

• He says “What do you think I’m going to do to you?”

– The people of mecca are trembling
– They say “You’re our brother, a son of a noble brother, a son of a noble brother,
and you’re of us.”

– They’re hoping he goes easy on them

– He says “There’s no blame on you today, go and you are free.” – That was the pinnacle of the prophet Mohamed

Authentic TauheeD

They said: “By Allâh! Indeed Allâh has preferred you above us, and we certainly have been sinners.” 

  • even though we dumped you in the bottom of the well
  • and left you with no shirt on your back
  • now the table has turned, we are at your mercy

Lesson

  1. If you have faith, Allah will always be there
  2. When we bring Allah into our lives then Insha Allah will help to remove the animosity and the ill-feelings that we have. If we would only remember how Allah should be the purpose of our lives then we would see how nothing else matters except He (swt).
  3. This is the universal and timeless truth that all Muslims need to be so badly aware of, yet they are not- this truth is that Allah will always prefer the ‘Muhsinun’ to the evildoers. So don’t despair, and don’t be one of the many Muslims who stop practicing Islam because they think that Islam will make them unsuccessful in this life. 

As we are coming close to concluding the story, I hope you do realize that those who keep their faith in Allah will always succeed in the end.

Surah Yusuf #90

“They said: ‘Are you indeed Yusuf?’ He said: ‘(Yes), I am Yusuf and this is my brother. Allah has been indeed gracious to us. Verily whoever keeps from evil and is patient (is always rewarded) for verily Allah does not waste the reward of the righteous’.”

“Are you really, really that Yūsuf?” There is a triple emphasis here that cannot be translated into English.  They are shocked now that this is really Yūsuf.

They say, “Are you really that Yūsuf?”

There is no other person that could know, and the signs have been shown.

Of course by now it must have dawned on them that the characteristics, the ethnicity, the looks, and maybe the language, as we said,

and the age as well because they know how old Yūsuf was and how old he would be now, so everything clicks in, and they say,

“Are you really that Yūsuf?”

He said, “I am Yūsuf, and this is my brother.”

He called him to come out at that time, which means he was hiding behind the curtains in the other room and when this conversation takes place, he calls Binyamin out.

“I am Yūsuf, and this is my brother.”

Immediately he attributes all good to Allāh.

“This is not my power.  I didn’t do this.  I’m not gloating that I have the upper hand.

I am not showing you who is richer and more powerful.”

As soon as he acknowledges that he is Yūsuf, the very next phrase is:  “This is not from me.  Allāh has given us all of this.”
Manna – it is a gift.

It is not even earned or deserved but something that He gifted because of His Generosity.

*“Verily, whoever has taqwa and patience, Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) will never cause to go to waste the rewards of those who are good.”*

Notice here that he ascribes the blessings directly to himself from Allāh.

“Allāh blessed us.”

Then he says in the third phrase,

“Whoever is righteous and patient, Allāh will reward that person.”

He doesn’t say, “I was righteous and patient so Allāh rewarded me.”

Wallāhi, each word and each phrase shows the humility of Yūsuf.

You could not think of a more humble paragraph than this.

Notice he ascribes two characteristics (TAQWA and SABR )that he truly had  because the only thing that will protect you from zina in the case of Yūsuf ,the only thing that will possibly save you is taqwa.

What saved him from the well and caused him to stay in prison for so long,

He mentions ṣabr because it was ṣabr that allowed him by the blessings of Allāh to remain in the well and to remain a slave and to remain in jail until finally Allāh rewarded him with becoming the minister.

He mentions taqwa and ṣabr because these two are the two Islamic principles that have characterized him throughout the entire story.

The whole message of the story is summarized right here.  “Whoever truly has taqwa of Allāh”

Taqwa means Only Allāh can protect you from Allāh.  This is what taqwa means.

Ṣabr of course is to control yourself and be patient.  The theme of the whole sūrah is this line:  “Whoever has taqwa and is patient, Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) will give them all that they desire and more.”  Of course, there is a subtle message here as well.

Notice that all of the message to the brothers is not direct and not in your face and not gloating.

It is for them to benefit and not for them to feel bad.

The message is:  You tried to gain what you wanted through ḥarām and didn’t get what you wanted.

You tried to get what you wanted by disobeying Allāh, which is why you didn’t get what you wanted.

As for me, I was patient and put my trust in Allāh and had taqwa and Allāh gave me more than anyone could even imagine.

Explanations

  1. The length of time in history containing bitter and sweet events can change the relations and comprehensions and cognitions.
  2. It is true that the people’s obligation is bitter, but the obligation of Allah is sweet.
  3. The men of Allah believe that all bounties belong to Him.
  4. Patience and virtue pave the ground for one’s honor.
  5. Allah’s grace is wisely distributed and is allocated according to the well-established criteria.
  6. That person is eligible for an administrative position and who must have passed the tests of crises, jealousies, titles, lusts, humiliations, imprisonments, and slander.
  7. One must make use of sensitive periods to inform and propagate. Once the brothers’ sense of shame was aroused because of their wrong deeds, they were most ready to accept Yusuf’s remarks.
  8. One of the Divine ways of treatment is the bestowal of power in government upon the righteous people.

