Surah Yusuf #18
Date:
Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
Series: Nouman Ali Khan - Surah Yusuf
File Size: 39.49MB
Episode Notes
Part 22_ Youth, Wisdom & Knowledge
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AI Generated Summary ©
The transcript is not a conversation or dialogue, it is a list of sentences that appear in the transcript.AI Generated Transcript ©
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Allah Villa homina shaitana Raji
Bella should the who I should the Who? Tina who
work at Nicanor GCL mosinee. Ravi Shastri salary summary we're silly Emery looked at Amanda Sania Coco Lee hamdulillah. salat wa salam, O Allah Rasool Allah, Allah He savage mine, once again everybody Samana Kumar, Allah Ricardo. Today, we try to discuss iron number 22 of sort of use of, in the last ayah. We've, you know, as far as the chronology of the story is concerned, Yusuf Ali Salam has moved away from his home. He's also now out of the, the process by which he was being traded off as a slave. And now he's ended up in his new home where his you know, this minister from Egypt has bought him and has introduced him to his wife. And let them describes the plan he had for him in
this was part of the strategic divine design for him to be in this house, to be exposed to all kinds of knowledge. And this was a law overseeing everything that happens with him. And Allah Himself decides what happens with people will Lahu hollyburn Allah MD, when I connect solidness, he lay on the moon. Now, that's one major event in the story. Now, there's going to be a life that he has there for a number of years. And then that life comes to an end basically with the next incident. And that next incident is an iron number 23. So the life in Egypt started the basic life in the minister's house started in iron number 21. And it basically comes to an abrupt halt in iron number
23 onwards, that's the scene that led to his expulsion from that house and him ending up in jail. But in between these two scenes, which is many years in the making, there's only one II number 22 what we're reading today, in this ayah, instead of describing a number of events that happened, that led to this eventual, you know, disaster, Allah is only going to tell us something about use of Halle serum as if, for all those years, the only thing you need to know is the following. So this one statement kind of represents the most significant development of all of those years, and what is that development? What Amala should the whole attina hookman or ailment work Adelie kind of Agile
machining, and when he reached, you can you can argue the transition can be when he reached his mature age. But we'll come back to that phrase and dig into it a little bit more in a bit. But for now, I'll give you a brief translation. So when he reached his mature age at a now who hookman were ailment, we granted him wisdom and knowledge, workaholic energy, Moxie Nene, and that is how we compensate or that's how we reward those who excel. So that's, that's basically that's all of us heads for all those years in between, from being brought as a slave to the scandalous event. This is the only thing that he mentions in between. So now let's dig into it a little bit. The first thing
to note here is he's been there long enough now to the point where he reaches adulthood, but neither should the who is the generic Arabic phrase for reaching the adult years or the strongest physical years of your life. That's Bella Hashimoto. There are different kinds of opinions that are floated about in classical Tafseer. Nothing is definitive, because it doesn't come from either clear linguistic evidence, nor does it come from explicit evidence from the from the Koran or the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, nothing explicit anyway. So so there are opinions about what does this age mean to reach a showed some say it's 40, or it's between 35 and 40, mamarazzi went on to
describe, you know, these these stages in life. He, in his commentary on the side was actually pretty poetic. He, he described human life, like the moon and the phases it goes through in the course of a month. So it's barely visible and very weak, and it gets to its mature full strength, and then is only declined from there. And that decline is slow and slow and slow, until there's virtually nothing left. And that's human life to span the physical span of human life. He compared it to the lunar month. And in doing so, he said, Well, the lunar month is made up of four weeks. And you can think of life as in Well, this stage of life, when a child is from one year old to seven
year old, then he is basically in week one. So seven years is like seven days for him. So and he describes that that's, that's the first week of life. And then, which is the first seven days of seven, seven years of life, then, you know, eight to 14 is the next and then 15 to 21 is the next and then 2122 to 28 is the next and then he described the final week, he actually has a fifth week Funny, funny enough, in his list, and the fifth week is full maturity 28 onwards. That's when he describes the full the age of full maturity, meaning, you know, and as I say the majority, not just physically speaking, but in multiple ways. And where do we get to
multiple ways from and what does it mean instead of guessing when he became a young man, he could have just said that right? But he's using this particular phrase, which is using the Quran often for people coming of age, or coming to the age where they are held accountable for their actions or when they are mature enough to live life as an independent adult. Right. So tilaka for example, not the only place but another place that has this phrase, had that either Bella shadow or Bella or Marina Santa. Right. So in Allah describes actually read the whole ayah to you or was seen in Santa bydd he is silent. We counseled the human being regarding both of his parents to try to do their very best.
