Mohammad Elshinawy – Best of Stories – Study of Surat Yusuf #23
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The speakers discuss the importance of being honest and validating one's testimony to gain ground and avoid damaging one's reputation. They also touch on the concept of forgiveness and the definition of patient. The speakers stress the importance of showing patience and avoiding harms' emotions, and advise against sharing negative experiences and complaining about one's pain. They also emphasize the need for strength and resources for comfort with Allah and avoiding harms' emotions.
AI: Summary ©
smilla hamdulillah salat wa salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was a huge man I prayer well everyone May Allah azza wa jal make us a new people of the haoran and make us of those who the chorale intercede for through our many, many slip ups throughout our lives. And may Allah zildjian make all of our actions righteous, make them sincerely for his sake and not allow any of his creation a share of our intentions. We ask Allah subhana wa Taala to brighten our minds with the hold on and purify our hearts with it.
As we asked him as a jelly, jelly gelato to teach us that which will benefit us and benefit us with that which he has taught us and to increase us in knowledge for he is the knower of everything unseen, Aparna, Hola, Donna. So I have to do something interesting, which is hit the road. And so I'm, I've made a mental note of the reflections I wanted to make. And hopefully, I don't shortchange you this week, but I felt like
a, a highway clip of reflections is better than a week without reflections. And I swear, I'm not looking at the notes.
But I have written them out quite thoroughly. So in sha Allah, they should be somewhat coherent. Bismillah. So in this segment of the best of stories, the story of use of Allah, his Salatu, salam, we find that there's like a very interesting transition, because last week, as you can review the tape, if you will, there was the brother that was going to stay behind, telling
his brothers go back to your father and say, to him,
such and such happened. And we could only testify to what we knew, and we didn't know the unseen, we didn't know what's gonna happen. And we didn't know that he didn't steal, we didn't have any counter evidence, all of that.
And then here, it says, What's an area and ask the city, the town that we were in, you know, ask ask all of Egypt. And when he, when he had asked the rest of the caravan, apparently they weren't traveling alone, ask the rest of the caravan that we just came back to you with. We're in a lasagna phone. We're being honest here. So the very interesting shift is that it doesn't say they went back to their father and they told their father, it's just the brothers saying, say this. And it's almost as if
it was said that is implied it was already said to the Father, because the mmediately thereafter, you will see the verses, the father responds and says, so the instructions are being stated in Egypt. And then the quick shift, very eloquent shift is the father response. But before the Father yahoomail, asylums response,
I want to call your attention to a few points of benefits in Sharla. Sorry that the lights don't look like they're going to be helping us today.
Oh, there we go. That's decent.
They were not challenged,
or at least not challenged yet about their story, which is a true story that, you know, our brother was apprehended was strapped, arrested by, you know, the Egyptian Government.
What they said and ask everyone asked the people of Egypt as the people that are in the caravan with us. And that just shows you how
poor credibility they have, and they know that they have it. You see,
when you know you lose credibility in the sight of the people, you need 1001 other people to testify for you, people that have their own credibility. And that is a lesson in and of itself. If you want to catch it in passing, that lying sometimes will get you ahead for a moment. But it does so much long term damage that you need so many honest moments thereafter, or honest testimonies thereafter to make up for your one lie, whether that's you being honest, over and over and over again in the future, or so many other honest people to validate your testimony in the future. And so it takes so much more work to fix a life
than whatever perk you gained temporarily momentarily by lying. And Omar Abdullah Hondo
i don't i think this has been like the most often I've ever quoted Omar about the Allah Han.
In any series in I don't know why I'm just reflecting here psychologically. I think it's just because I've quoted online so much that every time I think about these around a Salaam I,
I think about Omar, and so I guess his narration is come to mind. Maybe also because there's a story in my head that I heard early on a narration that Omar macabre, the low on wood would weep heavily
When he would recite sort of use of insolvent venture, in any case, so what about the line about lying, he says, so profound about how much like work it takes after to make up for one lie, that it's just so unwise to lie. He says, for honesty, to hold me back. I may have shared this with you for honesty to hold me back. And it hardly ever does is dear to me. And then for this honesty to move me forward to gain me some ground, and it hardly ever does. Meaning I'd rather be disadvantaged by being honest.
Even though I hardly will ever be disadvantaged by honesty, meaning ultimately, that's so much better than being dishonest and getting some sort of advantage as a result of my dishonesty, but there hardly ever is an advantage in being dishonest very wise of him because that because it's so short lived, and it comes with such a high build such a high tax. And so they said ask everyone ask everyone even before someone told them you're lying they just said we know you don't believe most basically, well in Allah saw the phone.
