Surah Yusuf #38 – Part 54-55
Date:
Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
Series: Nouman Ali Khan - Surah Yusuf
File Size: 43.21MB
Episode Notes
Qualifications & Confidence
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rubella min ash shaytani r Rajim kollel Molly cook will call medeco Tony v stockless hulin fc fel America lemahieu color in yo mela Dana McKean me, Paul call me either for the in the in the hifi Vaughn Eileen propitiously suddenly were silly Emily Emily Sania Coco Lee hamdulillah salat wa salam O Allah, Allah, Allah Allah He was happy once again everybody salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. So here we are at is number 54 and 55. Today, we've talked quite a bit about the two quotes, the two statements that we're interested in 52 and 53, that could either be attributed to use of money from or to the minister's wife. Now we're coming to the part in the story where it's
the king that's going to speak so the The matter has been resolved, the case has been closed, everybody said what they had to say. And now it's the king's turn to give certain opinions, because for the king, there were two matters, right. So the first issue was his own dream. So as a personal matter, and the second was resolving this case, which kind of erupted he didn't expect this to become a situation, but it did. And it became a big, you know, exposition on a bunch of people of power,
you know, in his in his administration. So now all of that has been settled, and the king is going to speak, these two items that we're going to talk about today, 5054, and 55. One of them is the king speaking. And the other one is Yusuf Ali, some speaking, so they're the two that are having a conversation now, it starts off as follows. We'll call it medical, Tony v. The king said, then bring him to me. This is the second time we're hearing the words Bring him to me the first time that entire exchange transpired, but now that the case is solved, it's as if the king is saying, Okay, now bring him to me. All right, now it's time for him to get here. I'd like to see him, please. So
now before he even gets there, the fact that so many people testify to his truthfulness, the truth has come out. He's always been honest. The fact that he said those things when when the truth was, in fact, exposed before even meeting him, the king is pretty impressed. And he's so impressed that even without having met him, this is what the king says, US does this whole NFC, I'd like to keep him exclusively for my service. I would like to have him in my service exclusively is the class from hulu's hellos means purity. And halus in Arabic also means purity. from it, we get pure intention like silica lifeless, right? It's from the same origin of the word. So the idea behind that is this
is important. Now, the king recognizes that he's at the top of pun intended, it's at the top of an organizational pyramid, right, which makes a lot of sense for Egypt. But anyway, he's on top of that pyramid. And what happens in management is you're on top like the CEO of an organization, a company. And he's got executive managers, and they've got branch managers, and they've got like these these tiers, right. And then there are people at the way bottom, right like, and by the way, when the cup bearer spoke out of turn, he broke protocol. Right? You're the king is supposed to speak to the top advisors. And the people that work under the type of top advisors are supposed to speak to them, and
nobody breaks the chain of communication. Now, that's supposed to be how things work in any organization, whether it's government or any other institution, right, even companies corporate or whatever, if you're working in a big company with 500 1000 employees, and you have a manager above you. And then there's a district manager, if you write to the district manager or talk to them, you know, skip one chain of command, you're going to get in trouble. Because you have to keep the person above you in the loop, right? So and this helps things from turning into chaos, because otherwise people can't be managed. Because if I'm going to get jumped over every time, then there's no point
in me being a manager. So on the one hand, you can understand why there is hierarchy and chain of command. Of course, that's the same exactly how the military works. The military is probably the supposedly the highest example of organizational institutions in the world, because in that institution, organization can mean the difference between life and death chain of command can mean the difference between life and death. And in favor of chain of command it I'd even say that the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, and this is narrated in context, and even outside the context of the Battle of ortho Do you remember when he placed archers on top of a hill, and he met made one of them
in charge? And they're not to leave that position until certain instructions are given to them? Besides that, there's still someone in charge now, there's a Hadith of the Prophet Alayhi Salaam, men.
When I thought I immediately forgot about it, Annie.
And Manasa immediate aka Dasani, whoever obeyed the appointed leader that I left behind has obeyed me and whoever disobeyed. The appointed leader has
disobeyed me. So if the prophets, I some left somebody in charge of a job, and you're not listening to him and saying, I'll just go talk to the Prophet, well, the prophecies have left that purchase person in charge. So until he comes back, they're in charge, kind of like in school for the kids that are watching a substitute teacher, you can't say you're not a real teacher, you're until the teacher shows up, they have every authority, every respect that has been appointed to them in place of the full teacher, full time teacher, you understand. Now, I say that in favor of chain of command. But chain of command has a negative side. And the negative side of it is sometimes people
at the bottom have really good ideas. And they want to make sure that people at the top hear those ideas. So they take it up to their manager. And when they take it up to their manager, the manager says, You know what, just do your job. Okay, let the big thinkers think about the big things. You know, let the big people think about bigger ideas, you worry about the lower job that you've been given. Because they either dismiss that some good can come from people at the bottom, or they feel insecure that if this idea makes it, this person might get a promotion. Better yet, they'll even try to steal your idea and pass it off as their own. We saw some of that in this story already. Right.
So what happens then is there is a chain of command in which the person at the top of the organization is not able to receive some of the most creative ideas, because the people at the very bottom are stuck in the chain of command, they can't get through. And the king just saw that him not being good being able to communicate with First of all, the Kabir happened to say this. So the king must have realized there are some pretty good people in my governance, and in my kingdom that I would never have had access to, because of this ridiculous approach to chain of command. So now we've got ourselves a paradox. Do we believe in chain of command? Or do we not believe in chain?