And then he says hello to Omaha korhan wa to Quran that his mother carried him with a great deal of difficulty, then delivered him with a great deal of difficulty. Okay, well, Hamlet, is la Lu, Salah Suna Shara. And then she carried him and fed him. And all of that went on for 30 months, up to 30 months. Then she says Hata Bella shut down. And he says, then this this young, this baby eventually got to the point where they reach adulthood. This is the same phrase, they reached his most mature age. And then he says, well, Bella harbor in Asana and then he reached 40 years or and he reached 40 years. So some say look, reached mature age and 40 years came together. So they must mean the same
thing. But actually everything in the is one stage, then the next stage, then the next stage, then the next stage, so Bulava, who is a separate stage, the age of 14 a separate stage, just like all the previous were separate stages there was the child in the belly then the child being delivered and the child being fed and then Bella shadow and then Alba in a salon. So that's actually more logical way of looking at it. But anyway, it you know, as the judge and others also said that this could be set at the age of 17 and onwards or late teen years when you know a child has reached you know the the emotional development also. Now, but let's talk about Bella means to reach that's an
easy word, but what is this the word I should the What does that mean? I should know who is most probably most the most compelling argument for it is that it is a plural of the word should is a plural and those of you that are interested in sort of, it's on the wasn't of a throne. So, Ashdod becomes a should like you know near Matan becomes unknown, the same way should that one would become you know, Ashdod and that will turn into a should which means which would mean you know if shed that is intensity or strength or some say comes from shed like shut down that weed right shut actually means to tie something tight, you know, for sure do what Huck for example, in the Quran. So it's
either to be some to have an extreme or to, you know, some extreme difficulty. This is an adjective that's used in the Quran for punishments for example, udubonch chedid, extreme or severe or extreme punishment, right. So that word, then in its plural form, intensity, many intensities, many maturities, many extremes. What that means is a person becomes their child, their brain works, but it hasn't reached its extreme capacity, its full capacity. They have emotions, but their emotions can turn into tantrums and they don't quite know how to control them yet, or they don't really have full grasp of what they're feeling or the consequences of their emotions, they get to a point where
they understand how those emotions work. So from an intellectual level, from a spiritual level, from a, from a, you know, an emotional level, from a physical level in all of those, he's reached extremes. And that's why the plural is important. So when he reached his most intense phase of life, when it comes to all of them, it can also mean that there's a certain age when everything comes to fruition, meaning our emotions, our physical body, our you know, our intellectual capacity, our abilities, all of them come to fruition, which can be a pretty extreme age, because now we're coming out of childhood into adulthood. And it's a new kind of freedom, I can do whatever I want. Right? So
it's a, it's this new independence that comes and it can be a pretty extreme age also. Because it's it's like you're, you're really redefining yourself, you're finding yourself a new, right. And a lot of us look back at our early years. And we remember that when we came to the age coming out of adolescence and coming out of the early teen years into early adulthood and stepping into adulthood was some of the more rebellious years of our life, right, or some of the most difficult we acted in ways we look I like when I was like acting so crazy. Like, I did things I've never imagined I would do. And then we see our kids doing those things. And we're like, oh, yeah, been there. I did that.
Right. So Bella shadow is maybe a reference to that too.
You know, in the Quran, Allah will even describe that, you know, if you have orphans and you're taking care of them and you're, you're responsible to manage their finances, because they're too little to manage their own finances, the inheritance came but a four year old can manage his inheritance. So, you, you know, for an unassuming home.
Rushden thoroughly lay him on while the Home Alone didn't use Bella Shahada. He said, If you find in them that they're upright enough, then you hand them over like a lead and put a legal age at this age handover the financial responsibilities to a young man or young woman. Instead he said when you find uprightness why, because that can be relative, it could be some, some kids are, you know, 25 years old, but they still have a brain of a 14 year old, and they have the maturity of a 10 year old that can happen, right. But if you find them the right kind of maturity, then you pass the financial responsibility on. In the case of Yusuf Ali Salaam, it does seem from the from the movement of the
story, it does seem that now he's reached the age where he's a young man, and he's sort of proven himself, and he's at the service of, you know, his the owner of the house. And he is if you if we accept the biblical account, which there's no reason not to, because it does seem to correspond with the bronze account, that he is in charge of the house in many ways. He's taken pretty much all of its responsibilities. Allah says, When you reach that age, at a nahu hookman, we granted him hokum. So now, there is going to be a discussion among mufa soon about what this hokum means it I've translated it. When I gave you my brief translation, I said, it means wisdom, right? And actually,
you have to look at both words together, we gave him wisdom, well, man and knowledge. So he reaches this age, and our lessons, he's given him wisdom and knowledge. So there are lots of discussions about what this could mean.
And a very common interpretation is that hokum here means that Allah made him a prophet. So when he reached a certain age, ultimatum, a prophet, then there's counter arguments to that because Allah has already revealed to him, when he is going inside the well, you will be informing them of this, if Allah is giving him revelation, at that age, he's already a prophet. He's receiving that information. Before that he's got a reveal dream that comes comes to be true. So there could be argument about when he became profit, which then led to a separate technical kind of aqidah discussion, at what age can be considered a person to become a profit. Is this the exception? Is
this the norm? You know, because our conventional view is profits become profits at the age of 40. But then what happens with Jesus? Right, he's speaking as a baby, and then you've got the story of john of yahiro, a Salaam in the Quran, Martina hookman, same word Serbia, he gave him wisdom as a boy. That's what the Quran says about about Yeah, here it is. So there are there are these other cases to then, you know, a mama Lucy went on to say, and some people couldn't, couldn't quite grasp that a young child could have Prophethood. So therefore, they said he must not have been a prophet at all. And that's absolutely false. So he refutes that. And of course, dietsch biedermeier. Nobody
accepts that view. Yusuf Ali Salaam is a prophet of Allah.
