Fatima Lette – Exploring The Quran For Women Surah Yusuf #10
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All right, Salaam alaikum everybody.
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
Rabbu sh-shuakhli sadri wa sirri amri, wahlul
uqratan min nisani, yafkahu qawli, rabbi zidni ilma,
rabbi zidni ilma, rabbi zidni ilma.
Welcome back to Exploring the Quran.
Alhamdulillah.
I'm happy we finally got the time.
It's been the joke of the office.
So shout out to Umarhani this morning.
She was really happy to see that the
right thing, actually the wrong thing went out,
then the right thing went out.
So we're happy, alhamdulillah.
So alhamdulillah, we've been covering Surah Yusuf.
And we're really nearing our last big story
of Surah Yusuf, or portion of the story
of Surah Yusuf.
So we're going to probably end very soon.
One of the guys was just telling me
that this is the 10th session.
So he's like, it would have been nice
if you ended at the 10th session.
I said, no, I'm not going to do
that to them.
Yes, I already have a new series in
mind.
I already know which one is going to
come next.
First time in life I have my life
together.
So it's really nice, actually, alhamdulillah.
So last week, we talked about the portion
of Surah Yusuf, where he is now, before
that, actually, he did this interpretation of a
dream.
And after having interpreted this dream, he tells
the guy that when you go back to
the king, make sure you tell the king
about me.
And the last one that tells us that
Shaytan caused this guy to forget.
And that's Yusuf al-Islam then stayed in
prison for some time, for a number of
years.
And Allah swt does not specify exactly how
long Yusuf al-Islam stayed in prison.
But he makes it known that it wasn't
like a day, and it wasn't two days.
It was for a significant amount of time.
And what we kind of were able to
touch on a little bit is that when
Allah swt has something ordained for you, there's
a time in which God has for you
to go through a certain difficulty or a
certain hardship, or whatever the case may be,
then recognize that that difficulty and that hardship
is going to happen.
But you have to ask yourself, how am
I going to get through it?
What are the ways that I'm going to
be able to?
Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.
The sad part is there's one more that's
going to come at the worst time.
So what are the ways that I'm going
to get through this difficulty?
Over the past weekend, alhamdulillah, we were having
an intensive.
And we were going through the book of
Jawab al-Kafi, which means The Sufficient Answer.
And Sheikh Mikhal, alhamdulillah, he went through a
600-page book in like a day and
a half.
It was like Asher Cummings, insane.
But one of the portions of it, which
was very interesting, is he talks about the
power of dua.
And he talks about when dua in times
of trial.
And he brings three categories that I thought
were, in a way that I never saw
it presented.
And he says that the first category is
a person's dua is very strong.
Well, let's start with actually the weakest part.
So he said the first category is a
person's dua is very weak.
They kind of maybe make dua.
They don't necessarily make dua.
Thus, the difficulty comes.
And difficulty comes with its full strength.
And it kind of just wipes the person
out.
Then he says the second type is that
the person's dua is very, very strong.
And it's so strong that the difficulty came
in the form that it was supposed to
come in.
But the person was able to scale it
and able to move far past it very
quickly.
So you ever have a situation where life
is kind of hard, it's kind of tough,
but you're looking at it and you're like,
objectively speaking, Fatima five years ago would have
probably been like, this is the worst thing
that's ever happened to me.
But Fatima today feels like, you know what,
it's not that great and it's not the
ideal situation, but it is what it is,
we shall move on.
So he's saying that is a result of
your dua.
And then he says the third one's interesting,
where the difficulty is heavy and there's dua
there, but the dua is like kind of
matching the difficulty.
And what that means is that you didn't
go the extra mile to call upon Allah.
And because one did not go the extra
mile to call upon Allah, they recognize the
difficulty, it was hard, and they got through
it, but they could have gotten through it
with much more grace.
And I think this is important because Allah
SWT gives us the understanding that dua is
not something you just make at a time
of difficulty.
It is not just something you make at
a time of good.
It is a continuous conversation that you have
between you and Allah.
And when you have a continuous friendship, when
you have a continuous relationship, then when tough
conversations have to happen, they're not as tough,
right?
And when compliments have to happen, they're not
as shocking.
There is this istiqamah that is there.
There is this consistency.
There is this ability to say that I
know that this is a person that I
can call upon.
We're able to deduce that when we are
talking about our friendships.