Okay, because you can't have it both ways? Well, actually, you can't have it both ways. You're supposed to have some sort of hierarchy in any organization, for it to survive. People have to be appointed jobs, and people have to be responsible for other people. And one person on top can't manage everyone. But you're supposed to put people in charge that can be trusted, and are there to do their job not to, to further themselves. And those kinds of people become transparent. So even if they hear ideas from the bottom, they relate to the top. Additionally, there needs to be some kind of mechanism in which everybody has equal access. So okay, the king can't speak to everybody every
day. But there needs to be some kind of public forum, some kind of townhouse, some kind of open gathering in which he can take in the feedback from everybody, and hear all kinds of ideas and not dismiss them as Oh, they're not they don't work for me. Who What are your qualifications, he wants to give everybody a fair hearing. This is so incredible, that in our religion, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was given the institution of the Friday sermon, and the Friday hotbar. You see, usually every day, he's not meeting everybody in Medina. And in fact, it's hard to meet the prophet SAW Selim, because he's always busy with one mission or the other. And the people that are
closest to him, I've made the most sacrifices, and somebody who just became Muslim who was on the other end of town, will not have an easy time just coming to the prophets, I saw them, they might even feel reluctant. But what happens at Joomla Joomla the entire communities in front of him, anybody can approach him, what happens at the prayers, anybody can come and approach him and come and talk to him. So on the one hand, he has a chain of command, he has a book recently called the Allahu anhu. on his side, he hasn't really been allowed on, he has leaders of the unsought when there are high classified matters, he shares them with the top brass, he doesn't share them with
everybody, because there are troublemakers in the ranks too. So he doesn't break the chain of command. But at the same time, he also has an accessibility that anybody can access him and not have to worry about anyone else. Now, why am I bringing all of this up? Because when the king says I want him exclusively to my service, he doesn't say, I'm going to make him part of this committee, which has 11 other members. So when he has an idea, and the other 11, members get a little, you know, insecure about him, they shoot his ideas down, and I never get to hear them. I need to have direct access to him. And I no longer will accept any kind of filters between me and him. He already
experienced one filter, which was the cup bigger, right? Because he said, I'll go get the answer didn't even name Yusuf Ali Salaam. And then of course, there's the matter of those who covered up a crime that was never committed. And they created a crime that was never committed in jailed him and actually created a barrier for him to be able to do any good in society. So now he says, This is the kind of person that needs to be heard directly, not through a filter. And so I want him exclusively in my service. Now, what that means also is you've got the king and you've got the king's right hand, man. You've got his vice, you know, the Vice King, the Vice President, if you will, you know
the this vise kind of role in modern politics.
can become just a symbolic role. Right? It's not really an executive kind of role. But in some other government governments like unlike the United States, you have the, the the president, and then you've got the Prime Minister. Right. And the President is actually more of a symbolic role, even though it's the highest office in the land, but most of the work day to day and all the meetings and dealings are being done by the Prime Minister. And it's kind of closer to that, that the king is up there. And he's really got his advisors that give him all the answers that execute everything. They're the ones that are the ministers are doing all the work. He wants this to be his top
minister, that's exclusively right under him. The problem also is, he realizes that there's not many people in his administration that he can trust. And those people when they conglomerate together, when they group together, guess who they are, when when employees get together as a group? Who do they go after? Who do they backbite? Who do they talk against? Who do they make fun of the boss? Right? He realizes that this is the kind of person that's so trustworthy, and he's not going to tell me what I want to hear. He's going to tell me what is and what isn't? What makes sense and what doesn't make sense. I want him exclusively in my service, with no filters, and I don't want him to
be stuck in any bureaucracy. He deals directly with me. I have a straight communication with him. Okay. So as dustless Holy nuptse, find a mock and demo. So he hasn't talked to him yet. Yeah. Then the eye moves forward and says then finally, when he spoke to him, now the he spoke to him, there are two interpretations. Who is he and who is him when you say he spoke to him? Who's the he referring to, and what's the him referring to so some of us who don't say, the king spoke to you when finally the king spoke to you serve, or it could mean when finally use of spoke to the king either way, doesn't really make too much of a difference. However, there should be some observation
about why that would make a difference. If it's the king who spoke to us of it's as if the king confirmed by talking to him everything that he'd been thinking. And when he finally had a chance to meet him, he was holding something in that he wanted to say, and he actually got a chance to meet him and actually blurted it out, basically, you know, sometimes you go into an interview, and you don't know if you're gonna get the job or not, but the person about to hire you is so impressed with you without even having met you. They've already hired you.
I've heard a lot about you. I've actually watched a couple of your videos, and you're a great fit for this university is you're a great candidate for this professorship. And actually, before you even got here, you've got the job, but I can't and it's the interview is not so much that it's going to evaluate whether you're being hired or not. But it's such a pleasure to meet you. Finally, I get to see you put a face to the name I've heard so much about you. You see what I'm saying? So it's all if it's the king speaking to him, it's almost as if you've already impressed me so much. Oh, my God, it's this is who you are. Wow. And what happens sometimes is you hear about somebody impressive. And
you heard a lot about them. There's a hype around them. There's a you know, an impression you have of how awesome they are. And then you meet them and it's a bust like, oh, oh, that's what you really like, oh, hmm. Like I remember one time, somebody came to me and said, You're you look taller and videos. They were disappointed.
So
that sometimes you have this grand impression, and when you actually meet the person, they're not as impressive. You're not all that. You're just like everybody else. Oh, I didn't realize okay, now I know what you really like and your your impression shatters, or cracks at least a little bit. What seems to be the cases if the king spoke to him, he spoke to him and the impression he had of him is only confirmed. Instead of it being shattered, it's only confirmed. On the flip side, it could be that use of finally spoke to him directly. Now we know that you spoke to the inmate directly. You spoke to the inmate again directly. And now finally, Yusef is actually speaking himself like and
when the king King has heard some amazing wisdom come from this man only by relay narrated about him but not said they're not heard directly from him. Now, finally, he gets to hear that hear this man speak himself. And he says, Wow, he's for real. This is serious. And it could be that in kandalama, who there's some kind of conversation that ensued between the two of them that the Quran doesn't record simply says a conversation took place between the two of them. And when that happens on the king said in Nakayama Dana McKinnon, I mean, today, without a doubt, starting today, right now, immediately, you know, that's the other thing when you hire somebody you say next week, or the
position security in a couple of months, I'm gonna put you in, I'm gonna put a strong recommendation for you. Right and you're anticipating that you'll get the job in a week or two. hearing back from them. He says, nope. Today, no doubt about it starting today. As of now, you are that inner candidate.