And there's, there's overwhelming evidence to that. So there's no way to argue that case. But there's another side to this. So he they say, Okay, well, he gave him wisdom, and then knowledge, but if if wisdom means revelation, well, knowledge is also revelation. So what's the difference? So then they tried to say, well, knowledge, generally Prophethood is wisdom, and then the special knowledge of interpreting dreams or interpreting speech, that is the special knowledge on top. So it's like the overwhelm overwhelming thing is hokum. And then lm is on top of that, like the icing on the cake, or the very special part of it, because in Arabic, when you say and a and b, it doesn't
have to mean that a is separate from B, it could also mean that a is generally speaking, and within a the most special part is B, right? So you can do that you can take a part of a and mention it after the word end. Okay, so that's the argument that's being made also. But it also Dina Rosie said something that kind of made me it put my mind at ease, because I wasn't thinking along those lines at all, even though Yes, Allah has made him a prophet. But if we reduce the meaning and hokum does come in the meaning of prophecy in the Quran. That's true, too. But the problem is, it doesn't just come in the meaning of prophecy. And you have to look at the terminology in the Quran sometimes case
by case and not say, Well, he meant this by this same word. He meant it over here as such. So it must mean the same thing here. It doesn't actually work always that way. Because there are would you in the Quran there are multiple facets of words, right? For example, the word rub is master of the world's is Allah. Right. But in this surah there's going to be the word rub used for the master of the house too. And it's going to be used the word medic is used in suta nuts for malignus. Right? is for a lot the king of people, but in this surah phenol Malik is going to be the king of Egypt. So you could have the same word, but it doesn't have to refer to the same thing that can happen. And
similarly Deen when we think of Deen, we think of religion like Andino calm, Walia, de Barra, de la salle de Luna de de la jolla for Java in this folder you're gonna find the dnl Malik in The Nether because he couldn't hold on to Benjamin or Binyamin in his in the palace. According to the Dean of the king. The king didn't have a religious problem with keeping Benjamin
There was a problem with the law, like the king has a certain law, and no one gets to stay in the castle on government grounds unless they're authorized. So that was the word Dean was being used in the meaning of a constitution rather than religion. Right. So what I'm trying to get at is not just the unique vocabulary of the surah, but generally speaking words in the Quran, because they mean one thing in one context does not mean that that is the only meaning you will find them in in every context, they can occur in different meanings. And if this is a little bit hard to grasp, how can put on do that? Well, it even happens in language, a natural phenomenon of language, in any
language. So for example, a word like screen, right the word screen simple enough, everybody here, all of you that are watching, I think, know that word screen. The word screen can mean itself, it can mean it's opposite, the word screen could mean a TV screen or projector screen, it could mean a screen on a phone, it could mean a screen like that, you're maybe you're watching me on a screen right now, if you're watching live, you're watching me on the screen. But if I, if I put a screen between the adult section of the audience and the, the the children's section of the audience, I put us over there behind the screen. Right? So then the screen is not something you that helps you see.
But the screen becomes something that blocks your view, right? Oh, there's a screen over here. Or we're screening some content, you know what that means we're blocking some content, we're not letting it be seen. You're screening some of the news event, you're screaming, you're screening some of the transcript, etc. That means you're blocking it out. So the same word, but in different contexts, it can mean different things. So that's kind of the background Anyway, let me get to what Mr. Dino Rossi said, which I think is pretty, pretty cool about this. He said that you can think of wisdom as practical knowledge, knowledge acquired from, you know, are the right choice made in the
right circumstances. So for example, somebody never went to school. Let me give you a worldly he didn't give this example, I'm giving you the example to explain Rosie's concept. Somebody never went to school, but they got a job working in a mechanic shop. Yeah. And they work with the mechanic. They fix cars from like the age of like, 1617. They're fixing cars. Now, they never went to mechanic school. They've never, you know, studied engineering or whatever. But since the guy has been working in the mechanic shop for 10 years now and he's 26 years old. He's got 26 or 10 years of experience fixing cars, he may not know all the terms, he may not know all the technicalities, he may not even
be able to read a mechanic textbook. But he knows cars better than some of the guys that graduated from that school, you understand. So his his knowledge was based on actual experiential learning. So his experience His hands on experience came first. And that hands on experience kept giving him more and more knowledge. Right. So that's Hickman Hickman is or Hogan, he argues, is knowledge acquired through experience or hands on. So it's practical knowledge by by working, putting yourself to work like for example, somebody doesn't know how to cook. Yeah. And they make a disastrous whatever they make. You can't they can't even tell what they made. But five years later, after lots of
experimentation, they're pretty good at cooking, but they never took a cooking class. They just trial and error trial and error. And they got better and better at it. Yeah. So that's, that's kind of hokum, meaning knowledge that is built with experience. The other side is people that study something theoretically.
And then try to bring it to the world of the practical, right? So you go to school, you learn something, theoretically, and now you want to come on the practical side and apply it right. So there's two different ways of, you know, knowledge. So he's saying that hokum is more like the first case, the first case being where you have practical knowledge, and that practice practical knowledge builds your knowledge, your practical application builds your knowledge, your experiences, building your knowledge, basically real life knowledge. Yeah. On the flip side, you've got somebody who is studying the subject, but they've never had the hands on experience. And they're going to get to the
hands on experience later. Right. And so what he's comparing, then he's saying, Allah gave Yusuf alayhi salam, the hands on knowledge, first hoekman. So that that's his way of looking at and why, because obviously, use of time is not in a school. He's not in a seminary, he's not studying or learning. He's actually a servant. And he's not studying politics in a class. He's in the political environment. He's not learning what governors do in a book that talks about governors and governance. He's in the in the room with the governor. So he's in the actual practical classroom. He's not learning about how, you know in a sociology class house, how slaves would, you know,
function with each other or communicate with each other. He's sitting at having lunch with them. So he's actually having the lived experience of learning and from it, he's building that knowledge that's, that's hookman and on other side, his element, and he says there, remember he says, there are two roads to learning and Allah gave him this road, meaning the practical first and
Then the, the lessons that he draws from that become his knowledge base. Right? This is also an interesting comment on what we think of as educated. Because, you know, today the world after, especially after the Industrial Revolution, the world started standardizing education for the purpose of more skilled labor, right. So you have to have certain certifications, or, you know, associate's degree, a high school diploma, an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, a PhD, etc, these labels come next to you that certify what you know, right? They, they're certified what you know, and if you don't have a degree, then you don't really you're considered an
educated, right. So you don't you don't have knowledge, if you will. But the world, historically speaking, didn't work this way. The world worked on actually most of the world, most people in the world learn by experience.