But for some reason, when we bring Allah
SWT into the equation, it's like difficult for
us to understand and comprehend that Allah SWT
wants to be there, that Allah SWT is
there for us.
And what it's meant for us to do
is to show up.
Now Yusuf AS is showing us that.
He is showing us that in the toughest
time, he's imprisoned for something that he did
not commit.
He has a way out.
And even in having that way out, there's
still difficulty that prevails with that, but he's
still handling that difficulty with grace.
What does that grace look like?
It looks like he reminded somebody, but he
didn't go banging on their door and like
forcing them and being mad and saying this
person is the worst person ever.
How could you have such a bad memory?
When you needed my help, I had good
memory, but look at you now.
He didn't do all of that.
In fact, he stayed in prison in that
time with grace and he waited his time.
And when it came back to him, the
same person comes to him to help him
to seek Yusuf AS's help with the situation.
And Yusuf AS helps this individual.
The individual goes back to the king.
The king says, you know what?
Bring Yusuf to me, let him out free.
And Yusuf AS says, I'm not going.
Can you imagine having the solution or what
you perceive to be the solution?
But really actually how you get to the
end point is important.
The journey that you take to get to
that end point.
For Yusuf AS, the end point was freedom.
It was for him to be released from
prison.
But people will say, I would do whatever
it takes to get there.
Whatever it takes has to have boundaries.
It has to have morals.
It has to have ethics.
It has to have an understanding of who
Allah SWT is.
So when that end point came presented to
him, but it would have been unethical because
he would have gotten out and would have
been said that, oh, the king got him
out, but he still did the horrible things
that he's accused of.
Yusuf AS did not want that on his
reputation because his reputation mattered, because he's a
prophet.
And in being a prophet, then there is
a huge emphasis on how a person is
and your character, similar to being a Muslim.
Your character matters.
It matters who you are.
It matters what you say.
It matters how you interact.
It matters how you do business.
It matters what you do at your job.
It matters what you think, what you eat,
how you eat, how you wake up, how
you go to sleep.
All of these things matter.
And it seems overwhelming, but you're gonna do
it anyway.
You're gonna wake up anyway.
You're gonna go to work anyway.
You're gonna interact with your neighbor anyway.
You're gonna interact with your family anyway.
Why not do it with the guidance and
the boundaries and the guidelines that Allah SWT
has presented to you?
So that is what we learned all from
the last two weeks.
We get to this point where Yusuf alayhis
salaam has been exonerated.
And it has been made clear that the
wrong that he was accused of was not
his action.
So now the king comes and he says,
waqala maliku, o'tuni bih.
The king says to him, bring him to
me.
He says, bring Yusuf alayhis salaam to me.
astakhlis hu li nafsi because I'm gonna keep
him for myself.
And keep him for myself means that he
will serve in my court.
falamma kalamahu, qala innaka al yawma ladayna makinun
amin.
Then when it was told to him, when
he spoke to him, he tells him from
now on, you have our trust.
And guess what?
We consider you to be like of the
people who have like a high status.
So you have our trust, you have a
high status.
You also have your reputation intact.
You're good to go.
You're served underneath the king's court.
So the response is that Yusuf alayhis salaam
now gets to have whatever he wants, right?
Imagine you walk into a job and you
ask them, you don't have to even, they
don't even tell you what position you're applying
for.
They say, we trust you to make the
right decision.
What position do you wanna apply for?
What is the job that you want?
And you get handed that job on a
silver platter.
That's weird, like Jannah.
Joke's on you, I'm not trying to work
in Jannah, okay?
So it's like a little bit of goodness
here.
So Yusuf alayhis salaam responds, qala ija'alni
ala huza in al-arut.
He says, make me the treasurer.
That's the job that I want.
I wanna be the one that takes charge
of all of the things that we need
to be able to give out.
So for instance, you have the dream and
in that dream there is a famine.
And he says that this is gonna last
for a long time.
So what we need to do is we
need to make sure that we're not giving
people too much.
We give everybody a certain amount and then
the rest we need to store for the
time of the famine and so that we
can plant seeds to be able to make
sure that we can sustain our grassland for
a long time.
So Yusuf alayhis salaam having known the dream,
knows what's coming up, it's an easy job.
He says, I already know what to do.
In fact, I gave you the solution already.
So he says, make me the treasurer.