Now on your mind at Dana McKinnon I mean in our company are with us, you are McKean. I mean, there are two words used in Arabic here McKean. And I mean, simply put, and it's a form for soft students. This is actually a pretty interesting word McKean. It comes from makhana. And you may have learned even if you don't know much about Arabic, many Arabic words are most Arabic words have three letter roots, right. And this word is really cool because it experiences a concept in Arabic called, what that means is originally the word is going to be. And from it, you get a lot of which is McCann. So the love of Canada means to be McCann is a place where one exists a location, the place to be,
because the lot of you put a mind the beginning, and my final mother and my father, these are the patterns and what that does is, it's a word for a time or a place. So makhan is a place a place of existence. So makhan is used for location, for example, okay, but the Word became so coined and so often used, that the mean, which is actually not part of the route, the actual route is scarf while a noon cone. That's where it comes from. Because of the coin usage of it, it actually then became assumed that its root letters are meme coffin, McKenna, and from it, you get uncannily McKenna and moonkin. And him Can you get all these other words that come from this origin, which is actually a
child derived from Ghana from a separate three letter word. This is very rare in Arabic that that happens, but this is one of those cases. Now that's a geeky Arabic thing on the side. But what does that mean for you and me from from from the Ghana origin? What this would imply is that you have been given a station, you are now someone who has a certain high level station. It's also interesting that this word McKean is used by a la force one of his creations who has a very high station. It's used for gibreel and Islam McKean.
And Allah mentions and the Laci McKean that he is right under the throne right by the throne he is stationed and the same workstation is used I interestingly, here you have a king a king also has a throne and right by his throne use of Elisa Lam is what McKean. So there's a parallel not with Allah, but with that station with the idea of the royalty giving a high station and that's the word that's being used for use of Edison to suggest that he is going to have a very high level advisory position. And he's like a, like a wizard. Okay. And he's there in order to make high level recommendations. And McKean from the SM cifa also suggests that he's not going anywhere. Like this
is a stable position. It's not a temporary or, you know, we'll see in the next election cycle, or bureaucratic position where you can be you can be removed from your job, no, you're permanently stationed here, that's inside the word making the word Makana Also, if you look at it from the origin, meme, coffin noon, that our home origin, then it actually has to do with animals that carry a lot of eggs inside of them, and give birth to many at the same time, like locusts and lizards and things like that. And from it, the idea of someone who has great potential inside of them, and has great ability inside of them or gathers much resources inside of them became a figurative extension
of the word. So timucuan is someone who has great potential. And emcon is someone who has the potential to do something, the ability to do something how the Lion King Looney is is not possible for me, meaning I don't have the potential to do this. That's actually what that implies. By saying, McKean, I have empowered you with a great deal of resources. So not only do you have a high position, you actually have at your disposal a great deal of resources, you it is possible for you to do all kinds of things in this land. So I'm giving you a lot of free rein also. But still, the word McKean and you're in a very high place and you're in this advisory role is not specific. And
that's important to understand. He didn't give him a title. He just said you're right by us. And Medina. Ludden, actually in Arabic or nada, is different from India. And that is in the proximity of you. So you could actually say, for example, in Arabic and Russian, I'm right by the machine, you could be 10 feet away, or 30 feet away your cylinder machine. You could be down the block and still say on that angle machine. But let the machine or I will fire say either ha, little Bob, it's right at the door. Right at the end a little mustard is actually right there right at the door standing at the door or right at the machine, not just in its proximity. So when he says ladina he's not saying
you're in this room where I can see you. He's seeing you are right next to us. So there's a chair right next to the Kings where use of his position and that's inside the word, Dana. So you're in a very high position. You're very close to us.
And Makino and then he adds the word I mean, and I mean is I know I'm getting a little technical on the Arabic side. But I think the subtleties are important for you guys to know what we're how meanings are derived from the words Allah chooses to use to describe these events, and these words that the king chose. And on that note on the side, I will tell you, this was not set in Arabic. This is ancient Egypt. This conversation did not take place in Arabic, maybe some words are related to Arabic somehow, but it's this is not an Arabic conversation. Allah is translating this conversation from whatever language had happened in to Arabic, from ancient Egyptian to Arabic, this is even pre
Messiah. Right? So this is it. This is way Ancient Egypt. The thing is, then why are we paying so much attention to these words, we're paying attention to these words, because, you know, when human beings translate, they say there's something lost in translation.
But because I don't own all language. So when I try to translate from one language to another, I don't have complete mastery of the language that I translated from. And I also don't have absolute mastery over the language that translated into. And it's extremely difficult for me to take into consideration the cultural context of a word, the etymology of a word, the history of a word, the psychology behind a word, the same word could be thought about some people in one way or another people a different way. And it's the same exact word that happens with English all the time. Right? So now, having understood all of that, who is Hans leading in this in this ayah, Ally's translating
a lot of the king's words from ancient Egyptian and put them in Arabic, right? That means that you don't have to necessarily think about it as these are exactly the words of the king, the king may have said much. And a lot took all of what he said, and without compromising any of its meanings. He chose words in Arabic, that have injected in them all of the implications that the king was suggesting. And that's one of the reasons Arabic was the chosen language from a large religion is because it has the ability to take a word and inject in it lots of meaning, lots of depth, and its grammar is the same. It's not just the words are like that. Its morphology is like that. Its syntax
is like that it's etymologies. Like they're just different kinds of parts of linguistics, all of them make Arabic a really powerful language for expression, especially ancient Arabic. So now we're coming back to I mean, what does he What does the king mean by by I mean, you see, 13 in Arabic can be used for an adjective, so you can translate simply as trustworthy. So you are in a high position and you are trustworthy, but actually ferried more often than not comes in the meaning of an islamophobe, meaning that he is like a mock tool, that he is like, a mock tool, or a Sharif is actually Musharraf, someone given honor. A Kareem is actually mukarram. So these words, when they
sat, follow this pattern, one of the implications there and another easy example is Hamid, one of our last names is what Hamid Ameen is the one praised. And if you go by that pattern, I mean would mean the one trusted. So you are in a high position, and you have been entrusted. And this is important. Now, if I say to you, somebody, hey, you've been interested, I'm making you the VP of a&r, and you've been interested, here's the access to all the finances, the tax information, here's the access to all the technology, the keys to the building, blah, blah, blah, here's all of it, you have been entrusted? Does that is that speaking necessarily about the reality of that person, or
isn't speaking about my impression of them?