And some had the privilege of, you know, theoretical knowledge and eventually, practical knowledge. The other crazy thing is sometimes you have, you know, people pay top dollar now to go to schools and colleges and all of that. And in many cases, they go and receive a theoretical education in the subject. And when they come into the industry, they find that almost everything, they almost all of what they learned about the work they're going to do doesn't apply in the real world. It's, the theory is so going somewhere else, and the practice is somewhere else. But it still looks good on the resume that I have a degree that got me the job. So the degree became more a reason to get the
job, but not a reason to do the job. Right? Because you when you got to the job, you have to relearn. And well, that's not what they said in class. Yeah, this ain't class. This is real life. You know? And when you start wondering, why did I take all these classes, why didn't learn all this stuff, I thought this is going to prepare me for the real world. So now, it's become a crazy fake economy on its own, where people are getting a degree, not for the skill, the actual knowledge that it gives. But just for the pay paper that it gives the sticker that it gives at the end that you can use on a resume, even though when you get into the work environment, it's not going to actually much
of it is not going to apply. And that's that's Unfortunately, the case in many, in many situations. And that speaks also to the quality of education, if an education is going to be provided, you know, you have to be savvy enough to know, is this just an education for me to get a degree, or is the kind of education this institution is providing, worth, actually in line with the industry I plan on going into, right? And so but from the flip side, if somebody said, You know, I might take these courses or whatever. And this actually happened with me on a practical side, when I was thinking about this idea. When I was going to college, I was studying computer information systems. Yeah, and
network security and some of these things early on. And then I got a job at a tech firm, where they had to deal with network security issues. And when I'm at work, we're doing something completely different from what we're discussing at work. And I'd bring that to the attention of my professor and say, That's not what we do at work. We, we do this, this and this. Yeah, that's later on. That's it. That's that. But when does this apply? Well, you probably won't ever see this in application, like, why am I taking this course?
What Why are we doing this? Because if I'm not going to see it, why are we learning it? So we should be learning things that we're actually going to be putting to use, right? So anyway, that's hookman, and then the element in his point of view, but I'll add another dimension. And, you know,
one way to look at this is, is it's specific to use of autism, this is probably the most important part of today's conversation. Allah gave him wisdom by putting him in different scenarios, practical knowledge, and on top of that, Allah granted him knowledge. And this could also mean a lot of revealed knowledge on top of that to him, or Allah taught him in unconventional ways. And so you've got this wisdom and knowledge dichotomy, but then Allah ends this is in a very interesting way, he says, and that is how what are the alica nergal machine, that is how we compensate those who excel. Now that last part kind of opens the door because if you're saying that wisdom and knowledge here
refers to Prophethood Yeah, if you say that here refers to Prophethood the problem becomes a lesson at the end, not and that is how we rewarded him. He said, that is how we reward those who excel that means anybody who excels will be rewarded with profit.
Because he says this is the reward of doing your best of excelling, wisdom, and knowledge is a reward for doing your best. So that means that this is referring to something other than Prophethood. Okay, yes on to Excel to do your best is the reward for that is wisdom and knowledge. But then came another challenge. He has a really interesting challenge. If someone is doing their best, if they are excelling, I would imagine they have wisdom and knowledge. That's why they are what excelling, but the IRS says those who excel I reward them with wisdom and knowledge.
Kinda like a chicken and egg situation. Because how could I Excel without wisdom and knowledge and unless as well once you excel, I'll give you wisdom and knowledge. Right? So how do we reconcile those two things? You see?
If you don't, everybody has a little bit of wisdom, a little bit of knowledge.
Some and let's go back and redefine wisdom and knowledge in the broadest terms. Wisdom actually means please understand that this is Dr. Pharsalia Samurai did a brilliant job explaining hikma or hokum also, wisdom is the willpower, and the ability to make the right choice.
Wisdom is the willpower and the ability to make the right choice based on the right. If you know something to be right, you're going to do it.
My problem is a lot of people know something to be right, but they do the wrong thing anyway. Because there are other factors at play, actually in classical Tafseer in discussing this ayah they also talked about wisdom having the being having the control over your urges. Having the control over your emotions, having hikma actually comes from hokum, which means governance, and before you can govern anything else, wisdom means you have the power to govern yourself. You have the ability to impose rules on yourself. So you're not in a free for all. And which is a really powerful thing in this ayah because later on way later on a level described that Allah will give Yusuf Ali Salaam
governance, yes. But before he gives him governmental control over other things and people, Allah has granted him government governance and control over himself, that so once you have mastery over yourself, then you're in a position to make judgments over others, hello, pretty powerful thing to say. It's as if and by the way, he became a politician eventually right? Use of arisa. Now today, when we think of politicians, obviously, we always think of people that have very good self control, and control their temper control their urges, control their greed.
The last thing we associate with people in governance is self restraint and control. Actually, we think of them as the people the most out of control. The most the most erratic and the most out of control, we think of people in a position of power. You know, they say the axiom in English is power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That's what it's become now. But here you have before any of that he's a servant right now. And Allah has granted him self control and restraint and the ability to make the right choice when the situation calls for it. Because he knows better now, and on top of that, he gave him knowledge. Now, this is the height of wisdom, you know, it's
gonna take me a little while to explain these two, these two terms together, but it's worth it. I think it's worth this discussion. You see, when children are growing up, if they're smart, like some kids are super smart in first grade, second grade, third grade, they are their minds are like sponges, they can memorize things quickly. They can get, they can pick up languages, they can become multilingual very quickly. You know, Allah has created the child's brain is an incredible machine. It's just an E, they absorb so quickly, languages, behaviors, you know, new sciences, they can pick that stuff up. The thing is, all of that is knowledge. All of that is what knowledge. And a kid can
become super smart, and be an A student. But and they're 1516 years old. But when it comes to life, and making good choices in terms of who should be their friend, or what should be, what should they be doing with their spare time? Or what kinds of things should they be doing when nobody else is watching? They can make some pretty stupid choices anyway.
