Aqeel Mahmood – Lessons from Surah Yusuf
AI: Summary ©
The importance of planning ahead and managing time is emphasized in Surah settling for the third Wednesday of the century. The danger of the soul and evil deeds is acknowledged, and the importance of protecting oneself from the evil eye and not believing in God's power is emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the importance of forgiveness and showing mercy to those who wrong us and want harm. The speaker also discusses recent trials and a video of a prophet giving advice to his sons on protecting oneself from the evil eye.
AI: Summary ©
Today the Imams, they
finished off,
the 12th Jews of the Quran,
Surah Yusuf,
and they began,
the 13th Jews of the Quran reciting Surah
Arad,
and they recited also a portion of Surah
Ibrahim.
And, today what I wanted to do
was go through some of the lessons that
we can learn from some of the ayat
from Surah Yusuf.
And I just wanted to go through,
about 7 or 8 of,
the ayat from the Surah,
not
together. These ayat aren't consecutive,
linked
Ayat,
one after the other, but they're separate Ayat
from different places from Surah Youssef,
and just some,
benefits and for why that we can take
from some of these verses from, this Surah.
The first one and inshallah will take a
couple of minutes for each so that hopefully
inshallah we won't take too long, as I
know there's many,
heavy eyes heavy eyelids in front of me.
So inshallah we'll try to be as,
concise
as possible inshallah.
One of the first lessons we can learn
from, one of the ayat from Surah Yusuf
is the
ayah where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about,
the king having certain dreams,
and the interpreters and the advisers of the
king not being able to interpret those dreams.
And the man who was imprisoned with Yusuf
alaihi salaam remembering
that he interpreted
his dream when he was in prison. And
so he goes back to prison and he
meets Yusuf alaihis salaam asking him for the
interpretation of the dream. And it just so
happened that before this man left the prison,
Yusuf alaihis salaam told him to remind the
king about him
when he leaves. Because he was told that
he would leave and he would serve the
king. He would be the servant of the
king. And of course this man forgot, so
when he went back to,
the prison to interpret
the dream of the king from Yusuf alaihis
salam, you would expect Yusuf alaihis salam
after
being stuck in prison for so many years
and him asking the servant,
of the king to mention him who is
stuck in prison as a result of a
crime which he didn't commit. You'd expect Yusuf
alaihi wasalam to say something to say what
happened to you? Where were you? Where have
you been? I've been waiting for you all
this time. But instead he just simply interprets
the dream
of the king.
And
he mentions,
the interpretation, and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks
about
what the interpretation of the dream was. And
so he says,
in verse number 43 of Surah Yusuf,
surah number 12. He says,
So the king he says that I saw
7
fat cows
being eaten by 7 thin cows.
And this is a strange dream in and
of itself because you have cows eating cows,
but also because
if you have If you were to have
any cows eating any cows, it would be
the ones with the bigger appetite
eating the cows with
a lesser appetite.
So So really you would have the 7
fat cows eating the 7 skinny cows, but
it was the opposite.
You had the 7 skinny cows,
eating
The 7 skinny cows were eating the 7
fat cows. And then it mentions
7 green spikes of grain,
and
7 spikes of grain that were dry. So
7 ripe or fresh,
spikes of grain or wheat,
and 7 spikes that were dry.
And so
Yusuf alaihis salam interprets the dream for the
servant who comes asking him for this interpretation,
for the king. And Yusuf alaihis salam, he
says to him that you're going to plant
for 7 years consecutively,
and what you harvest leave in its spike
except a little from which you'll eat.
And then you'll have 7 more years which
will be difficult years. So you'll have 7
years initially
where you'll harvest just as normal, as you
normally would. You'd have harvest coming in as
usual.
After the initial 7 years, you'll have 7
more years which are gonna be 7 years
which are gonna be difficult.
There's gonna be a drought. It's gonna be
a tough 7 years for you. In those
7 years that will come, you're going to
consume
what you saved for them from the 1st
7 years, except for a little amount that
you're going to eat.
And then he says, then there's going to
come a year after this
in which people will be given rain and
in which they will press grapes and olives.
Meaning,
there'll be ease in this year
after the seven
normal
years and the 7 difficult years, there'll be
the year following these,
7 plus 7 years where there's going to
be ease again.
And one of the beautiful things about this,
this
part of Surah Yusuf and in this ayah
is that Yusuf
doesn't just
tell the servant about what the dream means,
but in fact he actually tells him
what the king should be planning for the
near future.
And so it's this idea of foresight from
Yusuf alaihis salam, and Yusuf alaihis salam is
telling initially or or basically the king
what the king needs to do in order
to prepare
for what's about to happen.
And so there's an element of foresight and
an element of planning.
And some of the scholars they say that
this shows us the importance of managing our
time and planning ahead.
And so
from
our perspective,
when we think about the future, how far
ahead do we plan?
And how much do we plan with regards
to our future and what we intend to
do and what our goals and what our
objectives are? Because Yusuf alaihis salam here, he's
initially,
really he's basically
giving the king a plan of what to
do for the next 15 years.
For the next 15 years, this is what
you need to be doing. And also this
shows us there's nothing wrong with the person
planning for the future.
Yes, of course planning is in, the the
future is in the hands of Allah. Allah
is the best of planners. But a person
does whatever he can do to prepare for
the future.
Just like we prepare for the day, we
prepare for the week, There's nothing wrong with
a person preparing for the year or preparing
for the next 10 or 15 years. And
some of you who are involved in business,
you have your own businesses, you know that
this is what happens. You prepare for the
next 2 or 3 or 5 or 10
or 15 years where you see your company
going. And so likewise with regards to our
with regards to our worship, with regards to
our deen, we also need to prepare and
plan where we're going to be in 5
or 10 or 15 years' time. And so
it's a beautiful ayah showing us the importance
of foresight,
the importance of planning ahead, and making sure
that,
we're not short sighted with regards to our
and long sighted with regards to the dunya
and with regards to business, etcetera, and with
regards to family and and other things. The
second ayah, ayah number 53 from the surah,
shows us the
dangers of the soul.
When the wife of Al Aziz,
was found to be guilty
after
investigators
interrogating her and asking her about the truth
of what happened with her and Yusuf alaihis
salam. She says,
that I don't exonerate myself. I don't consider
myself to be free free of any mistake,
free of any guilt.
That indeed the soul is a persistent enjoiner
of evil.
It's afflicted with evil. It commits evil. It's
influenced by evil.
And this is something which
is evident especially in the month of Ramadan
when
we feel like it's easier to do acts
of worship and to do righteous deeds. And
it's almost as if it's harder to do
to to commit sin to do evil deeds.
And that's why when a person does righteous
deeds in the month of Ramadan,
there's much more reward than outside of the
month of Ramadan, because of the mercy of
Allah.
And when a person commits sins in the
month of Ramadan, it's far greater
than if he commits them outside of the
month of Ramadan.
Because of how easy it is for a
person to do righteous deeds. He's fasting every
single day for 30 days. He's reading Quran
maybe more than he would ever read in
the whole year. He's doing other good deeds,
giving so much charity, etcetera. And so when
he commits us in the month of Ramadan,
Allah has made it so easy for him
to do good deeds that it's even worse
when he commits those sins in the month
of Ramadan. And so
the soul is influenced
outside of the month of Ramadan,
And this is evident when a person does
less or he's supposed to do less sins
and he commits less sins in this blessed
month of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, the month
of Ramadan.
Also
in ayah number 67, Yaqub alaihis salam,
he sends his sons
to,
meet with Yusuf alayhis salam. And they don't
know it's Yusuf alayhis salam. They think it's
the finance minister of Egypt.
And
he tells them because they take his other
son Binyamin with them.
Because this was a condition of Yusuf in
order for them to get some some money
from him,
for them and their family. And so he
tells them
and he instructs them how they should enter
the city. And he says,
oh my sons,
don't enter from one door.
Enter from multiple doors, enter from different gates.
And
from the wisdoms of this ayah, the scholars
I mentioned,
is
the importance
of recognizing
the seriousness
and the reality of the evil eye.
Because you have 10 young,
strong
men
entering the city and their brothers.
And of course if you were just generally
to see, you know 7 or 8 or
9 or 10 young, you know, handsome, strong
men walking together down the street, it'd be
a it'd be a sight to see. It's
something that a person would admire.
This idea of and manhood and seeing these
these groups of people, these young group of
men walking together down the street.
It gives us Gives an impression.
And Yaqub alaihis salam is aware of this
and he's also aware of the seriousness of
the evil eye. And this is why the
messenger of Radha alaihis salatu wa sallam, told
us to protect ourselves from the evil eye.
And he told us the evil eye is
is real. It's it's true, and it's something
which can affect,
the one who doesn't protect himself from the
evil eye. And so
him giving
his sons
precautions
and instructing them about what they can do
to make sure that they're safe from the
evil eye is a lesson for us. Because
here we have a prophet of Allah who's
telling his own sons,
the sons of prophets, the sons of a
prophet,
and of course one of his sons was
also a prophet, Yusuf alaihi sallam, telling them
about the dangers of the evil eye and
protecting themselves from the evil eye.
Also,
Yaqob alaihi sallam, when
is kept behind
with the plan that Yusuf
had,
and his sons come back,
he responds and he tells them,
Aya number 86. He says, verily I only
complain of my suffering and my grief to
Allah.
And Allah
knows that which you don't know.
And here it shows us the beauty
of supplicating
to Allah and showing desperation to Allah. So
this type of,
complaining
isn't a type of complaining where you're critical
to Allah.
When when Jacob says,
I complain
to Allah. This type of complaint is not
the type of complaint that we may have
towards,
the masjid, the management, or, you know, the
the bank, or, you know, a company that
we that we buy something from. It's not
that type of complaint where we're critical of
a shortcoming that they have.
But instead this type of complaint
is a complaint where we're complaining to Allah
about our suffering.
I am complaining to Allah about my suffering,
about my grief.
You're pleading with Allah, and you're telling Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala about the state that you're
in.
And when you make dua and you supplicate
to Allah, telling Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala about
your state, you're basically
stating your weakness in front of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's power
and Allah's strength. That's in effect what you're
doing. It's similar to when Zakariya alaihi salam
made du'a
for a child. And he complained about the
whiteness of his hair. And he complained about
the weakness
of his body, etcetera. He's complaining to Allah
about his weak state, about how he has
no power, and Allah
is the only one who has power
and the ability
to provide sustenance and to provide children to
Zakariya alayhi salam. Likewise here Yaqub alayhi salam
is complaining about his inability to do anything
except by the permission of Allah.
How only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will hear
his suffering.
Only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will hear his
grief. Only he is the one who will
be able to respond. And so this type
of supplication
is showing your weakness towards Allah. And so
also from the etiquettes of dua is to
talk about the state that you're in.
Talk about your condition
compared to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When
we make dua and we say you are
the one who is the most strong. We
are the ones who are poor. We are
the ones who are weak.
And so it's this idea of recognizing our
weakness in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is similar to how Yaqb alaihi
salam supplicates to Allah and complains to Allah
about his suffering and about his grief.
Also ayah number 87.
Yaqub alaihis salam,
he tells his sons when they tell him
about Binyamin also being taken, after Yusuf alaihis
salam was taken earlier on
in in the life of Yaqub alaihis salam
and and in the youth of Yusuf alaihis
salam's life. He tells his sons,
He says, oh my sons, go and find
out about Yusuf and his brother. Go and
find out about both of them. Go and
find out what happened to both of them,
even though it's been years, possibly even decades
since Yusuf alaihis salam has gone missing.
And
the the his brothers told Yaqub alaihis salam
what had happened, How he had been eaten
by a wolf, etcetera.
And here now, he's telling them go and
find out, investigate,
find out about what happened with Yusuf and
his brother.
And don't despair from the relief from Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Verily the only ones who despair from the
relief of Allah are those who are from
the disbelieving people, from those who are the
disbelievers.
And
this shows us many things. It shows us
Yaqub alaihi salam understood
that there was something else happening, because he
lost Yusuf alaihi salam,
and then a very similar thing happened when
he lost his other most beloved son, Benjamin,
years later.
And so he understands, he realizes
there's something else happening here.
There's too many things
which are similar.
And the messenger of Allah subhanahu wa sallam,
he told us in a hadith that the
believer isn't stung from the same hole twice.
Meaning there's there's a reason why things happen.
And Yaqub alayhis salam understands that there's something
else going on here. The fact that exactly
the same thing has happened, and he's just
lost another son who had just so happened
to be traveling
with his brothers,
And Ya'qub was worried about him, and Ya'qub
has been showing this trust and reliance on
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all these years. And
now exactly the same thing has happened where
they've lost a second son. There's something else
going on here.
And it shows us how Yaqub alaihis salam
wasn't just looking at the situation in front
of his eyes, but he was having this
trust in Allah, and he was also looking
at the silver lining.
He was always looking at the silver lining.
Every cloud has a silver lining as they
say. So he was looking at the positives.
He was looking for something which he could
hold on to, something which would give him
some kind of optimism in
the circumstances
and the situation which he was in. And
this also shows us the importance of,
looking at
the
positives
regardless of our circumstances
of our situation.
Regardless of what may happen to us in
our lives, there's always there's always good. Regardless
of the circumstances, regardless of the situation, a
person has been sick, suffering from an illness,
from a disease
for years,
maybe decades.
And he's in this state where he's unable
to move. He's unable to walk. He's unable
to talk. And he may question
what benefit is there from him
being in this state for such a long
period of time. Yet we know that anything
that happens to a believer, any sorrow, any
grief, any pain, any anguish,
any sadness,
anything that a believer goes through, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala expiates his sins.
And so for a person to be suffering
in this state from some kind of illness
for such a long period of time, it
could be the case this person passes away
and he has no sins left.
Because of this illness that he had, it
was a result of this illness that he
was suffering from that was causing so much
pain that Allah used to remove his sins
to the extent that maybe he had no
sins left when he passed away.
The point being that something which can look
like the worst thing, there can always be
there can always be good in it. But
it's about our perspective. It's about how we
look at things.
It's about how we view things and what
kind of lens we have when certain things
happen in our lives, when we have these
trials and tribulations. Also in I naba 92,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he says that
Yusuf alaihi salam, when his brothers asked him
for forgiveness after they realized it was Yusuf
alaihi salam that they were talking to, and
he was the finance minister of Egypt,
he they asked him to forgive him.
And so he said
There is no blame that will be upon
you today. Allah has forgiven you and he's
the most merciful of those who show mercy.
And what's interesting is the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he went on
the the night journey and he went into
the heavens, he met with different prophets of
Allah. He met with Adam alaihi salam, and
Isa alaihi salam, and Yahya alaihi salam, and,
Ibrahim alaihi salam, and Musa alaihi salam. And
he also met with Yusuf alaihi salam. And
the scholars talk about the reasons why. Why
Yusuf alayhi salam? Why is he mentioned? Or
why was he the one one of those
individuals, one of those prophets whom the prophet
sallam met?
And they say that just like Yusuf alayhi
salam
was tested
and he was,
tested by Allah
with his own blood, with his own family
members,
likewise the messenger of Allah wasalam was also
tested with his family members. His own uncle
Abu Lahab was one of the staunchest enemies
of Islam.
And so it was a reminder to the
prophet that
your family members
will be your enemies. They will always be,
there will always be people from your family
who will try to cause you harm. Just
like there has always been with prophets before
you, like Yusuf alaihi wasallam.
And what's interesting is when the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam
went back to Makkah and he conquered Makkah,
and those people who were from his family,
they were from his own blood, from his
own people, from his own tribe, they were
standing there, and he asked them,
what do you think I'm gonna do to
you?
And so they said, the
most noble brother the son of the most
noble brother, meaning you're the nicest person we've
we've ever met. So today it just so
happens that he's the best person in the
world just because they know the consequence of
what might happen as a result of all
the things that they did to him in
the past. And so he says to them,
the very same ad that I just recited.
He says to them, I will say to
you what Yusuf alaihi salam said to his
brothers.
There is no blame upon you. Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala has forgiven you and he's the
most merciful of those who show mercy. So
it's beautiful how this ayah is connected to
Isra'il Mi'raj when Yusuf alaihi wasalam,
was
spoken to by the prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi
wasalam. And also the conquest of Mecca and
the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam remembering.
Him meeting Yusuf alaihis salam, and the lesson
of how family members will,
be against you and will try to fight
against you. Also, the last thing that I
wanted to mention,
in ayah 100 of Surah Yusuf,
when Yusuf alaihi salam is thankful to Allah
for his blessings. Even though he's been through
all of the things he's been through, in
this whole surah. And then he says,
when he makes,
these statements
of thanks to Allah,
he says that Allah
was good to me when he took me
out of prison.
And he brought all of you from Bedoum
in life, from the desert. Meaning my family,
my father, and my mother, and my all
all of you, your brothers my brothers. He
brought all of you from the desert. He
brought all of you back to me.
After shaitan
had come between me and my brothers.
And it's beautiful how Yusuf alaihi salaam is
showing this etiquette and these manners
even in this situation where his brothers,
you know, threatened
to kill him. In fact, they plotted to
kill him, and they tried to, kill him
and get rid of him.
And right at the end, Yusuf alaihis salaam
doesn't try to get the upper hand, doesn't
try to get some kind of comeuppance
by telling them, lowering their status, telling them
you were the ones who were wronged, you
were the ones who were guilty. But instead
he's making excuses for them. And he says,
bi'mbaadi and nazaras shaitaan.
After shaitaan came between you and I.
Shaitaan was the one who came between you,
all of you and me. Shaitaan was the
one who caused you to do all of
these things. Almost as if it wasn't your
fault. It was shaitaan who did those things.
Again it shows us the etiquette and the
akhlaq of Yusuf alaihi salam, and how he
didn't want to put his brothers on the
spot after all was said and done. And
this idea of showing mercy to those who
wrong us, and, you know, being those who
are better, and not disgracing or degrading those
who try to harm us or try to
cause,
you know, bad things to to happen to
us, or want ill will towards us. Once
everything is said and done, then a person,
when he has the upper hand, he should
show this mercy,
because that's the real sign of power to
show mercy
when you have the upper hand. To show
mercy when you have the ability
to disgrace the person, to harm the person,
to oppress the person, to punish that individual.
Rather instead of punishing that person, you show
mercy, and that's the true sign of a
person's power and of a person's character. We
ask Allah
that we benefit from what we've heard.