“And when he reached his prime (maturity), We gave him wisdom and knowledge. And thus do We reward the doers of good.”
TAFSEER
“And when we reached his ashudd…”
In the Arabic language, ashudd is not just a few years, but you are a full man anywhere from 18 to 40. Some scholars say that Yusuf was 30 years old and some say 22. We do not know the age, but no doubt he was a young boy when he was captured by the traders and is sold into slavery. He spends probably a decade or less and reaches his adulthood in the house of ‘Aziz.
“…We gave him hukm and ‘ilm.”
Allah is saying that when he reached his manhood He gave him power, but at this stage when he reached his younger manhood, He gave him hikmah.
Hukm has two meanings. The first meaning is power. At this stage, Yusuf does not have power. We understand then that he shall reach power when he is still a young man, and this is exactly what happens. The second meaning of hukm is hikmah, which means wisdom. Allah is saying, “We gave him wisdom and ‘ilm.” Allah combines both of these because one without the other is incomplete; put together, we have the perfection.
‘Ilm is knowledge. Hikmah means you know how to act upon that knowledge because you can have knowledge but you do not know how to teach it properly or you do not know how to act upon or you do not know what to do with it. Hikmah means that you have the knowledge and know how to act upon it. Allah is saying, “We gave Yusuf hukm and ‘ilm.” This means that Allah made him a prophet. The perfection of Allah giving ‘ilmis not like my ‘ilm and your ‘ilm. The perfection of Allah giving him ‘ilm is that He made him a prophet.
“And this is how We reward the muhsineen.”
Muhsin is the one who is excellent and the one who practice Ihsan. The meaning of muhsin is the one who has reached the highest level of excellence in iman.
Think about this. Allah is saying, “We gave him wisdom and knowledge, and this is how We reward those who are very righteous.” What this means is when you strive to be righteous, Allah will bless you with wisdom and knowledge.
Have the taqwa of Allah, and Allah will give you more ‘ilm. There are two types of knowledge. There is book knowledge, which you need to study to obtain. There is an inner knowledge that Allah blesses people with. There is a knowledge of a deeper understanding that you will not find in books. How do you get this knowledge? By your piety and ikhlaas.
You cannot study interpretations of dreams from books. This is a gift from Allah, and it only comes to those whom Allah ‘azza wa jall chooses. “And this is how We reward those who have perfected the level of ihsaan.”
This finishes the first section and another section begins. Allah ‘azza wa jall has mentioned that Yusuf has gone from the deserts of Filistine to the lands of Sinai and is now in Egypt.
We now get to the story of the enticement.
Authentic Tauheed:
Allah tala didn’t give him knowledge and wisdom until he was mature
–people might not have taken him seriously before
–w/ maturity, you have gravitas (weightiness)
–knowledge w/o wisdom is a recipe for disaster
When Imam Shafi’i was in Baghdad, he passed a fatwa
–when he was in Egypt, he passed a different fatwa
–he used wisdom in passing what was right for each area
What is wisdom?
Say and do the right thing at the right time and in right place and in the right manner – Shaikh Faisal
REFLECTIONS
- When he reached the age of maturity, Allah says “we gave him wisdom and knowledge.”
- How do we have wisdom and knowledge?
- You have to be a Mohsin
- What is a
mohsin ?- Someone who does good
- What is a
- Two aspects of
ihsan - Ihsan between you and Allah
- Ihsan between you and the creation of Allah
- Yusuf was given half of
beauty
LESSON
The benefit for us here is that if you want to be blessed with wisdom, then make sure you are of those who practice ihsaan. If you want to be blessed with knowledge, then make sure that your righteousness and level of taqwa is high. The more righteous you are and the more iman that you have, the more Allah ‘azza wa jall will give you back in return.
Allah has full Control over all affairs. He (swt) took Yusuf (AS) from that dark and lonely well and placed him (as) in this comfortable home. The destinies of people are in the complete control of Allah (swt), and He (swt) does what He (swt) pleases to whom He (swt) pleases. The brothers left Yusuf (as) alone in that well to die. If the Hand of Allah (swt) was not present in the affair of Yusuf (AS) then he would probably have died in that well. But everything is an affair of Allah and He has complete control and power over His (swt)’s affairs.