So when it comes to their intelligence, they're highly intelligent. They're capable of coding, they can make their own app. They can build their own robot. They can do all kinds of crazy things. They're super smart. But when it comes to some other things are so dumb. You're like, how are you? So smart, and so dumb? At the same time, I had a Texan friend who told me a term I've never heard before. He said stupid genius.
I love that term. How could you be a stupid genius? You're a genius on one things, but in certain choices in life. You're so ridiculously stupid. You have kids that are our young men, young women and young men that are so smart, so intelligent, and they know better than anybody else the dangers of reckless driving, but because they are straight A student or because they did so well on their exams and graduated or whatever. Dad bought him a car. Right? And now they got the car, they're on the highway nobody's watching they're doing 9500 100 510 What a ridiculous stupid thing to do. You're so smart and you're acting so ridiculous. You know what that means? A lot of times, and as
long as we're coming up as human beings, knowledge is actually pretty easy. But wisdom, the ability to make right choices.
is not so much, not so much. Now let's get because the brain Allah designed it in a way that it comes easy, but good choices, we make some pretty bad choices we're going. And we have to we need a lot of guidance, and we need to be handled with care. So we cannot make some of those poor choices, right. And the thing is, that when you think of old people, people that have lived life, 60 7080 years old, we go to them literally anywhere in the world, we go to them for wisdom. Why? Because they've lived life. They've made some poor choices when they were younger, they know what the consequences of it are. And so they have a kind of real life knowledge that books can give you. So
they are people of what wisdom, right? So what I'm saying is, youth can be associated with learning knowledge, and older ages associated with what wisdom, which is kind of in line with the mom, Rosie's definition, too, because as you age, you have more and more practical experience, which has shaped the way you look at life. It shapes your knowledge. But young people know a lot. But they haven't experienced it. So they think they figured the world out. And you could you could have, for example, people in the same classroom, and young people have an opinion and old people just look at them. Like, I used to think like that. Because this young man knows what they've read, but they
haven't seen the world yet. Right? This young woman knows what she she studied. But she hasn't experienced life yet. So they don't know they've got these opinions. But elmas their hokum hasn't come yet.
Why is that odd in the story of use of a young man who just comes into adulthood, and instead of a blessing, and he came into knowledge, which eventually got into grew into maturity into wisdom, what's the first thing that's mentioned? wisdom, you don't associate a young man with wisdom, you don't associate wisdom is an old age thing. making better choices, learning from experience, you know, not repeating a past mistake. These are things these are qualities of wisdom, Allah has given him that first hoekman. And what this what Allah is describing here is Allah has granted that to him. Allah has granted him self governance, he has given him ability to self govern. Before Cyril
even mentioned that his ability to self govern and restrain himself was so powerful, that you know, the owner of the house must have noticed. So there even some some narrations attributed to Sahaba, that when the man of the house when he used to go, and people used to come to him with political cases, or different kinds of situations, he used to leave it to yourself, why don't you figure this out, I think you can make a good decision. You have so much self governance, and you can govern over other people to even as a servant, atina Hawkman. And then on top of that, Allah gave him knowledge or element. This also means that in the modern world that we live in, we are as parents, and even
for young people that are watching this, you're concerned with getting yourself a good education. I want to have a good education. And a good education is going to mean a degree or what subject I'm going to specialize in, and what kind of job I'm going to have all of that would be under.
But before all of that, are we people of hokum are we actually people of good choices. A long time ago, I gave a
hug by must have been maybe 15 years ago, about the definition of education from a parent's point of view. And this is actually part of that. And part of that is the Koran is emphasizing knowledge that makes us better human beings over knowledge that makes us better, you know, more skilled.
So theoretical knowledge and labor knowledge and knowledge of farming and knowledge of medicine and knowledge of architecture, and knowledge of finance, that knowledge just makes you a better worker. It can be it can, it's a skill, but it may not necessarily make you a better human being. So you can have a PhD in physics that doesn't know how to talk to their neighbor properly.
Is that possible, highly educated, but highly ignorant when dealing with your neighbor, highly educated in whatever, you're a professor of things, but you don't know how to talk to your parent or your child or your spouse or, you know, family, you don't know how to do basic manners, basic things that make you a decent person. You don't know how to make basic good choices in your life, but highly educated in one way, because all the emphasis now is on IRL. And none of the emphasis is on hokum. None of it is on hokum, but that doesn't answer that last riddle that I want to leave you guys with. And that is a lesson that's how we compensate those who excel. You see the axiom which is
not a Hadith, but some say it's an other it was mentioned in Lucy answering this question how can someone Excel and be do their best when they don't have wisdom and knowledge and wisdom and knowledge will be given to them as a result of them excelling? You see? Let's just say I don't know much. I don't know Miley give you a practical example because by example, things are easily remembered. Yeah. Somebody took Shahada. Okay, somebody took she just became a
They don't know the left bar. They don't know how to pray. They don't know how to. They can figure out the direction of the Kaaba. They haven't figured out the right time. So the prayer yet everything's everything's hard for them. They keep forgetting which foot to enter into the bathroom. They owe left hand or right hand. Everything is hard. Everything is new. Everything is alien. When people say Salaam Alaikum, disable Calico masala mala, because they don't know how to save Alico, Salam yet, everything is difficult. They clearly have no knowledge and then they look at other people that are so much more knowledgeable to them. They're like dropping Arabic once like one thing
after at hamdulillah Mashallah, inshallah things used to take for granted. They're looking at them. Like, that's a lot. That's a lot of sounds, I gotta learn all that, you know, and then they open up a copy of the most have, and they see all those Arabic and it starts looking like, you know, alien little creatures that are crawling all over the place. And you're like, how am I going to do this? You know, when you start taking like a tidal neuron, er class or something, and the teacher says, Elif Elif ba, ba da, da, ha, ha. Sir.