And then you have full body Sam responds and says
Mensa welcome on full circle. mamre No, you're you're up to something again. Your souls have enticed you to something again, same statement. He said to them the first time when they got rid of Yusuf Ali said in the beginning of the story, and then he says for subtitling jahmene
and so beautiful patience. Isola TV him Jimmy and perhaps Allah will soon bring them all back to me. In nahu Allah Allah mode Hakeem, he certainly is the all knowing the all wise. And so what does it mean?
For subtitling Jimmy, then a beautiful patience or then patience is beautiful, it actually means either or, or both. But the point is, it could mean either of those statements or both of them not necessarily one or the other.
Sub neuron gemi sobre means patience. Jamil means beautiful.
Does this mean sub neuron Jamil
means patience is beautiful. Meaning patience is because if you're not patient, you'll just miss out on the reward and you'll be okay with things later. Right? So patience is always a beautiful thing to do. So is that what he means by somebody and Jimmy, patients beautiful, meaning patients is beautiful, or his patients beautiful? Me does it mean here I will show a law a patience that is beautiful, meaning a high level of patience.
And that's where my bias leads me I lean to that view. And there is a
a profound
or an insightful distinction that you can assign a teammate about him Allah makes in his definition of somebody and Jimmy. He says we find three virtuous actions in the Quran that are qualified by the word Jimmy and that Allah Subhana Allah tada you know, essentially enjoins upon us calls us to, they are suffering Jimmy patients that is beautiful, a beautiful level of patience. hedgerow and Jimmy, shunning people are ignoring people in a beautiful way. And soft shell and Jimmy foster myself Hi, Jimmy. Beautiful forgiveness, forgiveness, that is beautiful. He says and these are all the highest level of those actions. He says so let's go backwards. Patient forgiveness that is beautiful, is
forgiveness that involves no mention of the
of the crime like you, you really forgave him for God it really like no matter what happens, you never bring it up again. Because sometimes, you know, you forgive someone, yes, you forgot your right to retaliate per se right? But you still mention it. And so that that takes away from the purity of the forgiveness.
And the most beautiful form of forgiveness, the forgiveness that does not involve any reprimand thereafter. And then I hedged on Jimmy and Allah subhanaw taala spoke about the abusers of the prophet SAW suddenly said well, gentlemen, hi, john jameelah and shun them with a beautiful, shunning. Meaning when you ignore them, ignore them without retaliating. You know, like
a person can, you know, punch back if you will retaliate back, you know, literally or figuratively, and then say, Okay,
now that's it. I'm not gonna deal with them anymore so that I don't fall into this again, or I don't
stoop to that level again. Or that still noble right that you put a roadblock between yourself and reciprocating, you know, hostility and so on and so forth. But hedgerow and Jimmy a beautiful shunning is that you take the high road consistently and from the beginning.
And here coming now back to the verse, attend subtotal and Jimmy beautiful patience. He says his patience that does not involve any complaint to the creation of Allah subhanho wa Taala. It doesn't involve complaining to anyone of illustration, because you can be patient in a sense that you do not disbelieve in Allah upon a calamity. You do not object to Allah and show resentment and that patience is mandatory to stay Muslim. But there's a lesser form of expressing discontentment, right, which is complaining to people about your ordeal. And beautiful patience meaning the the height, the pinnacle of patience that you don't mention it to anyone in a complaint form, like you can mention
to a doctor so that he can give you the prescription, but you're not just venting to people, you're not just you know,
soliciting their their sympathy or their empathy as we'll talk about a little later inshallah. People should be giving that but you're not soliciting it. And so you're not complaining to people. That is mandatory for beautiful patience, not objecting to Allah, not questioning him not showing resentment to Allah. That's mandatory for just bare minimum patience mandatory for staying Muslim right.
But bare minimum for beautiful patience is that it is patience without complaint to the creation. So iacobelli salam said for subtitling Jimmy, I'm going to show a love for myself in this compounded agony. The most beautiful form of patience.
Isola Helen yet dnab him Jimmy and perhaps Allah will soon bring them all back to me. In a hoo hoo and Arlene will Hakeem because he is the all knowing the all wise and that is by the way, you know of the tips on how to exemplify beautiful patience by remembering Allah. right he is the knowing he is the wise you know, you need to fixate on him soprano with Allah, you know, and fixate on his wisdom and his promise and his reward. That doesn't mean the bitterness will disappear but it will be eclipsed by the sweetness of the reward, the bitterness of the
pain will be eclipsed and smothered and tempered by the sweetness of the reward and the sweetness of connecting with Allah subhanho wa Taala who chose you for these lofty ranks through this ordeal?