Make me the one who's in charge of
just how we're gonna make sure we maintain
the finances of the state as we're going
through these difficulties.
And then he says, inni hafizun.
He gives the first type of quality of
himself.
Now, when we walk into a room and
perhaps maybe we feel like, oh, this person
needs us, right?
We don't feel the need to show our
qualification.
We're like, you know, you better just take
it or leave it.
It is what it is.
But Yusuf alayhis salaam is not like that.
He's still a noble person.
So in his nobility, what does he say?
He says, I am the type of person
that knows how to preserve things.
Hafiz means a preserver.
It means someone who can manage something very
properly.
That's why a person who has memorized the
Quran is called a hafiz, right?
It's not just someone who's memorized.
They don't just memorize, they preserve it.
They do any hafiz knows the true part
of him is actually your revision.
And we've talked about this so much.
The true part of your memorization has nothing
to do with your first memorization, has everything
to do with how you maintain it.
Someone can have a plan and be a
poor executioner, poor.
They can be the scheduler of the century,
but then you get them to sit down
and actually stay the course and like plan
it and be a part of it and
make sure that they are able to retain
talent, all these things, and it's like disaster.
So the first quality that Yusuf alayhis salaam
describes himself as, he says, I'm good at
planning.
I got this and I'm good at protecting
and preserving things and making sure that we
have a follow-up.
The next thing that he says is alimun.
He says, and don't think I don't know
what I'm doing.
Just because the dream was easy for me
to be able to interpret, that's not my
only way of knowledge.
He says, I am knowledgeable.
I know what to do in this situation.
But kadhalika, now it goes back to Allah
subhana wa ta'ala's statement.
And Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, thus,
and just like that, makanna li yusufa fil
arq.
We establish Yusuf alayhis salaam in the land.
We gave him a place for him to
be able to show his expertise.
We gave him a place where he was
able to feel comfortable.
We gave him a place where he's able
to know who he truly is.
And imagine the difficulty that Yusuf alayhis salaam
had once felt in prison.
But that was the most recent difficulty.
Now imagine before that when he was in
the well, right?
These are all places that are unstable.
They're all places where you don't feel like
you have any type of dignity.
His brothers just disregarded him just like that.
And Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, no.
Yusuf, there was always a plan.
But this is not the first time that
Allah subhana wa ta'ala, this is not
the first time that Yusuf alayhis salaam is
hearing that.
Why?
Because what did his father say?
His father told him that the reason why
this is happening to you, the reason why
Allah subhana wa ta'ala is doing this
for you is because your Lord chose you.
He chose you.
This is not by accident.
The life that you're living, the things that
you're coming across, the difficulties that you're encountering,
the wins that you have, because life is
not all difficult.
The wins that you have, these are intentional
things that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has
put in your life for a reason.
They're intentional.
You're supposed to get something out of it.
So before, way back when, when Yusuf has
this dream, and it seems like the most
random dream in the world, Allah subhana wa
ta'ala says, wa kadhalika yajitabika rabbuka that
his father tells him this is because your
Lord has chosen you.
wa yu'alimuka min ta'weedil ahadith and
he wants to teach you how to interpret
dreams which we've seen happen.
And then he says, wa yutimmu ni'matahu alayk.
That completion of his favor upon you.
What does it look like?
Well, it looks like this final round where
Allah subhana wa ta'ala says we've established
Yusuf alayhis salaam in the land.
And then he says, yatabawwa'u minha haythu
yasha and we allowed him to live wherever
he willed.
Wherever he wanted, he could live there.
He picked wherever he wanted to establish himself.
Remember the well?
Not much roaming around there.
Then he was a servant.
It's not much roaming around there.
Then he was in prison.
It's not much roaming around there.
But what did he get out of it?
Something far greater than what he could have
even imagined.
Yeah, Allah subhana wa ta'ala could have
gave him like this high status and then
he had to live in the king's home.
And he would have been happy.
But that's how we think about solutions.
We think about solutions in such a limited
way.
So limited, right?
If we were to think of the life
of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and
think of his time in Mecca and the
difficulty that the Muslims were experiencing and the
persecution that they were facing and think about
a lot of the du'as that some
of the companions are making.
They're phenomenal du'as.
They're du'as for Allah subhana wa ta
'ala to alleviate the difficulty.
They're du'as Allah subhana wa ta'ala
alleviates them or takes them away from the
oppression of other people.