That's my impression of them.
Whether they are truly trustworthy or not, is a separate issue, you understand? But when I from where I can tell you're someone that's worthy of being trusted. So when I say I mean, I'm actually saying what a man, someone who has been given trust, someone who's been given trust, these two words are coming from the point of view of the king. Now, I mean, can mean trustworthy to that meaning is there too, but even if the king calls him trustworthy, he's not talking about the reality of use of, he's talking about his impression of use. This is important now, I'm giving you a high position. And this position is where you will be able to do much. I'm not specifying what but I want you right
next to me. And you have been given a lot of trust by me. I basically I trust you enough to leave the keys to the castle with you. You've been entrusted. Yeah, I think you're trustworthy enough. Okay. So this is now the king talking to Yusuf Ali Salam. Now, I want you to understand the logical connection between these two words. McKean. I mean, the king realize he has lots of people around him that are McKeen. He does. But none of them are lady. None of them are right next to him. There's clearly an empty vacant, vacant
spot, that's right next to him, there's plenty of people around him, but nobody right next to him. So he's never turned around and told any of his other advisors who we've heard from a little bit before, hey, you sit right next to me, that's never happened. So clearly use of is being given a position that isn't even been, they didn't even know the job existed before him. They didn't even know there was such a position where he wants me exclusively for his service, or exclusively right by his hand, that's a new position, a new cabinet position that the king created. But then he gave a rationale for why he created that position. Because the king, as much as he has kingdom and
resources and power and governance, what he does not have, no matter how much money and power he has, what he does not have are people he can absolutely trust.
You can have material things, you can hire people, you can have people impressed with you, you cannot people praise you. But people you can completely give your trust to without thinking twice about it. Now that's a scary prospect. And that's not it's the scary prospect for you and me, for anybody running a business or anything else. But it's a really scary prospect for kings. Because if you know anything about the history of Kings ships, you know that kings more often than not, are assassinated. Either they die in war, or somebody in their family poisons them and pretends that they died of old age, or they get killed in whatever at some dinner, this that the other. Why?
Because whenever there's a king, there's no one who can take that role unless they're dead.
So even when people say Long live the king, what they really mean is quickly die the king. That's what they really mean. And the closer people to him, are the ones that have access to the food, he eats the bed he sleeps in, they have access to his most insecure moments, they have access to his travel routes, his secrets, the ones who are in a position to kill him best are the people that are closest to him. So kings, the history of Kingdom is kings ended up killing their own family, or exiling their own family, or keeping them very close to them, not because they love them, but because they want to keep an eye on them. Or the son grows and up, grows up enough that he's vying
for the kingdom, and the father and son are at odds, because of the kingdom. These kinds of things happen all the time. If you study even today, any countries that have kingdoms, you'll see family drama in those kingdoms, because that's the only way power can pass on. So for him, to put someone so close to him is an enormous, you know, level of trust. It's not a small gesture, for him to be the king to do that. That's, that's something that needs to be understood. Now.
These as you have these two, you know, these two descriptions of his position, you're in this high role and you are being trusted. Yusuf Ali Salam hasn't even done anything yet. He's just carried himself truthfully. That's all he's done. And that's spoken volumes. You know why? Because when you are in a society that doesn't believe in a line the last day, an honest, dignified people are hard to come by. And when they come by, they stick out. Like they're on a throne on their own without having a throne. That's what they are. And so the king at least recognizes that, after his investigation of everything he found out, I need him in this position. Now use of Elisa Lam, here's
this, I can you I need you to imagine this scene, all these ministers that have served the king all these years, and they're all like,
Hebrew, slave.
Wait, hold on a second, an immigrant
that came into this country illegally.
An immigrant that has a crime record. He's also served time these immigrants come to our country, and then they go to jail.
Isn't that the rhetoric around the world today about immigrants? And this is an immigrant who came here by the way illegally, and and did time in jail, and he's going to be one given the highest position in government and the Quran. He said, What does the Quran say about immigration? The Quran says about immigration that an immigrant that came an immigrant child that came detained that someone was illegally detained had no legal rights can be the reason reason an entire country can be saved, and can be the reason that a nation that used to be a nation became a superpower. In fact, the mightiest superpower on the planet
for centuries because of an illegal immigrant. That's the Crown's comment on immigration. Yusuf Ali Salam.
You know, and by the way, it's in the Bible. But anyway.
Now, coming back is fluffy people, people like believe they claim to believe in their book.
And then they detail these stories, and then they have views on immigrants.
Right?
Are you reading the same book? Well,
they're the ones reading, it's in your book to grow. It's there, you know. And it's not just you know, in America or some other European country or somewhere around the world. There are countries, Muslim countries where immigrants are looked down upon. immigrants are looked at with the with a inferior eye everywhere, everywhere.
And what do you what do you learn about that in this book, that you have to look at the character of a human being not the place they are in society?
The reality of it is people just judge people from where they stand, what neighborhood they live in, what kind of clothes they're wearing, what color their skin, the accent of their language. What's the sky worth?
You know, if it's this ethnicity, they're all like this, if there's an ethnicity, oh, they're all like that. We already painted individuals as belonging to a certain way. And they are all the same way. Right?
What color Carla? But But now, these advisors are looking at this slave Hebrew. In the middle of the kings court being told he's sitting in a chair that didn't even exist that she the king ordered a special chair just for him to sit in there alone.
If any of them were ever offered this position, they would die of happiness. Isn't that the case?
Any other human being would have been like, Oh, my God. And by the way, just him getting out of prison. Thank you so much for getting me out of jail. I'm so honored that you even got to meet the president. This is so amazing. What an honor. You want me to work for you normally sit next to you. This is awesome. Lisa doesn't say thank you so much. What a great honor. I'd love to sit in this chair. He says no, hold on. King.