No who I named will Hakeem.
And then we'll turn on him and then he says he turned away from them. Notice notice that so even Tamia was citing in that previous discussion I shared with you he says he turned away from them and he said yeah SFL Allah use of all my agony all my my sorrow, sorrow is a good word here SFR my sorrow over use of like think about like this is his brother was just taken away. And now he is saying oh my deep sorrow over use of so it triggered the old injury it peeled that door gashed opened up that wound, it aggravated that wound again, that never really healed ever healed. You know, use it was not part of the discussion. Right? But for your whole body slam, everything reminds
them of you. So he's never recovered from that pain. And he didn't say this to them. Remember, he's not complaining of Allah to the he says to Allah, Allah pointed out that he turned away from them and said this meaning he said this to himself or the other interpretation in the Josie Rahim Allah gives, he says, or he meant by it. Oh Allah have mercy on my sorrow for overuse. It was intended to be Menagerie to be an intimate intimate dialogue with Allah subhanho wa Taala.
And so, this number one shows you is not complaining to the creation he's complaining to Allah azza wa jal subhanho wa Taala. But it also shows the prolonged grief. So to be depressed. You know, someone asked me recently, can you? Is it correct to say that a prophet went through depression? And it's really about semantics here. What do you mean by depression? If you mean by depression, that he was injured by his pain, and he the pain lingered with him for a long time, prolonged grief? I mean, what does this verse say? Like they're talking about Benjamin and his brother, and he says, Oh, my sorrow over use of it is definitely prolonged grief.
Fear and is definitely a great deal of pain. In fact, the very next versus the very next words in this verse art will be up Bettina, hoomin and husband, and his eyes went white, from sadness from hosing it from grief, for who are kaeleen? Because he was suppressing it, he was suppressing it for so long.
And so there's your answer. If that's what you mean by depression, then your whole body's solemn, fits that description. But if and this might be, I actually don't know, but this might be the more common definition of grief, that grief is when you become hopeless,
then no definitely to be inappropriate and unbefitting to describe any righteous person, let along you know, the prophets of Allah, let alone the prophets of Allah subhanho wa Taala with hopelessness, because as you will see, and this discussion today is all about that passage, these three four verses, the his eyes went white, meaning he went blind, according to so many interpreters that you know, how some of the coloration of the pupil fades when people are blind,
certain kinds of blindness in particular, right. And so he lost his eyesight, but he never lost his hope in Allah. And that is just
why this story has to revolve around the use of Allah His Salaam and the Hobart a Salaam and we need to be reading it, you know, until the end of time. Because no matter what pain you're going through, if your heart is in the right place, if you're a man and Allah subhanho wa Taala is solid, it will never cause you to look at Allah any different, it will be a means of elevating you more and more and it will never breach you know your inner core because your inner core is is Allah subhanho wa Taala your your fixation on him, your understanding about him and what he told you the nature of this world, the nature of the next all of that right? So it will never break you. So we'll be Dinah
home and then Jose in his eyes grew wide from sadness for work Aleem for he was a suppressor of that sadness he was pressing, suppressing it
Carlota la devtodev, Kuru use of the coonawarra been out to quantum then head again. And then they said, you're gonna keep your your brain of use of again, you're going to keep bringing up use of until you become hot on how they say means.
on the brink of death, it's translated as disease and some of the translations of the hold on but yeah, until you grow ill and become, you know, on your deathbed. Because of this had the decline of heroin eltek una malakian, or be of those who die altogether, you're gonna kill yourself over this. And what an awful response, right? An awful, awful response. You know, she's eyelid Fifi, have you the whole lot. He says that? Can you imagine that they targeted his loved ones, like use a valet system. And now they're targeting him over the memory of his loved ones.
Monaco sent off a low ticket. And so what are we supposed to do when someone's in pain? You're supposed to empathize, tried to share their pain, if you cannot empathize and at least sympathize like at least be considerate of their pain, you know, be shown with regard for their pain. And by the way, this pain, the reason behind it doesn't necessarily have to be justified,
doesn't necessarily have to be justified.