What, sir? Say, sir.
Sir, sir, for hours on sa
Oh, gee, Moses, okay, say Ha,
ha, you know, over here.
I've never done that before. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Every sound is hard. Every word is hard. Every practice is hard. So and they have no knowledge. And they feel so inferior to those who know.
But as little as they know, they know so little. They know so little. But they know one thing. They're not going to drink alcohol anymore.
They don't know much, but they just know that.
So when they go to their cousin's house, and everybody else is non Muslim, and somebody passes them a beer, like they always pass them a beer. They said no. God said I can't.
Allah said I can't. Who's Allah God? You know, in the Quran that says name, that's actual name, Allah. He said, I can't really you can't drink? No. Okay.
You know, even though they know it's gonna make a socially awkward situation in the family, they might get made fun of and people are drunk, so they're going to be even crazier. Right? But they decided to stand by that you know what they did, they did their best.
They didn't know a lot. But whatever they knew they did their best with that. Yeah. When they did their best with that last promise in the Quran is that now he will open up the doors of wisdom, which means he will give them the strength to make even better choices and even harder situations. And he will give them sense to do the right thing even more. And on top of that, a lot will open another door. And the learning that looks so difficult, alone will make that easy for them. That's not because they're smart, because Allah sends angels from above, to make difficulties easy for this person, because they showed a lot that they did their best work of Valley kindness in our city. And
that is how we compensate those who do their best. When those could You surprise me as a child, he doesn't know much. But whatever little he knows, he lives by, and a lot opens more doors of wisdom for him and more knowledge for him. Then more doors of wisdom and more knowledge and more doors of wisdom and more knowledge, you prove to Allah that you're taking a step towards him, you show him excellence, with whatever little you know. And Allah will open more doors. And by the way, this is exactly how someone comes into Islam to begin with. I give you an example of someone who just became Muslim, but even before they were Muslim, they decided to do something right. They decided somewhere
in their life I want to do right by God. I don't know what that means yet, but I do know I shouldn't be lying anymore. I do and I shouldn't be hurting anybody anymore. I do know I need to make some changes. They don't even know anything about revolution or the Quran or the Bible nothing but they just made a choice that they want to do good by Allah by God. And you know what Allah does a lot opens their mind and gets them to start thinking with wisdom and saying with this one in three and three in one stop making sense anymore. Wait, this, these idols, my parents are going to the temple I just don't feel like going anymore. They don't even know Islam yet. But they've got some hikma
now. And because of that hikma, Dad wisdom, now, they're making better choices and they're stopping themselves from certain choices, just because they showed a lot one step and this is a lesson when levena jaha do phenol Anna Deanna home sabudana we're in the la de la masini, certain solanco, Buddha, TN, those who struggle towards our path, who struggle in our cause, then Allah will he says we will absolutely guide them to multiple pathways that lead to us and allies absolutely with those who do their best. Allah is not asking perfection. Allah is asking to for you to do your best.
If you can do your best you can actually be an I can be part of this ayah. He says when he reached his mature age, we granted him wisdom and knowledge. And that is how we compensate all those who do their best. That last part can include you. That last part can include me. And then that would mean that Allah will intervene. Through the heavens, Allah will intervene for you and me to open up doors of wisdom in here and in here and open up knowledge. And here's the other thing about hokum wisdom, I keep telling you, it's the willpower to do the right thing, the strength to do the right thing, restraint comp, good decision making, right? But all of that means you have to have control over
what's going on in your heart. Yeah. So hookworm actually means someone who has good governance, good control over what their heart allows them to do. They have good restraint on their heart. And so their heart is becoming stronger and stronger in doing the right thing. The you know, whatever you practice more of that muscle gets stronger. Yeah, if you if you run a lot, your legs are getting stronger, right? If your heart is feeling something wrong, and you keep practicing it, you keep giving into that heart, the urge to do that the desire to do that the addiction to do that will get stronger and stronger and stronger. But when you control your heart and do the right thing, then
control your heart and do the right thing and control your heart and do the right thing. Your ability to do the right thing becomes stronger. Your ability to stop yourself from the wrong thing becomes stronger, that's that's hokum, your governance is making you stronger. But this was a matter of the heart. But when he says knowledge element, and money is a matter of the mind, right? So it's as if a lysing, those who do their best, Allah will give them a strong heart, and then open up their minds.
Which is actually going back to something I mentioned before. There are two kinds of knowledge being given to Yusuf Ali Salaam, a knowledge that is spiritual that cleanses his heart and a knowledge of the world that he's interpreting all kinds of speech. Yeah. So there's spiritual strength, spiritual knowledge, and worldly knowledge. and here also in hookman, you can have spiritual knowledge and an element, you can have worldly knowledge. And he's being put in these situations where he's making the right choice over and over again. Now, the last thing I share with you about the facade of use of Fantasyland I tried to have you what I'm going to try to do as we as we navigate this story, it's
going to be a little bit difficult, but I'm going to do my best to do it. There's,
you know, it's it's over simplistic when you read a fairy tale, that, you know, there's a good guy and a bad guy. Right? There's a villain, and there's a hero, right? And the villain is always bad and the heroes always good, right? But this isn't just a story about, you know, Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf and there's good and there's bad. It's not like that these are actual human beings. And human beings, his brothers, the minister's wife, the Minister, these people, they have good in them and they have bad in them. Human beings for Allah Maha foodora Hava taqwa Javi inspired the human being to have the ability to explode into sin, and also to protect themselves. We have
both urges inside of us. We have opposing forces inside of us. Yes. So when we when we learn about the characters in the story,
then one tendency is that we want to see them entirely as bad like the brothers of us that are just bad.
