Tafseer al Quran

“And he turned away from them and said: ‘Alas for Yusuf!’ And his eyes became white with the grief of that he repressed.”

And he turned away from them…”

He turned away.  He doesn’t know what to do.  He will not get any sympathy from them, so he turns away.  He wants privacy.  He wants solitude.  He says something he doesn’t intend for them to hear because Allah says, “Wa tawalla ‘anhum…” but he says it from his heart, and it just comes out, and so they hear it.

“And he says, ‘O woe to me, how my grief is for Yusuf. ‘”

Notice subhanAllah that he has just received word that Binyamin and the eldest are missing.

Who does his heart go out to?  Way back twenty-five, thirty-five years.

Look at the love he has for Yusuf.

The memory of the other two
sons has in fact invoked the memory of Yusuf, subhanAllah.

Isn’t it amazing that the brothers thought that by getting rid of Yusuf their father’s love would be given to them.  It did nothing but increase his love for Yusuf.

SubhanAllah this shows us that when we commit a sin thinking that it will bring about some type of good, this is the classic delusion from Shaytan.

When you commit a sin saying, “Okay, just one time this will happen and Allah will forgive after that,” that sin will get the exact opposite of what was intended.

They wanted to do the sin in order to make Ya‘qub forget about Yusuf.

Allah punished them bymaking the exact opposite happen, and that is that Yusuf overtook his heart,

so much so that when he just hears that the other two sons are missing, he is sad but his heart goes back to Yusuf.

“And his eyes became white because of grief.”

Some scholars have interpreted this to mean that he became blind.

Allah knows best, but it doesn’t appear to be that he became totally blind, rather it appears that his eyesight became weak and literally white.

If Allah ‘azza wa jall had wanted to say that he became blind, He would have said ‘became blind.’

But rather, He used the word ibyadhdhat, which means ‘became glazy, became white.’

This most likely shows, and Allah knows best, that he didn’t actually become blind.

Fahuwa kadheem.”

Kadheem comes from kadhama which means ‘to cover up, to hold back.’  Allah praises those who can hold back their anger.

Allah is saying his eyes became white with grief.

Allah describes Ya‘qub as ‘he has concealed, he has protected, he has not shown his grief.’ Allah praises him for not showing his grief and for controlling his emotions.

Why?

Of the perfection of one’s faith in Allah is that you don’t turn to others for their sympathy.

You turn to Allah (subhanahu wata’ala).  This is a part of perfection that you don’t go begging from other

What benefit is it if somebody gives me his pity?

In fact, it is humiliating for my iman at that level to get pity of these people.

What is their pity going to do to me?
If I feel good when other people pity me, then I have not put my trust in Allah the way that He deserves.

When you get to this level – and understand that it is not a sin to not be at this level;

this is a person who is a prophet of Allah – then you cut off hope of any good from humanity because their good will not benefit you.

Notice that expressing grief by crying is not going against sabrun jameel because Allah describes him as having beautiful patience,

but he is still crying, so much so that his eyes have gone white.

To cry or to show some natural emotions between you and Allah (subhanahu wata’ala) and not doing it to get the sympathy of the people,

but it just happens, this is not wrong and doesn’t go against the perfection of iman.

They should cry the most when they are making du’a to Allah for forgiveness.

Here we are talking about crying for the sake of grief and we say that this is in fact a sign of iman and does not show any weakness in iman.

He turns away and he says,

“O my woe, O my grief for the sake of Yusuf,”

and he loses his sight or his sight becomes white, and he tries to suppress his sorrow and his grief.

Reflection

‣ Crying doesn’t beautiful patience because it shows you’re turning to Allah in sincerity
 • The more in need you are in Allah, the more likely you are to turn to Allah
• He lost all hope in everything EXCEPT Allah
‣ He doesn’t complain to others, but cries until he becomes blind

Lesson

It is a sign of īmān to always think the best of Allāh ‘azza wa jall and to have the best thoughts of Allāh and to never lose hope.

At least thirty or forty years have gone by and Ya‘qūb has gone blind in his grief, but his faith in Allāh only increases and never goes down.

Those who are close to Allah are the most severely tried by Him (swt). So if you are facing any trial in your life then take glad tidings at the fact that this very well could mean that Allah is pleased with you.

Allah wants to bring you closer to Him (swt) through that trial.

So do not ever think that your difficulties and your pain are because of your sins.

It may well be that Allah wants to raise you in rank and bring you closer to Him (swt).

Just as you console yourself by reminding yourself of how others like you have gone through such trials,

He (swt) has not given you a trial so severe like He (swt) gave to Yaqoob (AS). Yaqoob (AS) was not only a man, but he was also a prophet and the head of his family.

So you should be thankful to Allah (swt) that He (swt) did not give you a trial as great as this.