And that is great.
And that in and of itself would have
been a mercy and would have been relief
and it would have been okay.
But what did Allah subhana wa ta'ala
give them?
Allah subhana wa ta'ala gave them Medina.
That's far better.
Yes, the oppression is gone, kind of, but
they have the ability to stand against it,
right?
They have a safe home to sleep in.
They have a safe place to raise their
kids in.
All of a sudden, in Medina, we're getting
rulings about normal day-to-day problems that
we didn't have before in Mecca because there
was so much persecution, people could not think
about their day-to-day life.
Thinking about being kind to your neighbor was
not a thing in Mecca.
Why?
Because my neighbor's trying to kill me.
Now we have Surah al-Hujurat.
What is Allah subhana wa ta'ala talking
about in Surah al-Hujurat?
Don't yell at people.
Be kind to people.
Don't backbite.
Why?
Because now you have the mental, emotional safety
to be able to figure out how to
be a decent person.
But if somebody just made dua, oh Allah,
only thing I want for you is just
to alleviate this difficulty.
What about the other ones that are yet
to come?
Right?
That's why you should not limit Allah subhana
wa ta'ala's power.
So Allah subhana wa ta'ala says that
Yusuf alayhi salam, who was once imprisoned in
a hundred different ways, is now given the
land.
He is given a free reign of wherever
he wants to live.
And then Allah subhana wa ta'ala says,
nusibu bi rahmatina man nasha.
He says, we grant.
We are able to divide our mercy to
whomever we want.
Because someone might say, well, why all of
this for Yusuf?
Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, none of
your business.
When Allah subhana wa ta'ala blesses somebody
with something, guess what?
Because he can.
And because he wanted to.
And he did.
What are we going to do about it?
Nothing.
Just ask God to bless you too.
Why?
Because Allah subhana wa ta'ala's blessing is
vast.
In all of its vastness, it will never
diminish.
There's room for every single person to win.
There's room for every single blessing.
And the beauty of it is that what
I'm looking for in my blessings may not,
is definitely not what you guys are looking
for.
It's most definitely.
Does it have anything to do with your
lifestyle, my lifestyle?
No, it just has to do with different
cars, different life.
I can be in the same house with
someone.
And I promise you, my dua that I
make and my brother's duas are not the
same.
They probably ask for hot Cheetos or something
weird.
Okay?
Poor guys.
Actually, no, they'll be fine.
But it's not the same.
But in its essence, it's not the same.
So Allah subhana wa ta'ala is saying
that he gives to whomever he wills his
rahma in whatever way.
And then he says, wa laa nudee'u
ajar al-muhsineen.
Don't ever think that those who put in
effort, they try their best to do good,
that Allah subhana wa ta'ala would diminish
in the least bit their good.
Just because you don't see the outcome of
your effort right now, doesn't mean that it's
not gonna happen.
Just because you're making dua and you feel
like, oh man, my dua is not being
answered, it doesn't mean that it's not gonna
be answered.
It just may mean it's not the time.
It just may mean actually you need to
go through this.
It just may mean that there's something that
Allah subhana wa ta'ala is trying to
teach you that perhaps he's been trying to
teach you for a long time and this
is what's gonna solidify that.
You ever run to the prayer mat and
make dua about something and then you don't
get that dua answered or maybe it's not
answered in that moment and then when the
dua gets answered, you're like, man, I had
to go through that.
I think I say that every three days.
I'm like, man, what happened this year actually
had to happen.
But in the moment when it's happening, if
someone tells you it has to happen, what
do you wanna do?
Yeah, you wanna punch them in the face.
In your mind, you're thinking to yourself, why
in God's earth would you say that to
me?
What possessed you to say that to me?
You're insensitive, you're this, you're that, whatever.
But reality is that that's exactly what needed
to happen.
It was what was ordained and what was
cut out for you.
Then Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, wala
ajru al-akhirati khayrun milladheena aamanu wakanu yabtaqun.
Just in case you thought that this reward
that Allah subhana wa ta'ala is giving
to Yusuf alayhi salam is the ultimate reward,
it's not.
Because at the end of the day, that's
still materialistic.
Yusuf alayhi salam could have stayed in prison
his entire life and then died in prison
and then went to Jannah and that would
have been more satisfactory for him than being
able to choose wherever he lives in this
world.