Or, you know, the minister's wife who's going to come up tomorrow, for example, she's just an evil lady. Look at her look at what kind of evil haram she did. What she did is home, and what she did is evil. But clearly, even though chorusing eventually she's not all bad, because she acknowledges her mistake and repents. And there's something more to her than just this. But the word I'll use is empathy.
And empathy is important. What is empathy? empathy means? Fine, people do messed up things. And those are wrong, and they're immoral. But what circumstances made it easier for them to do the wrong thing? What opened the door more wider and wider, that the wrong thing became easier and easier and easier?
The fact that they stepped into the wrong thing and did the wrong thing is their fault. They're responsible? Absolutely. But are there things that happened around them that they that they didn't realize are that bad, that they actually made it, they put themselves in danger, and then more danger and then more danger and then more danger until they fell into the sin itself and they fell into the wrong way of thinking the wrong sets of feelings? Like I'm telling you with jacobellis, some sons, I don't believe the brothers to be evil, actually, I believe them to be broken. I don't believe them to be evil. They could have talked to their father or they could have taken steps that
would have been healthier, but they somehow skipped some of those steps and have a bad feeling they had inside of them eventually, too.
turned into a toxic way of looking at life eventually turned into opening doors for evil deeds. If you don't empathize with that, if you don't understand where that came from, then it may be that we are, we may not be at the point where we're ready to kill a user. We may not be at the level of evil, we're doing what the minister's wife did. But maybe we're on step one, and we don't realize it. Maybe we're on step two and by step 10, that's gonna happen. Yeah. If we don't empathize and understand where these steps come from, and what are the steps that people often overlook, they don't realize they're on a trajectory on a path to doing something very, very bad, or heading in a
very bad direction for their own hearts, then, they mean, they only realize it after it's too late or not even then. Or it may be that they do something heinous. And it's only years later, like the brothers of use of or the minister's wife, years later, they're gonna realize they did something wrong. So they're gonna live in this delusion that they've done nothing wrong. We don't want to be like that. I don't want to be like that. You don't want to be like that. The reason I'm bringing this up now and I am number 22, is when you serve Elisa Lam is described as someone who does his very best
son, the prophets definition comes to mind sallallahu sallam, and that would allow haka and Mecca Tara, who were lm de contura, hufa, aka that you worship Allah, and you enslave yourself to Allah, as if you can see a lot. And if you can't see him, which is the fact you can't see him, at the very least, you're always aware that he is seeing you. He's seeing that's that's doing your best. That awareness is actually excellent. That awareness is excellent. And the thing is, any choice we're making, if we just stop and say, I know mom didn't see it. I know dad didn't see it. I know my husband didn't see this. I know my wife didn't see this and my siblings didn't see this. I know
nobody else saw this. But ally is watching this. Is it okay, should I take this step? Or can I justify it to myself? Feel honestly ask yourself this question, you can stop yourself in your tracks.
The reason it's so remarkable for use of holidays set up is that he is living in a non believing environment and a non believing household where he is being entrusted with whatever choice he wants to make. There is no parental or moral supervision. There is no spiritual reinforcement. There is no Islamic school, there is no madrasa. There is no touch read classes, there is no one teaching him. There is no one teaching him not to stay up late at night. There's no one teaching him get up for morning to get up in the morning. There's no one teaching him anything. He is on his own, so long as he does what the master wanted him to do the groceries, attend this meeting, write this down and do
this. So long as he does his work. He is free to do whatever he wants. He is not really under any moral supervision. He may be under labor supervision.
But he's not under any spiritual or moral supervision. And yet he remembers something from the training of his father. I don't doesn't it doesn't matter who's watching the or not Allah is. And I'm going to try to do my best morally. Because you know, there are other slaves there too. And they do messed up things. Why wouldn't they? Why would they do haram things. They don't have Shania. They don't have the law of Allah. He is in a completely on Islamic environment.
In a country that doesn't believe in a lot the way we do. were the things that ally declares harm are not only helpful, but they're celebrated. And they happen all the time. And they're all over the place. And he's in the middle of all of that. You could say we are the product of our environment, right? What do you want me to do? I was surrounded by this stuff. That's why I did it. everybody around me was partying. What do you want me to just like sit there and remember, I sort of Bukhara What do you expect? It's a party school I went to it's a dormitory For God's sake. You know what happens in dormitories? Seriously, man? How do you how do you expect me to survive? It's like,
You're asking me, you throw me in the middle of the ocean with a plank, and I'm holding on and it's raining and you tell me don't get wet. Of course, I'm gonna get affected by my environment. Seriously, this is all I ever known. He could make all those arguments. canti
he could make every one of those arguments. But Allah is telling us that he excels meaning it doesn't matter who he sees in front of him. It doesn't matter who he's surrounded with. He himself, he finds himself surrounded in the Presence of Allah. Very powerful thing. And that's when Allah gives him strength. He gives him strength to not follow trends. He gives him strength not to follow everybody else. He gives him strength not even to follow the inner thoughts that he has, because he's given them governance over his own heart. He's given him all of that because he chooses to recognize a large presence in a society and in a world and in a 24 hour day where no one else around
him reinforces the Presence of Allah.
