“And so he began (the search) with their bags before the bag of his brother. Then he drew it out from his brother’s bag. Thus did We contrive for Yusuf’s sake; for he could not take his brother in accordance with the king’s law, except that Allah willed. We raise the degrees of whomsoever We please, and above everyone endued with knowledge, there is one more knowing.”
Surah Yusuf #76
At this moment, Yusuf ordered everything to be unloaded and each load to be examined separately.
However, in order not to make them suspicious, he examined the loads of the brothers before examining Benjamin’s load from which he produced the ‘stolen cup’.
So he began…”
Now it gets to the singular. Throughout this, we are talking about the plural – the crowd and the mob.
Now it gets to Yusuf.
They must have brought the whole congregation and caravan back into the palace.
Now they are in the court of Yusuf, and Yusuf now takes over the plot because he knows exactly what he is doing.
The only thing that he planted in the mind of the mu’adhdhin was to make them announce the penalty.
The rest of the plot he cannot tell anybody else, and not even the mu’adhdhin knows what is going on.
According to one interpretation, that is why he calls them thieves. Nobody else knows. Fabada’a – he began, he took charge.
“He began searching in all of their bags before he searched in his brother’s bag.”
Why?
Because obviously there are eleven possibilities, and if he jumps to his brother’s bag, they would think,
“How did you know?
How did that happen?
Out of all of these bags, you go to Binyamin’s bag?”
He plays the plot out. It is human psychology. They are confident that none of them would steal.
They are the sons of a prophet and not going to do this. They are in a foreign land and have a reputation to keep.
They have a whistle clean reputation. They are confident. Every time a bag is opened, they are like, “Yeah, of course, we told you this. It cannot be us.”
Every time a bag is opened, they are like, “Yeah, of course, we told you this. It cannot be us.”
He plays along with them just like when you go fishing and let the wire go a little bit and let the fish go even deeper so that when you catch it, you catch it really big.
That is what Yusuf (‘alayhi salaam) is doing.
He is letting all of the ten go into their sureness that this could not be something that they could have done until finally he gets to the bags of Binyamin.
“And then, lo and behold, there is the cup, and he took it out from the bag of his own brother. This is how We plotted for Yusuf.”
Meaning: Yusuf did not do this himself. Yusuf could not think through this plot himself. We were the One who told him to do it.
“He would not have been able to keep his brother according to the deen of the king…”
This really shows us what deen means here.
All of us think that deen means a religion, but this clearly shows that deen means more than a religion.
Deen is a system of life and a way of living. Allah calls the secular laws of Egypt ‘deen.’
We are not talking about the gods of the king, we are talking about the laws of the land of the king. “He could not have kept his brother according to the deen of the malik.”
“…except that Allah had willed it.
This is how We raise people, whomever We please. And above every person of knowledge there are people who have more knowledge.”
Allah ‘azza wa jall of course is the One who raises people. One of the Names of Allah or descriptions of Allah is rafi‘u darajaat (the One who raises the ranks).
Allah (subhanahu wata’ala) tells us, “Allah raises and honors whomever He pleases.”
Allah says in the Qur’an, “Allah will raise the ranks of those who have iman and those who have knowledge amongst you.
Knowledge and iman are what gets your rank raised.
Yusuf is symbolizing both knowledge and iman because the knowledge that he has allows him to keep his brother,
and his faith in Allah allows him to be raised up in the ranks in the Eyes of Allah (subhanahu wata’ala).
Once again, as in many verses in the Qur’an, raising of ranks is linked to knowledge.
Because Yusuf has knowledge, Allah has raised his ranks.
That is why the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said that the preference the scholar has over the worshipper and the difference in ranks that the scholar has over the worshipper is like the full moon over all of the other stars.
Knowledge is the number one factor that raises ranks.
When I say knowledge, I don’t just mean knowledge of the mind.
It is a knowledge that is acted upon and a knowledge that you understand – that knowledge raises ranks more than anything else.
One moon comes along, and what happens to those billions of stars?
The billions of stars disappear and vanish.
That moon is only one unlike the billions of stars, but the light from the full moon is so bright that it will cast a shadow in the middle of the night.
The light that is coming from the moon is so bright .
Why? Because it is one moon, but its light gives you benefit.
One ‘alim will eclipse billions of worshippers.
Why? Because the worshipper (the ‘abid) is fasting and praying and giving zakah and reading Qur’an, alhamdulillah – he is not a joke, he is a star – but what good is he doing you?
How is he benefitting you? What is he doing for the ummah? What is he doing for his neighbor? What is he doing for society? Nothing.
He is a star, and Good for him, but not good for anybody else.
The ‘alim, the scholar, the one who has ‘ilm and the one whom Allah has raised his ranks, he is a mover and a shaker.
He is a person who can resurrect iman. He is a person who can change the course of history.
Even amongst us now for the average Muslim, how many of the khalifahs names do you know in our history? Two, three or four after the khulafa’l-rashidun?
And yet, how many scholars names do you know? Abu Hanifah, Shafi‘i, Malik, Imam Bukhari, Imam Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ghazali, and so many hundreds of scholars.
Who were the rulers of their time?
We have no idea and we don’t care because how does that benefit us?
What lives and the legacy is knowledge.
Knowledge remains behind and not power and not kingdoms and not countries and not politicians.
Allah ‘azza wa jall is saying, “We raised the ranks of whomever We please (i.e. through knowledge).”
In this story, Allah has raised the ranks of Yusuf by teaching him what others don’t know, and he has raised the ranks of the parents of Yusuf because of their patience at what happened.
The one whose rank is the highest is Yusuf because of the knowledge he has.
When Allah blessed him with the knowledge , Allah says” We raises him ranks who ever We please but above every person of a knowledge is a person who has more knowledge “
Even prophets of Allah have not been given ultimate knowledge. Every person has a specialty or has an area.
Even in the entire history of the ummah, it is almost impossible to find a scholar who was a specialist in more than one field.
how many amongst you are two specialties that are different? Is there any neurosurgeon and heart surgeon simultaneously?
Even within your field, you all know that there are people who know one area better than you do.
In our history of Islam, most of the scholars only specialized in one area just like most of you are specialists in one area. Rarely did a scholar specialize in two. This is just the fact of the matter.
Allah is saying that above everyone who has a little bit of knowledge, you will find people who have more and more and more until finally you will find the One who has ultimate knowledge, and that is Al-‘Aleem.
The purpose of this phrase here:
Let no scholar feel arrogance because of his ‘ilm, let no doctor and no engineer and no lawyer and let nobody who has knowledge feel that “I am worthy of this.” And of course we ask Allah ‘azza wa jall that He gives us beneficial and righteous knowledge.
*Lesson*
It all starts when we are children and we ask our parents why our friend has a bike and we don’t.
As young adults, we wonder why our friends have fancy cars while we take the bus home.
And as adults, we ask why people less deserving than us earn more than us.
Why someone else got this and I don’t
. Well, Allah answers all those questions using the following words: “We raise to degrees whom We please.”