So Allah subhana wa ta'ala says the
reward of the hereafter, the reward of the
akhira, the reward that you get from Allah
subhana wa ta'ala by means of his
rahma, right?
By means of his rahma, we put an
effort in this world, Allah subhana wa ta
'ala multiplies it.
He multiplies it, he blows it out of
the water for you.
And then you get even more in Jannah.
You get even more in Jannah.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala increases you and
increases you and increases you.
There's a narration, it's so beautiful that Allah
subhana wa ta'ala talks about in the
Quran how those who do good, they will
be given good, okay?
So those who do good, they will be
getting husna.
And then Allah subhana wa ta'ala says
waz ziyada and more.
And it's one of my favorite narrations.
Why?
Because in the narration in Sahih Muslim, the
Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is asked by
some of the companions, what does ziyada mean?
So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says
that in the hereafter, the believers will be
in Jannah.
And while the people are in Jannah, they're
there, they're enjoying.
Like they're literally enjoying Jannah, okay?
Allah subhana wa ta'ala will come to
them and Allah subhana wa ta'ala will
ask them, do you want more?
And the believers will respond, the people of
Jannah will respond and say, ya Allah, how
can we want more?
When we have done so much wrong in
this world, there's no way that our deeds,
the amount of good deeds that we put,
equate it to this eternity of good, right?
There's no way.
So we have done so much wrong, you
saved us from the hellfire.
You introduced us into Jannah.
You gave us this eternity of happiness to
be able to enjoy.
How could we want more?
And then Allah subhana wa ta'ala will
ask them again, do you want, is there
anything more?
They said, how can we want more if
whatever we think of, we get it?
You don't even have to, thinking sometimes is
a lot of work.
You don't have to think the second thought.
You don't have to think the first thought.
Imagine you just like feel it, you know?
You know how sometimes you just feel a
certain way and you're like, I don't really
know what I want is there.
Boom, okay, it's right there in front of
you.
So they say, whatever we ask for, whatever
we think of, we get it.
There's no more and more that we can
want.
And then Allah subhana wa ta'ala will
say to them, Allah subhana wa ta'ala
will reveal to them himself, right?
And whatever way that that matters, whatever way
that is understood, it is something that is
beyond our comprehension.
And then you know what the people of
Jannah will respond?
They will say that this is the more
we didn't even know we wanted or needed.
We thought it was outside of the realm
of possibility.
And Allah subhana wa ta'ala is saying
in Jannah, there is nothing that is outside
of the realm of possibility, something you cannot
comprehend in this world.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala will give it
to you in the hereafter.
He will give it to you in Jannah.
But it's important to realize that it is
for those, al-lazeena aamanu, who believe wa
kaanu yattaqun.
It's not just belief.
It's not just belief.
I can say I believe all day, but
as long as I don't act upon it,
I'm not showing it.
So Allah subhana wa ta'ala said, and
what did they used to do?
They used to be very God-conscious and
aware of Allah.
And God-consciousness allows you to develop your
worldview.
How am I gonna carry myself?
In what way am I gonna speak?
In what way am I gonna eat?
In what way am I gonna be the
person who works at this job?
Or what way am I gonna be a
mother?
Or what way am I gonna be a
daughter?
It allows you to understand in every role
that you play, the most important role that
you play as a servant of God.
That is the most important role.
And so long as you're able to fulfill
that with the proper rights and responsibilities, then
you will fulfill everything else in the way
that you should.
Then Yusuf alayhi salam, then it goes back
to the story of Yusuf alayhi salam.
Well, Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, wajaa
ihwa to Yusuf.
And then the brothers of Yusuf alayhi salam
came because they used to live in the
outskirts of the city.
So they lived in some villages around and
everybody was now coming to get their weight
in food.
We have a little bit of time.
So everybody was coming to get their weight
in food.
So it says, wajaa ihwa to Yusuf, that
the brothers of Yusuf alayhi salam came.
Fadakhalu alayhi.
And they came and presented themselves before Yusuf
alayhi salam.
Fa'arafahum wahum lahum munkirun.
And they presented themselves to him.
And Yusuf alayhi salam knew them, but they
did not know him.
Now you remember way back when Yusuf alayhi
salam was inside of the well.
And when he was inside of the well,
Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells Yusuf alayhi
salam, don't worry because you're gonna meet them
again.
And when you meet them again, you're gonna
know them, but they're not gonna know you.