The thing is, you said that you want me to have a high place. And you trust me?
What does that mean? Hi, please, I don't want to sit on this chair and do press conferences. I don't want to sit on this chair next time. Maybe you have. Maybe you ate some you know, some other food and you have a bad dream. And then you come to me, Hey, I got another dream for you.
Me, you might think that this is all I'm good for. He's already put him in a box. Maybe?
You so funny. Sam says thanks for the honor. But I don't want the impression of being someone important. I'm not interested in a higher place where you trust me, and therefore I'm sitting here. And it's almost like the kinkiest thing. I'm sure we'll find something really good for you to do. But I want you here. And you said it sounds like okay, no, I'm sure I know what I need to do.
So thanks for this position. But let's be specific. Let's be specific. Nobody else who was offered that kind of position would want to be what? specific. In fact, you're in that position, you think to yourself, man, I could finally chill, corner office, side chair to the king. I don't got to do nothing. You know where I came from. You don't kind of work I put in, you know, the kind of slavery I did, you know, kind of labor, I didn't send the prison camp. And now finally paid off 100 in the
next case,
bring it I should relax. Now. This is I made it you know any for anybody else. They would say at this point, they made it. Yusuf Ali Salaam says this is not why I came out of prison. I mean, thank you. But the thing is,
Allah, Allah, Allah has not.
Actually, Your Honor. He doesn't say that I'm adding that in, I'll tell you his literal translation, put me on top of the treasures of the land,
install me and make me the minister of the Treasury. Basically, what he's saying, make me in charge of all of the treasures and resources of Egypt. Give that to me,
the treasury of the land, you're going to be the tax collector, you're going to make sure the farmland is going to be irrigated properly, you're going to make sure that the vaults are secure, you're going to make sure that the banks are not cheating people, you're going to make sure that the people that owe money to the government, the debts are being collected, you're going to make sure that crime, Financial Crimes aren't happening. I want to make sure that the economy of this country and the treasury of the land is being run properly put me in that job. I don't want that chair. I want that work.
That was the chair looks really nice and even rotates and stuff and goes up and down. It's got a spring thing on it. It's really cool. But I want to do work.
I haven't made it yet. This is not making it doing work is making it I need to do work. Now. There's two readings of this. It could be that the king. One reading is it could be that the king is basically not sure what to do. And he's the kind of King and the people around him that are not very competent. Even though he did a competent investigation. He's not a very competent king. He sees a talented person is I'm sure I've got a good use
For you just sit here right next to me. I'm sure we'll think of something. No, that that tells me that you're not sure of anything that tells me you don't know what you're doing. You want good people around you, but you don't know how to use them. It may be and one reading is, he clearly has very incompetent people around him, right? So he's not very good at human resources or management, isn't it? So even if you have good people, if you're not a good manager and don't know how to put them to use, then what good are they? And so you've Youssef is a great find. But what good is if he doesn't get put to proper work, just because he sits in a high position, and you get to say, I have
a really good guy in this position. Look at his resume, he's really impressive. But he's there to look good next to me.
That's, we don't want that I want to do some work is basically where use of this coming from Elisa Lam. Another reading of it is, and this is leaning, and I'm kinda sort of, you know, inclined towards the to the king is pretty smart. I mean, he did investigate the entire case, and brought it out in the open and was smart enough to say Yusef needs to be exclusively communicating with me, no more filters between me and him. So that is pretty smart decisions on the Kings part. But the king is almost testing user friendly. So now, I want you to get a high position. Sit right next to me, right here.
Because he's already demonstrated honesty over and over, right. And this is kind of like the last test. The last test is a test where you're not told it's a test.
And before he could sit on the chair, he says, No, I need the responsibility over the Treasury.
And the other has analog, install me put me in place over the Treasury, the treasures of the land, literally, the Treasury,
put me in this position. By the way, this position will include policing, it'll include security, because when you're in charge of the treasurer, you're in charge of the most delicate operation of the land. Right. So he is now the most, he's kind of a prime minister, if he gets the job. He's the most important role in Egypt. Everybody answers to him, everybody, because without the economy conditions, nothing. He's in charge of the entire economy and all of its functions. He's in charge of all of the farmlands, all of the water reservoirs and all the jobs that come with it. Everything. So when he asked for this position, it's remarkable to me that use of an A Salam was not given this
job. He demanded this job.
And he didn't demand this job. Before he actually demanded this job when he was given something so high, where he could comfortably live the rest of his life. He could write next to the king. But instead he says, No, that's there's work to be done. And I know I made and I made a policy sitting in jail that people have to farm and work hard and store the crop
from what I see here. That's not going to happen. These people around you are not qualified for that. I however Am I need to be given this job and then he adds his additional qualifications now, what are the two qualities that the king gave him according to qualities of the king gave him as a high position where you can do as you please? You have great potential McKean. And you're being trusted. I trust you. Please. You know, you do as you please, you do as you see fit.
But now he says in me half even Eileen, I am someone who safeguards hafeez. I'm always watchful. I'm always guarding vigilant on alert. I'm someone who is going to take this duty and guarded with my life. I'm going to go to sleep thinking about this job wake up thinking about this job.
We think of profits as spiritual entities. We think of them as those who remember a line all states, but we don't think of profits as administrators, as politicians, as economists, as managers of human resources as judges of criminal law. We don't think of them in that. We think of them as we put them in a box. You understand. He's kidding, putting himself out of the box and he's saying for the sake of Allah, as well as a service to Allah, I will safeguard the economic well being of a nation that doesn't believe in Islam.
Egypt,
Mila, tacoman la mina, Bella, Bella, Bella, you know, we love our home. We love
the religion of our people that don't believe in Allah and in the al Qaeda, they are in complete denial and what does he want to do? safeguard their economy? I will watch over that responsibility.
Is he talking about his prophethood or Allah subhanho wa Taala as you preaching anything yet? Nope. He's just saying people are gonna die in my response. If Allah has given me knowledge to save people, I will put that to work.
You're the best man for the service leanness of rigidness for people, not of people or people. You're not
The best of the people, you're the best for the people. He's the best for Egypt. He says, I'll safeguard this role. Then he says, I love him. And I know what I'm knowledgeable. I am no doubt the one to safeguard this responsibility. And I am no doubt knowledgeable. In other words, I will take this duty seriously, like no one else will. And I know what I'm doing. First of all, because I've demonstrated that and Ally's helping me.
The revolution is coming to him, isn't it? I'm not speaking to you from whim. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to this crisis. So I am the right fit for this job. It's so amazing to me, and use it for a salon didn't just apply for a job. He told his employer thanks for the hire, but I'll tell you my job description.
When does that happen? He's telling the king, my job, the job description. And so in doing so, we learned something remarkable about the confidence of use of money, Sam, you see, we often in our religion talk about the importance of humility. Right? And the opposite of humility is arrogance. Right? There's a two ends of the spectrum. So we don't want to be arrogant. Therefore, we have to be humble. But there's a position right in the middle of too much humility, and too much arrogance. What's the position in the middle confidence? there's a there's a place in the middle, there's a balance. Now why is this important? When you have too much humility, you feel like you are
worthless, and before Allah, we are worthless.
Before our sins are many, we are broken human beings. We are you know, we are flawed. khulumani Adam hapa. All children, make mistakes and make mistakes over and over again. We are perfect. We are not angels. We beg Allah for acceptance. So there has to be humility doesn't there.
But what happens when you have too much humility, you start really seeing yourself as worthless, and no good and not capable of anything because you're just not good enough because you have to be humble. It's like you have to walk around in life with ruku.
No, you make ruku Allah not to life.
When you bow before Allah, it gives you confidence and everything else. It has to make you humble and everything else, as in your weekend, everything else. You know what I'm talking about? No, don't say you know what you're talking about. Brother Be humble.
I'm the best man for this job. Where's your humility?
No, that's confidence. That's confidence. Somebody's really good at teaching. They have a talent for teaching kids. And somebody says to them, why don't you teach kids know I am just a worthless slave of Allah. I am nothing. I am worthless. I have so many sins. I am filthy before my robe. No, no, no, I couldn't take such a responsibility. Yeah, I think you're filthy too. But there's nobody else teaching the kids and you're pretty good at it. So why don't you just stop, stop crying about yourself
and show a little confidence. You understand? Like, I can't, you know, there's students I've met that like they have a university. I've given this example before their university. There's like five Muslims in this old college, in the middle of nowhere in America, five Muslims and they want to have Juma together, right. And one of them has memorized the Quran, and the other ones don't even know and
also, the one has memorized the Quran. Can you please lead the prayer? No, yeah, see, I'm just a key and I'm just, I'm a nothing I'm abdomen louder, just wants to be invisible. How can I stand on the member and lead the prayer? The way those who love Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam led the prayer. I am just amount of sins and I am dirty. Yes, I think you're dirty too. But you still gotta leave the prayer because this guy's gonna lead the prayer in English man.
So can usually lead the prayer and then be humble after that, sometimes you got to step up, you need to step up. Now stepping up doesn't mean you become arrogant. You think you're better than anybody else, or you're a no at all. But what you do know you do know, you have to be confident about what you do know, those two things have to go hand in hand, you have to be open to accepting your mistakes. Technology, your flaws. And by the way, the humility of use of a salon has already been discussed. That nice a woman enough see, one of the ways to enter I don't consider myself free of my nerves free, you know, free of blame. I'm not saying I'm entirely innocent, I don't have bad
thoughts or I don't have to fight them. He didn't say that already. So there's this on the one side you have this humility. And on the other side, a Hebrew slave that came out of jail was standing in the greatest kingdom on earth, talking to the kink in front of a bunch of ministers and saying, I am no doubt the right person to be in charge of the entire treasury of Egypt. Because I will guard this job. And I'm the one who knows what they're doing, which is his way of saying none of y'all know what you're doing. You're gonna get people killed. But he doesn't have to say that he just has to present his case in New Zealand.
Incredible, is just what he's done here is remarkable. There's one more side comment before I want to show you something visually, which I think is, is pretty cool. I hope I'm able to be coherent when I show that to you. But before I do, a question occurred to me today about this portion of the story, and I had a discussion with him about it. And I'll share some of that with you.
We know from what Allah has described about ancient Egyptian society that they are not believers in the law. We also know that they believe in a lot of superstition, so they have superstitious, superstitious interpretations of dreams. And they, they believe in omens and things like that, right. So they are a hodgepodge of different kinds of beliefs. And they are, you know, superstitious enough that even people that aren't Muslim in jail are coming to him. So a couple of inmates are coming to him telling us asking, What is my dream mean? And the king is saying, What is my dream mean? So dreams are a big deal to them. omens are a big deal to them. And they obviously don't
always, don't ever get their answers from Revelation, they always get their answers from people who basically make up stuff and say they got it from the gods, or they got it from the spirits, or they got it from, you know, the Lotus tree or something, they make up stuff and give it to them. So they believe in all kinds of mythologies. So in the middle of all of those mythologies, use of honey Salaam, interpreting the dream, even though we know it's from a lot, they don't see it that way. They just see him as a quote unquote, priest, like all the other priests that they have. And they have their own gods and, you know, demons and angels, or whatever they believe in supernatural
powers. And he has his right. Because from their point of view, they don't see him as someone who believes the right religion, because if they did, they would accept his religion, you understand that? But they don't. So the question arises, why would the king accept his interpretation of the dream,
with so much confidence, then he would shape an entire nation's policy around it, put him in this position, because part half of the equation is his honesty, which has been proven, but really, his honesty alone doesn't get him to Treasury.
his honesty alone makes him someone who can hold the job. But to get the job in the first place, you would have to have qualification. And the only qualification the Quran has told us about him so far as what his interpretation of a dream, which from their point of view is a mystical spiritual thing. It's not a scientific thing, right. And they have other mystical sources, other spiritual sources. So why be so hung up on this one? Why be so impressed with this, and not any other? It could be that it's just a thought that the king had or a feeling of love put in his heart and he went with it. That's pretty plausible. But I think there's a larger statement here. And it's important to
understand from from those of you that are students of psychology, you'll perhaps cover some of these aspects in the study of the psychology of religion, or religious psychology.