Lesson

  1. Always have patience, and Allah will grant you what you want most.
  2. Remember the favors of Allah on you during and after you have gone through suffering and hardship
  3. Allah greatly rewards one who combines patience and piety in himself, as Yusuf,
  4. One should not become arrogant and be deceived by the greatness that he achieves; he must attribute all credit to Allah
  5. The merit ( excellence) of Taqwa and Patience , for every good in this life and next is as a result Taqwa and Sabr based on the statement of Allah

“Allah has indeed been gracious to us. Verily, he who fears Allah and is patient, then surely, Allah makes not the reward of the Muhsinun (good-doers) to be lost.”

Surah Yusuf #89

“He (Yusuf) said: ‘did you know what you did with Yusuf and his brother when you were ignorant?””

Now is the time in the story when Yūsuf reveals himself to the brothers.  The translation here would be:

“He said, ‘Do you remember / recall what you did with Yūsuf and his brother while you were jāhill?”

The question arises:  Why is he revealing himself at this stage in the story?

Why so late, and why not before?

There are two scenarios that we can derive.
1)  Is that there is no known reason other than Allāh telling him so.

We need to understand that the lives of the prophets of Allāh are not like our lives.

Because the prophets of Allāh are role models, they are not allowed to do anything without asking Allāh.  So one scenario would be that Yūsuf is always asking Allāh.

2) Is that there is a worldly reason.
What is this worldly reason?

By this time in the story, seven years later, that king has died, and his younger child has now taken over.

This is the law of the earth that when people don’t know how to do things, they will give precedence to those who are in power already.

So by this time, Yūsuf has the upper hand over the king, and the king is giving him deference.

By now, Yūsuf can tell the king, “I want my family to come,” whereas seven years ago, he doesn’t have that power.

Notice Yūsuf says, “Do you remember what you did to Yūsuf and his brother while you were Jahil?”

He is actually making an excuse for them because he says, “while you were (in the past) jāhill (ignorant),” meaning that now they are not jāhill and now they know better.

In the very first phrase he allows some laxity and leeway.  “You were jāhill at that time.”

It is not as if he is saying it in a harsh manner.  He is actually saying it in an excusing manner.

This is of the perfection, which is just beginning. In these lines we will see Yūsuf never directly criticizes his brothers.

Notice he didn’t even say, “Do you remember that you kidnapped me, threw me in the well, and left me to die?”

No – he leaves it vague.  “Do you remember what you did to Yūsuf?”

He doesn’t mention details.  This is of the perfection of Yūsuf’s character that never once does he explicitly mention what happened and never once does he explicitly criticize them.

Wallāhi, this takes a real man to do this because he has the power and upper hand and there is nothing to prevent him from even throwing in one jab – as we say in English – or one criticism.  Not even the slightest ‘uff in these words.

*Authentic Tauheed *

— the scholars of Islam have said when Yusuf asked the question he was crying
— this was a big clue that this person was Yusuf
— his tears gave him away that he was on fact Yusuf
— he realized that his brothers were no longer ignorant
— they were now mature men and no longer jahil

*Lesson

1)One should not take revenge from those who have harmed him and should try to stop agonies which befall others whenever he can.

2) Sign of perfection of one’s īmān to not hurt the feelings of others

Surah Yusuf #88

“Then, when they entered unto him (Yusuf), they said: ‘O’ ‘Aziz! Affliction has visited us and our family, and we have brought scanty merchandise. So pay us full measure and bestow you charity on us; verily Allah will reward the charitable ones’.”

So once again the sons of Ya‘qub loaded up their goods and, for the third time, they headed for Egypt, a land that had been full of adventures for them.

We are now on the last phase of the story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) and what is left after this is the conclusion of Surah.

“So then when they entered in upon him…”

This is the third time they are undertaking the same journey from Canaan, the ancient name of Filistine, to the land of Egypt.  This is the third time they are visiting Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām

The brothers now enter in and they have dwindled down now to ten because Yūsuf is the twelfth and Binyamin is the eleventh, and both of them are now stuck.

The tenth one is remaining in Egypt, and now the nine come back and the ten of them enter into the palace for one more time.

They say, “O ‘Azīz, our family was struck by a calamity.”  They demonstrate their poverty, and they excuse the poor quality of merchandise

They are saying, “We are bringing merchandise that we are embarrassed about.”

It is not the top-notch goods.  What was it?  We don’t know.

Maybe it was poor quality leather because this was primarily what they had back then.

Maybe it was other types of merchandise that was not of a high price.

Notice here, subḥānAllāh, that by now we are entering in close to the seventh year of drought.

Every single time the brothers are coming again and again and again.