So now that's coming true.
But you know, sometimes when someone says to
us, this is gonna happen, you're like, yeah.
And when, what time, how should I dress
and who all gonna be there?
Those are your questions.
Like you have so many questions.
But when Allah subhana wa ta'ala said
this to Yusuf alayhi salam he didn't have
questions because that's where true trust is, right?
Think about that one friend you trust to
actually plan the trip.
I have a few of those by the
way, okay?
I have a few, I'm a trusted friend,
I have a few.
But think about that one friend you trust.
You know how people say I go to
the airport with my older sister, I turn
my brain off?
That's trust, right?
Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells Yusuf alayhi
salam, in this well, you're gonna meet them
again, which means you're gonna survive.
And you're gonna know them, which means that
you're gonna survive with your cognitive ability, with
your mental health.
You're gonna be fine, you're gonna be healthy.
They're not gonna know you, which means maybe
you'll have to apprehend, right?
So Yusuf alayhi salam, what does he does?
Well, God said I'm gonna be okay, guess
what?
I might as well just keep going because
I'm going to be okay.
So Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us
here that Yusuf alayhi salam, he knew them,
but they were so unaware of him.
It wasn't even that they didn't perceive who
he was.
Because a perception means maybe a little bit,
you could have actually known, but they were
so unaware.
It was as if they didn't recognize him
at all.
And then Allah subhana wa ta'ala says,
walamma jahazahum bi jahazihim.
And once he gave them their portions from
the portions that was there, qalatuni bi akhilakum
min abikum.
He says, it seems like you guys have
a lot of family, right?
There's a lot more family members that you
have.
And they tell him like, yeah, we have
another brother.
He's with our dad.
He says, bring him.
And if you bring him to us, ala
tarona anni ufil kayla, then I will give
you more.
And don't you see me to be someone
who fulfills the proper measurement?
Like, I'm not trying to cheat you, but
I need to make sure.
So you need to bring the rest of
your family.
wa'ana khayrun munzileen.
And I'm of the best host.
Like, I'm not here, I don't want to
make anything difficult for you.
I'm just trying to make it easy.
You guys came in here, you came to
the town.
I gave you your measures.
I was kind to you.
I was loving towards you.
Just bring your brother.
Now, the brother that he's talking about is
Binyamin.
And Binyamin is Yusuf Ali's son's little brother.
And can you imagine the type of difficulty
that Yusuf Ali's son went through for being
on the younger side of the scale of
the brothers?
And how much agony he may have gone
through over the years for thinking about his
baby brother.
Because typically, when you're not there, if you're
the one who are getting a lot of
the hate, and now you're not there, then
that hate goes to someone else.
And so Yusuf Ali's son was thinking to
himself that Binyamin must be going through it.
Something must be happening.
So he's trying to see if his brother
is well without exposing to them who he
is.
Because also, it's been years.
He doesn't know what game his brothers are
playing.
Did they repent?
Did they not?
Are they better?
Are they not?
He's being smart.
Why?
Because a believer doesn't get bit by the
same snake twice.
Okay?
Doesn't mean you kill the snake, but you
don't get bit by it.
Right?
So that means that you know what's happening.
You should be aware, and you should carry
yourself accordingly.
And then he says, fa innam ta'tunni bi
falakay lalakum bi'indi wa la taqarabun.
He says, if you don't bring him, then
know that you're not gonna be able to
get any more of the provisions, because I
need to make sure, and that you won't
be able to approach to try to convince.
Right?
Because typically, when someone says no to something,
when someone says no to something, then you
try to convince them out of it.
So he says, no, you won't be able
to approach me to convince me.
Qalu sanurah diwa'anhu abahu wa inna lafainoon.
So they look at him, and they say,
okay, well, we have to go not inform
our father.
No.
They said, we're gonna try to win him
over from our dad.
We're gonna try to win him over.
Why?
Do you think that Yaakub al-Islam was
letting Benjamin go anywhere?
After what y'all did to Yusuf, you
came with this shirt, you said a whole
wolf ate him, the shirt's not broken up,
nothing happened, you're just drenching wolf blood, and
I was supposed to believe that?
Now you wanna take Benjamin?
So they literally, they don't say we're gonna
go and tell our dad.
They said, now we have to go and
win our dad over.
Wa inna lafainoon.
And that's something that we really have to
do.