And Abdullah have no vagueness. selu the head of the hypocrites in Medina is a very good example of that. He was in so much pain as a result of his hatred, his envy of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam because, you know, something that almost never happened before. Allison has alleged that, you know, the Arabs of Medina, they were at each other's throats for decades. And they will finally having a truce and they finally chose like a single leader, which was Abdullah hypnobabies Santos, who became the head of the hypocrites, and so they were literally putting together his crown putting, you know, the gemstones on his crown, to crown Him, their king, the king of Medina, and
moments before he gets crowned king who comes to town, the profits of a lot of artists that have migrated to Medina. That is why he could not get past it. And yet despite that, the prophet Allah his thought was Saddam was so consider that with no bait when he heard the explanation. Seven or was it Oh, he also Allah, you know, just take it easy on me. He's, he's having a rough day or a fear. You know, he he was just getting ready to be crowned king. And until Allah blessed us with your coming. And so he did la Sato Salam if you read the theater carefully, so many times he accepted things for him. He said he will tolerated him accepted his intersections, prayed for him until Allah
forbid him from praying for him eating at his janazah all of that was really special treatment. Why? in hopes that he could rescue him from his emotions. And so even if you don't understand someone's pain, or even if someone's pain isn't justified, you still want to look for the best way to help them.
cope with it. That's very important. I would say that so one of my biggest regrets is telling certain family members, you shouldn't be thinking this way, you don't have a right to be upset about that, then you're being upset about something that Allah didn't grant you
the wrong way to process it wrong way to deal with it the wrong way to help people get past it, overcome it. So they said this to him, and they should not have said this to him. And it's a lesson for us on how do we react when people are in pain in front of us. be empathetic, if not be sympathetic. Like amaravati Allah, you know how my life is a battle of bed that day, the prophet SAW, Selim was wondering, should we ran some of these captives off? Or should we execute them? Because it was the first battle and the ideal what would in the bigger picture, save more lives? And, you know, accelerate or Rushmore peace into the end of it? And so what could I do? lavon said,
No, let's, let's, let's run some of them, you know, just or even like release some for free and, of course, some others to be paid off by their families. For a reasonable amount, it really was a reasonable amount. Some of them even if they taught some reading and writing to the to the Muslims in Medina, they let them go. It wasn't about money, but it was at the same time about making a statement to help get past the hostilities. So anyway, welcome to the video. Let's go that route. I'm going to wrap up said no, you're sort of law. We have to make our presence felt and we have to, you know, do this and I'll begin with my own family members that are captives.
Because this is the way to do things. And so the Arabs only respect strength.
Ultimately, the prophet alayhi salatu wa sallam, he leaned to clemency forgiveness and mercy. And so he released them for the ransom. And then oh vaca so therefore the law This is like Muslim Nova so do della Han is sitting there with the problem of Salaam we think they're both crying, and unbearable. Gotta pass by this is why are you crying? Coming back to empathy, sympathy, understanding, right?
Why are you crying for a few if, give me a reason to cry, and I'll cry with you. Basically, he says, What in legend, buka and tabacky to librecad a coma. And if I can't find grounds for crying, meaning your explanation doesn't trigger anything in me. I will attempt almost pretend but he means attempt to cry out of sympathy for your crying. That's what I said about the lawn. And so for O'Meara de la Juan has this emotional intelligence and this you know, sympathy, strong, tough aroma, then all of us
should put it on our
you know, yesterday, before today to do list, we need to be better at this inshallah. The last two verses very quickly, I'm trying to keep it under 30 minutes. Their father responded and said in Mr. shikou, bethey, what was needed Allah, I am only expressing my Beth and my husband to Allah. So Beth and hosting our sadness. But there's a useful distinction here for our reflection, which is what is the difference between birth and hosting, they're two different words, they're probably two different connotations there is, there are different levels of sadness. So Beth means to spill out. That's why even you know, to, like spread.
That's why even live broadcasts, live broadcasts and like modern language, it's called the best broadcast more batshit that is life that is direct. And so best to means, you know, so they say Beth is different from Jose and Jose is the common word for grief or sadness, that is more general that encompasses lower sadness, higher sadness, all sadness, but he said first, I only complain of my Beth meaning my sadness, which I cannot suppress. You see, the Arabs will use the word veth with sadness that was unbearable, to bearable to be quiet about must be released. And so he's saying the things I must release, I'm releasing them only to Allah. I'm not talking to you.
And so that, first of all shows sovereign Jimmy we spoke about that already twice to Allah, He turned away from them and did Yes, FL mics are overused. And now again, he's saying that which I can't keep inside, I release it to a lot. I'm not releasing it to you.
And so that's beautiful patience. But also there's something else here. It's the strength of the believer. The strength of the believer.