He's in a completely messed up environment already. People think that he's in a messed up environment when he's gonna end up in prison. This is freedom can be a different kind of prison.
Free
As its own kind of prison, in a physical prison, you are caged by bars. When you have absolute freedom, you are caged by your own desires. You will follow them wherever they take you. You will follow society wherever it takes you, you will follow trends wherever they take you. We've become so, so imprisoned by trends, that if a new shoe comes out, if a new purse comes out, if a new phone comes out, people are like, my life is meaningless until those shoes are on my feet.
How can I show my faces? What words do I have if I don't have this? The new you know, iPhone, the new iPhone, the new knifes phone
so I can take a selfie enough See?
enough's enough. See everybody.
Right? We've become so immersed in sleeved in this materialistic environment, in this fake persona environment that we're actually in, we're not free. We're enslaved. Allah frees him. It's It's ironic, I'm what I'm saying is he lives as a slave. But in some respects, he's actually the only person in this society that's free.
He's the only one that's free. Like even even the woman that tries to mess him up. She's enslaved by the sickness of her mind. The her sick, she's enslaved by them. She's being controlled by them. Alright, Amanda, Takata, Ella, whoa, whoa, whoa, have you seen someone who takes their desires and their feelings in their whims and their emotions and turns them into their God?
That's that's what she loves. And he accepted allies as master. So he's free from every other slavery.
That's a very powerful lesson. How do we people say how do we stay strong in a in a non Muslim environment or in a fitna environment? Y'all don't even need an environment anymore. You just need a phone with internet. Why you need an environment you like COVID-19, social distancing, Alhamdulillah we're not in a bad environment. No, you're in the same exact bad environment, social media, it's all there. All the access to all the wrong things is always there. It's always in your face. It's always there. The thing is, and we keep asking the silly question, maybe if we take we remove ourselves from society and go in some, you know, Islamic environment, then we'll be better off.
This is the Islamic environment you need
this, if in here there's an Islamic environment, then the outside environment could be Egypt. And you could be like Yusuf, and you'll be fine. I think no one will. Notice the great people mentioned in the Quran prophets are not are always described to be in a minority, always.
They're always in the minority. Why does a lead describe a believers heart like a lamp? It's hard to know. He describes it like a lamp because a lamp is only purposeful when there's darkness.
You don't turn the lamp on during the day, you only turn the lamp on when,
when it's night. The believer was destined to be surrounded by darkness. Because in that darkness, the only light is supposed to be you. And here you are the lamp complaining, I want to go to a place where there's more light. It's too dark here, bro, you're the lamp.
Light it up, fix this up, become Let's become people of your son. So love will give us stronger hearts hookman. And he'll give us the right kind of knowledge. Because it is only then that we become an impact on the world around us. That's that's when light spreads, not from us escaping from darkness, but us becoming the light in the darkness. That's what we have to do for each other. And Yusuf Ali Salaam is doing this with the little knowledge that he has as a child, whatever lies taught him through yaku granny Sam. And now this environment that he's put in, he's becoming a person of a sangha that he can see. It's a remarkable, you know, story that teaches us something
about you know, peer pressure, and how irrelevant peer pressure can become, because of human because of your son. You can be you can work. And when you turn towards a light as I leave you, I tell you, when you and I turn towards a line, we try to do this, we become Marcin, we're going to be the odd ones out. We're going to be the unacceptable ones in society, we're going to be the ones that should be thrown into jail, because we're doing the right thing. And it will be so much easier to do the wrong thing and not be cast off. So much easier. First of all, you'll have to conquer yourself. But once you conquer yourself, then there's the matter of everybody else that wants to conquer you.
That's the next battlefield. And you're going to be ready for all those battlefields because no matter where you end up so long as you haven't given up on Allah, Allah will give you two treasures, Pokemon one element and this is Chef so I have said this today I couldn't agree more as we were discussing this ayah eventually Allah gave yourself a lease on governance or No.
He gave him governance governance. He gave him redemption over his brothers
He gave him honor. He cleared his name from prison, he gave him all those things. But the most valuable thing Allah has given to use of a Salam that Allah says, and that's my reward for people who do their best. He didn't say that, in the sense of the kingdom, where the redemption and all of that, actually, the ultimate reward has already been given to you. So funny setup, the ultimate reward is Pokemon.
This firmness of good decision making, and the right kind of knowledge that keeps the firmness of decision making a lot opens up the right kind of knowledge more and more and more. And that right knowledge gives him more better decision making a stronger heart. That's the ultimate reward. He's already got the ultimate treasure, because kingdoms will come and go. Egypt will come and go, the crop will come and go. And when Yusuf Ali said, I'm standing in front of a large xojo the crop won't matter. The Throne won't matter. The brothers will not none of that will matter. The only thing that will matter is what he carried in his heart, Ala Moana De La Habra, Calvin serene, that's the
religion of Abraham Artesia. So let's put value on more value belongs, what is it that you and I are doing in our day, that is taking our hearts away from Allah, that is the opposite of your son, and therefore our ability to make better decisions is getting weaker?
And what is it that we can do to make better decisions, to be aware of a lie in everything that we say, and everything that we do? The integrity with which we live our lives, so that when we do that, and we can't we stand by the right thing? Allah will strengthen us to make better and better choices which we believe for ourselves. We're not strong enough to make I could never do that I could never I'm not strong enough. I'm not strong enough that I'm not strong enough we'll start disappearing, because Allah will make you strong enough. Allah will give you that strength allows you to give every one of us the strength to live by the right thing to live with the sun every single day. So
level, increase our hokum and our l in the best way for ourselves our Deen and our dunya barakallahu li walakum filco and Hakeem, when finally we accompany it with him was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
of all this way today,
my church