Muslims in their peak, not Muslims today, Muslims in their intellectual peak, were people that like, for example, in Andalusia, Spain, right.
We had people teaching in Islamic universities that were non Muslims. We were studying astronomy from Jewish scholars we were, we were having interchange with Christians, with Zoroastrians, with people of different societies were exchanging with the philosophers were exchanging with us, and we were exchanging with them and there was no sofala. If you talk to them, you're going to lose your stamp. You know why? Because we had an intellectual foundation in what we believe. We knew that we don't just believe in superstition, we don't just believe in a story, we have come to this faith after having thought about it with a basis. And because we were so intellectually confident in our
faith, we could engage with other intellectual traditions, other religious traditions, without feeling insecure. We didn't get like, don't talk to them, it will mess up your mind. Because our mind was not built on my mama told me
or you mine was built on Allah vasila. It was built on a foundation. Today, the majority of Muslims can say, I'm Muslim, because my parents told me I'm Muslim.
This was not actually the original way of how Islam was established. As almost built on proper theological, intellectual foundations. We thought about how we got here. We pondered the Koran. And we understood generation after generation, why is it that we're Muslim, and when you have that kind of confidence, you're not afraid of outside ideas. You're not gonna hear something and say, Oh, my God, I'm not sure if I believe anymore. And if everything you hear starts shaking you, you know what that means. You didn't build your foundation. But once you build your foundation, then you can engage in other ideas, and maybe 99% of what they say is false. But that 1% That's true. Because of
your foundation. You can see it and you're not scared of it. You're not worried about it.
But then, until today, in order to preserve the religion of our children, we say
don't expose them to this idea. I'm so scared when they go to university to lose their faith. If they if they watch this video, if they hear these ideas, if they hear this person, then they're going to lose their Islam. Why would Islam be so weak?
I can understand somebody of a different religion, saying they lose their faith because they heard something else. I can't understand why a Muslim would say that. Because a Muslim comes to Islam with a foundation with a solid foundation. And the Muslim is not Muslim because people around him or her Muslim. Muslims are Muslim because society is Muslim, or because his parents expect him to be Muslim. Because that's all they ever knew their Muslim because they know why they believe in Allah. They know why they believe in an afterlife. They know why they believe in the word of the Quran being the word of Allah they have a why answered? And that's what settles them in their faith. If
and by the way, you don't not have to have that why answered? And you're still okay with your faith. But the problem is, the first wave that comes in hits you the first intellectual wave that comes in hits you that tree is gonna fall. A slew how hydro sabots furfural ruhani surface sama. That's the Allah describes the root of La ilaha illAllah. its roots are deep, its branches in the sky. Right? If your roots are deep, there is no branches going into the sky. Now why am I bringing that up? Because in superstitious religious cultures, and the sad reality as politically incorrect as it sounds, I'm not afraid to say because this is what I've observed in superstitious religious
traditions. And the fact of it is the vast majority or a huge population of us Muslims, our families are only holding on to Islam out of superstitious or superstitious version of Islam, a version of a song where our the strength of our creed is no different from a Hindu holding on to their Hinduism, or a Christian holding on to their Christianity, because it's just something passed down, because everybody around us is that way.
But no other real solid foundation, and there may be some emotional attachment. How dare you say that? Yeah, there may be an emotional attachment, maybe even a spiritual fervor, but the intellectual foundation is not there. And you know, when that happens when the intellectual foundation of the faith disappears, and people aren't actually connected to the word of a lot of convinces them, that brings them to a solid foundation in their faith, when that happens in any religion, then that religion starts adopting different kinds of superstitions. Okay, so there are different kinds of religious people. They're the ultra religious, who say, we're only going to study
religion, we're not going to study the outside world or outside sciences because they'll corrupt our religion. So let's not study any of it. All of it is COVID. And that's a scared mentality. This this light that we have is too weak to for it to be exposed to darkness, which doesn't make any sense. Darkness should be afraid of light, not the other way around.
Right? darkness disappears when light comes, light doesn't disappear when darkness comes. Doesn't make sense. Jonathan Hulk was a Huckleberry Finn. nyjah bottle was
in Alberta, Canada, hookah, not in Canada hookah when we had some people are protective like that. Let's just preserve our Islam. Let's not deal with the outside world fine. But then there's the rest of us who are exposed to society. We're exposed to different ideas and we barely know anything about Islam. I put myself before I got into the Quran study of the Quran in that same category. We barely knew anything about Islam. And you know what my Islam was, like millions of you. My Islam was the same it was I heard this somebody said this. It's all it was. You know, I heard if you do if you eat this on this day, then this happens or that happens and people mimoza Hey, I my daughter wants to
get married. If we get married in this month, does that mean she's going to get divorced? When you get stuff from superstition on top of superstition on top of superstition, right? When you have a superstitious culture, and that that can happen to Islam, it can happen to Christianity, it can happen to Judaism, it can happen to Hinduism, it happen in any culture, then you know what you start accepting superstitions from everywhere will take whatever feels good. You'll become the psychedelic religion. We're all it's all good. It's all completely good. I told this story many years ago, when I used to live in, in Queens in New York and Forest Hills. My neighbor was a Hindu lady, every
couple of months used to go to Atlantic City. Atlantic City is a part of New Jersey. It's on the coast. It's a it's a gambling city. So it's kind of like our version of it's a ghetto version of Vegas. Okay, so to go to Atlanta to gamble at the slot machines or whatever. So one day she was going to Atlantic City. I came out of the house same time, but she's coming out. And she's got this frame under her arm. I was like, what's that? I saw Arabic on it. So can I see that? So she gives it to me? It was ayatul kursi. This Hindu woman. I was like where you going? She goes Atlantic City. I'm going to gamble this weekend. Like why are you taking this you got to take it for good luck.