Is that because he has this connection with Allah, and you know,
venting mechanism sounds a little bit inappropriate, you know, has this resource for comfort with Allah subhanho wa Taala. You know, has this escape, emotional escape in his conversations with Allah, that I'm not looking for your sympathy. I don't need you. You can't offer me anything and in general
We are we should always talk about solidarity and all of this. But we should also balance that with the idea that we shouldn't customarily, you know, speak to people about our sadness. Yes, survival stories are important. I'm not contradicting what I said last week, but just in general, just like bad news, you know, like he's saying, if I have to speak, I'm going to speak to Allah. Yeah. us, we just share a lot of negativity. Yeah, these things, whether it is the you know, that that stuff, that muttering and stuttering and, you know, negative expressions, and because like, if you're always bothered,
that's no one can really solve that for you. So why share it with your friends, because it's only going to make them sad, they're just gonna feel bad for you without being able to help. You know, if you want to have like a pointed discussion with a therapist, or one person that can probably advise you, or someone you need to vent to, you know, that's fine. It's not something on jahmene, but it's definitely something and love's gonna reward you for it and everything, right, as long as it's not a complaint.
And if it's a complaint, then it's only to Allah subhanaw taala. Anyway, but you should have this in a in a very sparing way. But in general, you shouldn't just be like, bursting out to people spreading your bad news and your complaints to people or your, your pains to people, because if they're friends, it's just going to be too much for them. And so they will be saddened for your sadness and not be able to help. And then if your enemies catch wind of this, that's going to not be very good, either. Because that's just going to delight them. So that's why they say be sparing with your expressions of frustration, your expressions of
sadness, you know, be very calculated and pointed, and, you know, sell them share them.
I hope that's not all over the place. So if you need to speak for help, shouldn't be speaking. That's one category, right? If you need to complain, try to complain to Allah. And if you need to complain to his creation, fine, it's not ideal. But make sure you're not complaining about Allah, you're just complaining about your pains, right? You're not saying Why did I do this? That would never be acceptable, right? You need to complain to people find complaints of people, you know, infrequently in a direct specific way.
That's all
and of course, if you're
sharing with people to help them through their pains, that is something else completely that is, you know,
you identifying with them to help them through that. So that's totally fine for sure. The last idea, and we're out of time, he says, All My Sons go find use of
you know what that means, like in the middle of this like, like, Oh, my son, like, did listen, enough is enough. Just cut the lies. Go find your brother. go fix things. I know he's alive. I know he's, I know he's alive. You know, the earlier we dig she didn't cover that at the end of the previous verse. I complain of my the things I can't suppress only to Allah. And I know from Allah what you don't know. You know, I know from Allah what you don't know he'll he knows these relics, and he was alive. He just doesn't know how much longer he's gonna have to be without him. Right? And so he says, Oh, my sons go find your brother. Go find use of where he and his brother Benjamin,
while at a es una rohilla and do not lose hope in the relief of Allah in the forgiveness of Allah like relieving you of your sins.
Now hola esta Moroccan la Hillel como Cafiero. Nobody loses hope in the mercy of Allah and the relief of a lot except the disbelieving people. So he's telling them like, middle of all of this, that I'm going to kill him off with grief. You tell him No, I'm not complaining to you. And I'm telling you, you need to go fix your wrongs. Enough is enough. Just come clean already. And go undo.
You know, all of this that you've fallen into, and don't lose hope in the mercy of Allah. So the context here is, is
don't lose hope in the mercy of Allah from your sins. You know, she had this lamb when he was commenting on this verse of knit Samia. He says it is extremely important for every Muslim to know that it is utterly impermissible. No matter how great your sins are, it is haraam. Like you've done harm, but you need to know that it is even more hard onto those mercy and to lose hope in the mercy of Allah to despair in the mercy of Allah. He said and that is why the early scholars used to always say that
the wise man does not embolden people to transgress those boundaries, like he gives them too much of a dose of Allah's mercy if they forget his punishment, he doesn't embolden people to transgress those boundaries, nor does he scare people into losing sight of Allah has
vast mercy upon without and so that was like medicine, right? When you want to help people. You need to realize you know, where their imbalances, their spiritual imbalance so that you don't give them so much ease that they violate
Less boundaries and not fear of punishment.
Nor so much fear that they don't seek to be forgiven for the boundaries they violated and their weaknesses and their crimes to the end of it. That's all we'll leave it there and saw lots of panic along ham. dikshitar later learned stuff, we'll go to Lake xalapa and everybody said I want to come