Look at the surplus of Egypt that over and over again people from neighboring lands have to come to Egypt.

Egypt gave so much produce.  To be more precise, Yūsuf managed to save the produce and guard it to such an extent that he can export in times of drought.

So now, once again, the brothers come, and they ask in such a beautiful manner.

It is human psychology here.

They firstly mention that they are in a distressing situation.

Then they mention the families because it is human nature that when you bring in wife and children, the person’s heart becomes softer, so they beg in their own situation and then their family situation.

Then they say,  WE are not coming for free handouts.  We brought something.

It is not as if we are coming as beggars, and we have brought something, but this thing is second-rate.

And our excuse is that we don’t have money right now.  We purchased something, so give us what is worthy of this.

Give us the full measure of this second-rate merchandise, but then give us more as WELL.

They are not asking for free handouts, but they are asking for generosity.

Generally speaking, generosity is easier than begging and asking for free handouts.

There is an irony here that the brothers of Yūsuf are reminding Yūsuf about Islam and the benefits of remembering Allāh.

There is a little bit of irony here.

“If you are good, Allāh will reward you.”  As if Yūsuf needed this reminder.

But they conclude by reminding them that anybody who is generous, Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) will respond and give them that back.

Reflection:

‣ They have a large family, and they don’t have enough food and don’t have anything to trade with

‣ They’re just going to Egypt in hopes that they can get something and ask pretty much begging

• They know Aziz is very kind

• “You don’t want to anger anyone who has all the food.”

• They say “indeed, misfortune has struck our family, and we have only brought merchandise poor in quality, and please give us our full rations, and give us sadaqa.
Allah rewards the charitable
• They use tasadik

Lesson:

  1. When we don’t know why something is happening, remember that Allah has a reason.
  2. Allah will never allow your reward to go to waste if you constantly strive to remember Allah (swt) at every moment.

Surah Yusuf #87

“O’ my sons! Go and enquire about Yusuf and his brother, and never despair of Allah’s Mercy. Verily none despairs of Allah’s Mercy except the unbelieving people.”

O my sons, go out and through your senses (your hearing, your seeing) go and search for Yusuf.

Hear anything, see anything, taste anything, smell anything.  Do anything you can to find Yusuf and his brothers.

Find information about what really happened.”

Hashasa means ‘through your senses (your ears, your hearing, your seeing).’

And now he explicitly says what we have been saying for the last four verses:

“And never give up hope of Allah’s Mercy.”

“No one can give up hope of Allah’s Mercy except a people who don’t believe in Him.”

Notice, SubhanAllah, if you have iman in Allah, you must be optimistic about Allah.

This is what he is saying.  If you truly have iman, you must be optimistic.

He cannot imagine a person who believes in Allah and is pessimistic.  Only if you are a kafir can you be pessimistic.

How can you give up hope in Allah?

How can you not believe that there is a wisdom why Allah is doing this?

Have you given up hope of Allah?  Only a kafir can give up hope.

Allah ‘azza wa jall says in a sahih hadith qudsi:

“I am as My servant thinks of Me.  So when he thinks good thoughts of Me, I will give him good.

And when he thinks bad thoughts of Me, then he will get what he thought.”

SubhanAllah, we understand this even in our own dealings with other people.

If you think that somebody is going to be cheap and stingy, why should he be generous to you?

He is going to be stingy to you.

If you assume bad thoughts of somebody else, “I didn’t expect good from you anyway” – well, then he is going to treat you that way.

If you thought that somebody would be generous and you assumed it,

then the person who people thought would be generous then feels that he should be generous because people think we will be generous.

If this is the case, we understand it in our limited minds.  To Allah belongs the perfect example.

Allah is saying, “I do with My servants as they think I will do with them.

If My servant has good thoughts of Me, and He is optimistic in Me…”

This is like Ya‘qub.  He never loses hope, and he puts his trust in Allah.

He tells his sons, “Go and search.  All three of them will come back.”  SubhanAllah, he has just lost one-two-three, and his optimism increases.

And look, he gets back the three and he is taken to Egypt and given a high position.

When he put his trust in Allah and he was optimistic, what happens?

He gets all of it and more.  This is a sign of iman.

Reflection

  • Sanctity and holiness of oaths.
  • It is imperative to support your arguments with evidence.
  • Beautiful patience will only bring about good things.
  • Always expect good from your Lord.
  • Weeping and crying will not invalidate, abolish, or nullify beautiful patience.
  • Yaqub (u) cried until he was blind.
  • The difference between “tahsas” and “tajasus”.
  • Sadness can kill.
  • Allah always remembers the demoralized or those who are oppressed.
  • True believers complain only to Allah, invoke Allah and pray humbly to Allah
  • It is forbidden to lose hope or despair in Allah.

Lesson

Have a good thoughts of Allah. Do not despair or lose hope in Allah

Don’t lose hope in Allah. Always believe there was a good reason why something happened.