I had to go see to Atlantic City for good luck. You know what, that's what happens with religions.
superstitions. The Egyptians are a superstitious people. They don't care where the superstition comes from. If it sounds like it's going to solve my problem, Hey, bring it.
Because now religion is not about seeking the truth. Religion is about solving your problem.
This is the key. Why do people believe in superstitions, because they want their problem solved. I really want to get a promotion, I really want to get married. I really want this one to love me. I really want those two to get divorced. I really want this one to die. I really want this one to be okay, I really want that one to come out of the hospital. I really want I really want I really want I really want Oh, yeah, you want to do this? Do you follow these superstitions, and then make an oath or do this Omen or light these candles or do this or that or the other make a pact with the devil, whatever it is, you come up with the superstition, people will follow it because they're
hoping they'll get what they want. Yes, the king has seen a dream. And now he's heard the most compelling argument for what he wants to see.
And he's not even convinced that this is the absolute truth. Because if he did, he would recognize that that knowledge that he can be my allamani Robbie, it's my Rob who taught me he doesn't accept the rub. But he does accept that this might work.
So they're okay with accepting different kinds of superstitions, so long as it serves them in the worldly sense. So that King is actually looking out for the worldly benefit of Egypt. And between all the other Hocus Pocus that he heard, he says he, from his point of view, this one sounds the most plausible, I'll go with it.
I'll yeah, this this one can be and on top of that is trustworthiness made it even more compelling, has honestly made it even more compelling. And actually, it's the honesty that's the icing on the cake, because everybody else could be or could not be telling the truth. But this man has told the truth under the most impossible circumstances. So it becomes highly, highly logical for me to think that when it comes to the interpretation of this dream, that he's making something up, you understand. So that became a kind of credibility for him that stood over and above all superstitions, and it's his credibility that was able to evaporate everything else. Now. It's
interesting. Also, the use of Elisa took a dig at superstitions, because he said, These people first of all can't safeguard this job. And I actually know what I'm talking about, Eileen, I'm knowledgeable, because these people don't know. Even if they interpreted something, they wouldn't be doing it from knowledge. They'll be doing it from one, we making stuff up. But I speak actually from knowledge and the job that I'm doing, I'm going to take care of it from a position of knowledge now that I've shared this with you guys. I want to show you something visual. Sorry if you can show them the screen that I've put here. So I'll first describe this to you what I'm talking about here, and
then inshallah we'll make sense of it. So the king and this goes in the Arabic direction. So it goes this way, right. So he says, He called Yusuf Elisa McKean, which means positioned Hi. And then I mean, which is trusted right. And then Yusuf Ali Salaam, describes himself with two names in the next I Hafiz and Arlene, safeguarding and knowledgeable, right, so there's four descriptions here. It's really interesting that these two have a logical connection with each other first, though, the two that are mentioned by the king, that's obvious, right? Because you're being put in a high position, because I trust you so much. Right. And only a person that is trusted, so much, should be
given so much power. So trust and being given a high responsibility are logically connected to each other. That makes sense. Yusuf Ali Salaam, when he says I will safeguard this role, I will guard my responsibility as head of the Treasury. He says, The reason I'll be able to guard this responsibility is because I have all people actually know what to do. I mean, if I didn't know what to do, my intention to want to safeguard this would be meaningless. Without my qualification of knowledge, I cannot safeguard this job. Until I know what I'm doing, I shouldn't be holding the job. And I in fact, know what I'm doing. And from a reverse, it's the fact that I know, it's not enough
that I can sit back and just know, I need to put my knowledge into action. And I can't do that until I have this job. So my knowledge is forcing me to step up and say, give me the job. Because if I just sit back and comment on what the country should be doing, and they should be doing and shouldn't be doing, and I have all the knowledge, but I don't do anything except comment, sound familiar most of the world, then what good is that? It's my knowledge that makes me say I should take step up and safeguard this job you understand. So these two and those two are logically connected to each other. Let me erase a little bit so I could start over. Okay, now that the two
rows are connected, now we'll go this way.
So you've been positioned in a high place, and anybody who's been positioned in a high place, that's that's said by the king, right? Anybody positioned in the high place use of ads when someone's positioning
In a high place, their only job should not be to maintain their high place, their job should be to safeguard everybody else, I want to make sure the poor are safe, the farmers are safe, the streets are safe, the economy are safe, the children are safe, the higher up you go in office in a position, the more you're concerned about securing everybody else. Give me the Treasury because I will make everybody else safe. You see. So being put in a position of office isn't about you, it's about them. The higher up you go, the more of a public servant, you become you understand. So those two are kind of connected to each other also. And now, I'm the one who has been entrusted. He that's the king has
entrusted him. And he says you should be in trusting me only because I don't speak from whim. And the trust that you've given me means that when I speak, I will speak from knowledge, I won't just pass off my opinion, I will put my knowledge to work. This is how I will honor your trust, you understand. So top down also they reciprocate these two names reciprocate each other. So we went vertically and we went horizontally, right? One last one.
Now we're gonna go across.
Okay.
So the last thing that King says is, you're interested, I trust you.
He says, since this this honor that you've given me of trusting me, I will make sure I guard that honor.
There's no logical connection. You know, like, for example, a police officer is given the trust to protect and serve. And he says, I will honor that duty, I will safeguard that responsibility. You have given me trust, I'm telling you, I will safeguard it.
You see, so he reciprocated the Kings comment.
And then on the flip side, you have been given a high position, King, you gave me the high position. And by the way, the only reason you should have given me the high position is because I have knowledge, knowledge should be the only thing that raises you.
If you know what you're talking about, you should be moved up so that you can put your knowledge to better use. So it's remarkable that these two names that the king mentions and the two attributes and the two attributes that use it for this I mentioned have this interplay across and above and below and then diagonally also with each other. So that's something visually that I wanted to show to you in Sharla barakallahu li comb filter and Hakeem when finally we combine it with chemo Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.