Because now they're concerned with bringing the food
back.
Qala lafityanihi, that Yusuf al-Islam said to
one of his assistants, ija'alu bida'atahum
fi rihalihim.
He says, go and put some extra provisions
into their carriage.
Go give them a little bit more.
The reason why he wanted to do this
was so that they can know that he
was trustworthy.
If they go, they open, they see they
got a lot more than they were supposed
to get, it will make them feel better
and feel more compelled to try and convince
their father.
La'al lahum ya'arifoonaha idhan qalabu ila
ahlihim, la'al lahum yarijoon.
And that they will see it when they
go back to their people, and then they
will be very excited to be able to
return.
Falamma rajaru ila abihim, when they went to
their father, qalu ya'abana, they first sat
down and they told their dad, oh, our
father, moni aminna alqaylu, well, we didn't get
the exact provisions that we were supposed to
get.
Fa'arsal ma'ana ahana, so send our
brother with us, naqtal wa inna lahu lahafizoon,
and we'll get what we're supposed to get,
and we'll protect him.
What did they say about Yusuf?
They even went harder with Yusuf.
They said, we'll protect him, and we're usba,
we're a group of people, we're a group,
we're a pact.
They literally used like we're a pact.
And if we lose him and we're a
pact, then we're losers, right?
So now they're bringing this, and they're saying,
well, we'll protect him.
Qala, then he responds to them, Ya'aqoub
responds to them, hal amanukum alihi illa kama
amintukum ala akhihi min qamal?
He says, should I really trust you all
to take bin Yamin?
Like I trust you guys before?
Because you're telling me to trust you.
But this is like deja vu.
We went down this road before.
And he says, fallahu khayrun hafidha.
You telling me that you're gonna protect him
is not what's gonna convince me, because Allah
is the better preserver and protector.
You and your protection means nothing.
Remember, nahnu usba, we're a big group, we're
a pact.
What happened to that pact?
What happened to it?
You didn't bring my son back to me.
And then he says, wahuwa alhamul rahimin.
And I always find this to be so
beautiful, that Ya'aqoub alayhi salam adds at
the end, and he's the most merciful of
those who are merciful.
And the reason why I find this to
be beautiful is because we were talking about
it a little bit the other day, that
sometimes we don't realize Allah's mercy in the
midst of difficulty.
We don't realize God's mercy in the, we
were talking about on Thursday.
We don't realize Allah's mercy in the midst
of difficulty.
Why?
Because when the tough is toughing, a lot
of times in your mind, you feel like
this is only difficult.
There's no good here.
And what Ya'aqoub alayhi salam is saying
is that I'm not upset at the difficulty.
I'm not upset.
He's not mad at the difficulty, because he
already told Yusuf what was gonna happen, and
he knew that that was the moment, and
this is what was gonna happen.
He's not upset at the difficulty.
He's not upset at Allah.
Why?
Because Allah is ever so merciful.
He still has his other children.
Ya'aqoub alayhi salam still is carrying out
his responsibilities as a prophet.
He still has his life.
He still has so many things that he
is grateful for.
And only at the hands of Allah's mercy
is he able to have those things.
So he recognizes that.
But what is bothering him?
What is bothering him is that his sons
are acting like nothing happened.
That's what's bothersome.
At least, at least, if you're gonna do
something, then do it in a way that
you acknowledge your difficulty.
You acknowledge your mistake.
They're not acknowledging their mistake.
They're literally saying to him, we're gonna protect
him.
We're gonna protect Benjamin, which was the same
thing that they had said about Yusuf alayhi
salam.
And so for him, in this moment, you
can imagine that he's getting a little bit
of deja vu that is not really sitting
well with him.
And then he says, okay, we're gonna cover
this last ayah.
And then it says, walamma fatahum mata'ahum,
that when they went and they opened up
their bags, wajadu bida'atahum ruddat ilayhim.
They saw that all of the provisions, the
goods that they had, that Yusuf alayhi salam
told them that he wasn't gonna give them,
was given to them.
Everything and then some.
Qalu, they then went and they said, ya
abana ma nabughi.
They said, oh, our father, we don't need
this.
We don't need to go back and banter
and we don't need to go back and
negotiate.
He's given us exactly what we needed.
Hadhihi bida'atuna ruddat ilayna.
This is exactly what we went to go
get and it's been returned to us.
Wannameeru ahlana, wannahfadu akhana, wannasda'adu kayla ba
'idin.
And then they said, so we should go
back and we can get more for the
household.
Remember, they're also like, Yusuf, Yaqub alayhi salam
is a prophet and he's looking over the
entire land.
So they're like, we can go back, we
can get so much, we can help so
many other people and we will keep our
brother safe.
And then he says, wannameeru ahlana, wannahfadu akhana,
wannasda'adu kayla ba'idin.
And we can get an entire camel full
because before they were only giving certain portions
for a amount of people.
So they said, listen, we take him there,
we got this without him, imagine what we
can get when he's there.
Dhalika kaylun yaseel.
This is so easy.
So easy.
It's like, it's like one plus one equals
two.
Qala lan ursalahu ma'akum.
He says, I'm not sending him with you.
Hatta tu'tuni mawthikan minallahi.
Until you give me a promise and you
swear to God.
I don't want your promise.
I don't want your empty promises.
I want a promise that you have and
is attached to.
Allah.
Until you give me a promise that you're
attached to God.
La ta'tunani bi illa an yuhata bikum.
That you will bring him back at every
cost except in a situation that you're surrounded.
If it becomes a situation where you're surrounded,
you'll leave from there.
But that is the only, that is the
only way you cannot bring him back.
Falamma a'tohu mawthikahum qalallahu ala ma nakulu wakeelun.
Then when they gave him the promise, then
he said to them, he said to them,
our words are entrusted to God.
Meaning that Allah SWT is a witness to
this.
Right?
So whatever happens after this is actually not
between me and you.
It's between you and Allah.
And this is where Yaqub alayhi salam puts
his trust in God a second time.
A second time he trusts Allah.
Now what do we learn from this today?
There's a number of things.
Number one is that trust in Allah is
not just words.
It is action.
And so long as you don't put that
into action, the little things in life, when
bigger things happen, it's gonna make it extremely
difficult for you to do it.
Number two, Allah's plan is always the best
plan.
It is always the best plan.
It does not matter how much you think
you know.
It does not matter how much experience you
have.
Your experience in comparison to God's all-encompassing
knowledge is a drop of water in the
sea.
Not even.
It is like a grain of sand in
the midst of the grain of sand in
all of the world.
It does not mean anything.
Why?
Because would I trust someone who knows like
1% of something?
No, I wouldn't.
And the reality of that is that because
we're in a bubble, you know when you're
kind of like, they say when someone has
a little bit of knowledge, they think they
know everything.
So because we have a little bit of
knowledge, we think we know everything, but Allah
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has an
infinite amount of knowledge, so therefore he truly
does know everything.
It's time for you to put that armor
down.
It's time for you to stop fighting God's
plan.
It's time for you to stop fighting against
Allah.
And I know that sounds like really harsh
and it sounds really heavy, but it's the
reality of what we do every single day.
And it's time to wake up every single
morning and say, yeah, Allah, I trust you
and I've trusted you and I will continue
to trust you.
Make it easy on my heart because that
armor goes up because you're scared.
But who can be scared when Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is accompanying them
on that journey?
And it's the same thing that the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told Abu Bakr as-Siddiq
radiyallahu ta'ala anhu in the Mount Thor.
When Abu Bakr as-Siddiq was stressed and
he's literally having this anxiety, he's so scared
and he's breathing heavy, Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
says, what, inna Allah ha ma'ana, that
Allah is with us.
And if Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la is with you, then there's no mountain
too high to scale.
There's no difficulty too difficult to get through.
There's no amount of hardship that you cannot
have sabr through.
And this is what we're learning through the
story of Yusuf alayhi as-salam.
So I pray that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la allows us to benefit from
everything that we heard here today.
I pray that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la forgives us of our shortcomings, that
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la allows
us to be people who put our trust
in him, not only in words, but in
action.
I pray that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la allows us to gather in a
gathering much better than this.
And that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la allows us to be people that on
the day of judgment, we drink from the
blessed hands of the Prophet Sallallahu Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la alleviates the difficulty
of our brothers and sisters around the world,
and those that are oppressive and they do
wrong, and they prevent people from their natural,
normal human needs, that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la deals with them in whatever
way he sees fit.
Subhanakallahumma bihamdika nashadu an la ilaha illa anta
nastaghfiruka wa nattubu ilayk JazakAllah khayran Assalamu alaikum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuh