Episode 4 – Surah Yusuf – Nouman Ali Khan
June 9, 2016
Episode 4 – Surah Yusuf – Nouman Ali Khan
June 9, 2016
This audio is brought to you by Muslim Central. please consider donating to help cover our running costs and future projects by visiting www dot Muslim central.com forward slash donate
hamdulillah salatu salam ala rasulillah Allah Allah He was a sahbihi edge mindful mama bada salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Everyone, I'm really, really excited to help you get to know and myself all over again get to know. So let's use of one of the most profound, beautiful and unique tools in the Quran where an entire narrative is dedicated to one story, but unusually has multiple stories in one surah, or snippets of a story. But this time, it's a dedicated discourse beginning to end in chronological order, for one, one individual. And that's Yusuf Ali Salaam, along with his brothers, this is a surah, where you could literally spend years taking up a passage and deciphering
how many, you know, bits of wisdom drops, you know, gems of wisdom are embedded, literally Ayah by a phrase by phrase, it's an absolutely overwhelming and profound study that has incredible amounts of insight. The first thing I'd like to say from a contemporary point of view about the sutra is that this is a sutra in which, especially students of psychology, should you those of you that are interested in psychology and sociology, you should pay close attention to the surah there's actually a really famous narration about this one that I want to share with you,
which is
not commonly appreciated. It's actually a man came into the coming to the province, I saw them and saying, upgrade, and he told me what to read. Just tell me something to read, you know, and the prophets I said, I'm told him to read, you know, the soldiers that have left lamora in them. And why did you tell him that he actually mentioned in the story that he has a problem, the man has a problem. I've become old in age, in a cupboard Sydney, and helluva lis Honey, you know, my wish that kalbi was a lovely sunny says, My, I've become old age. And my tongue has become tough, I'm really mean when I talk. And, you know, I, my heart has become hard. I'm not sensitive anymore. And he
recommended solos with Alif lamora. And this is important, because now we're learning that this sorta has a profound impact on one's You know, it makes you more sensitive, it softens you up, you know. And so that's one of the benefits of this remarkable sort of what I want to share with you about this, what are a few things that I'm just absolutely fascinated by it. And I can't get enough of this sort of every time I dig into it, I find more things that I just never even thought of. And really all of them are almost a book by themselves a study by themselves. But I want to start with some basic themes. I won't absolutely get to cover all of them. But some of the unique themes about
ally and how we think about Allah Himself, that come out of the Sudan, then I'll tell you some things about the story. I think all of you might be familiar overall, with the story of a young boy, whose dad loved him very much. And his brothers were very jealous of the relationship that dad had with him. And as a result, they, you know, they kidnap him, they make this entire plan, they were almost ready to kill him, but they kidnapped him, they put him away in a well, and he's taken from there. And by some caravan who illegally sells him off as a child slave, and as a servant. So he's now a butler in some castle in Egypt, and he lives his life as a servant. And so this is a pretty
disturbing story about a child being kidnapped, and then turned into a child slave. Like, if you watch that in the news, nowadays, you'd be disturbed you change the channel. Like as a parent, it's hard to watch that but now we're listening to this and reciting this profound story. This is very, very real, the suffering of a child away from his loving, loving dad, and the suffering of the Father, not knowing what happened, his kid these are indescribable kinds of pain. But then unless names in the surah really fascinating, Allah says, For example, will la Hollywood Allah angry This is the only time in the Quran Allah uses this name for himself, will la Hollywood Allah, and Allah
is dominant, over overshadowing all of his affairs. Ultimately, whatever happens to you So Allah is dominant over it, like a less keeping a profound eye on it. And he's in complete control over it. And this name of Allah, Allah, Allah to dominate, to overcome, to overpower is used, but then you like, Where's God when a kid got kidnapped? What is he when he's being thrown in the well? Where's he when he's being sold off? Where is he when he's falsely accused, and even after his innocence is proven, he's still thrown in jail? You know, where is he when he asked for some people for help to be released from prison, and they forgot about Where's God and all of this. And yet Allah says he's
learned. But then he balances that with another one of his most profound subtle names very rarely used in the Quran. And this law in our ability for only Maya, my master is subtle in whatever, for whatever he does, with whatever he deals with his subtle. He's extremely powerful and dominant, but the way he deals with things, and the way he dominates situations and control situations is almost invisible. It's subtle. Latif and looks for in Arabic is not just niceness, it's actually subtlety where you don't
Notice something. That's why I sort of got half when the young men were supposed to kind of sneak young man was supposed to sneak into town, and nobody should notice him. While he had a lot buff, you should be extremely subtle not to grab any attention, meaning the way Allah does things doesn't get your attention. He doesn't do things after announcing them to you. His plan is always at work in the background, and you don't even realize that differently. miosha. So his dominance is now coupled with his secrecy, how secretly he does his plans. Now, if you take those two themes, then you realize, well, somebody could be subtle, and we don't know. And they're, they're dominant. But then
how are we supposed to understand their plan, there are two other names of a law that are currently sort of beautifully strategically situated. And these names have a lot come all over the Quran, but the way they're used in this surah is absolutely mind blowing. And those names are allimand Hakeem, the one who knows, and the one who has wisdom, the one who knows, and the one who has wisdom. Look, even if you're powerful, doesn't mean you act with wisdom. Even if you're subtle, doesn't mean you have all the information before you acted. But those two names, these two names, balance those two other names, allows dominance and allow subtlety is coupled all the time is always ever present with
less knowledge of all things. And unless wisdom Allah knew how the reunion was going to happen, in the end, Allah knew all of these were important phases for him to go through. A lot of knew that this is going to be profound inspiration for the final messenger of Allah one day sal Allahu Allah for them, who himself is going to be exiled by his brothers, because that's when this surah was revealed. When the Prophet himself was exiled by his own people, he found hope in the solar This was revealed in the app, the year of sadness. And it's interesting that the word use of evil is not an Arabic name is closely related to the Arabic word SF, which means sadness, and the solar has
moments, profound moments of sadness as you travel. Now check this out in the beginning of the surah. You know that he tells his dad a dream, and the dad is full of hope. And he mentioned that a level fulfill his favorite HDB caribou cow, you come into the
lake, oh my goodness, Allah has chosen you, and he's going to fulfill His favor upon you, just and he's going to fulfill the favor upon the family of yaku talks about himself, just like he did to your ancestors. Abraham and his Hawk. You know, your master is Hakeem Ali Hakim, you're in Arabic Allah. Hakeem. Your master is knowledgeable, meaning Allah is knowledgeable, and Allah has all the wisdom, meaning Lao Allah is going to grant this kid knowledge is going to give him wisdom. Those two names are being used to describe this optimism for what is in the future of this child. So remember Alamo Hakeem first occur in the context of optimism, the second time gullible, so welcome
and Fukuyama for sovereign Jamil as Allahu and Yeti and he became Jimmy and inna who will Herky
jerky, second time, way so many bad things have already happened. He's been kidnapped, he's gone for years. You know, there's a drought, they don't have any food. The sons go off to Egypt to find food they don't even know the minister they're talking to is actually their own brother. He plots to actually have one of them Binyamin, the youngest one arrested and withheld for other reasons. Now they come back, the brothers come back to their data second time empty handed without a son. You know, first they took use of now they took Binyamin and now they come back empty handed. So this father has received bad news after bad news. Remember the first time he used Alamin Hakeem, he was
optimistic about a good future. But now so many bad things have happened. And on top of all of that sadness, another son has gone and he says, Whatever you thought easy for yourself to do. You did. Allah is the only one who's helped can be solved. Allah knows everything. He's all wise. In other words, he trusts a lot in the worst of situations. Allah has wisdom in how he does things. I don't see how he does things. I don't understand his plan. But he does have a plan because he's wise, and I know what I know. But I there's a lot I don't know and only Allah knows. So I'm just going to be quiet and trust Allah. The second time element Hakeem comes is t it teaches us trust in bad times.
The first time it taught us optimism, we should be optimistic about our future. When bad when things happen that are beyond our control. We should actually rely on a lot of knowledge and his wisdom. And finally, amazingly enough, the reunion happens. Everybody's together. The use of honey salon puts his parents on the throne. There's a massive celebration. And what is Yusuf Ali Salaam see in Nairobi, Latif Halima Shah, in the hawala Halima Hakeem, the third time the names occur. My master is so subtle in how he does things. He's looking back now how you know, hindsight is 2020 how subtle and how invisible unless plan was all along. And how amazingly By the way, if Yusuf was not in
prison, think about this. If Yousuf was not in prison, and and he did not meet those two prisoners, then a drought would have happened regardless, but there would never have been someone to give the suggestion that use of gave hundreds if not hundreds of 1000s of people would have starved to death. If you didn't go through what he went through, and it included the survival of his own family to his own brothers and their families and his father and his mother, they would have starved to death.
If this didn't have, that's just one of the things that was going on in the background, there was a greater good that needed to be accomplished. And by the way, as a result, he's able to sponsor all of his family to Egypt, and they settle in Egypt, which means that children of Israel now live in Egypt, and the saga of the Egyptians and the Israelites begins, which is when event what will eventually lead to the coming of Messiah, Islam. All of this begins with what the trials of use of that is, if that didn't happen, none of this would have happened. Allah knows, but useless, looks back at his life and says, Allah knew all along, Allah had wisdom, Allah now I see it. In other
words, the third time you use an element, Hakeem, as you look back in your life, and you appreciate the wisdom that at the time you couldn't have appreciate it. This happens in your life in mind all the time. There are bad things we go through, we're like, why is this happening? At the time we just trust a line say, Allah is wise, there's a plan. Years later, you look back and say, Man, that if that bad thing didn't happen, if I didn't lose my job over there, I would have never gotten this new job, I would have never moved here, I wouldn't, I would have never made these friends. I would have never missed all the good that happened in my life was a result of one bad experience that a lot put
me through. And that can happen. It's happened to me. You know, and this is the idea of Aileen Hakeem being an a sentiment of gratitude. Now, quickly, I want to share with you this might be a little bit overwhelming. So I make sure that first of all, I'm clear in being able to tell you this, it's really cool how the story plays out, I want to walk you through it. I've put letters next to it, just for organization purposes. The first part A is just the use of honey, Sam sees a dream, he tells it to his dad. The second part is that his brothers make a scheme against him. The third part is, and this is the name of the scheme, and it plays out, they put them in a well and all of that.
The third major part of the story is when the minister's wife tries to seduce him. And the fourth major part after that d is when a similar attempt is made by the women of Egypt, the elite aristocratic women that were called to a party, and they all tried to seduce you. And then then Yusuf is imprisoned. Thereafter, the king sees a dream now what happens in the president, that's all part of that scene where he's imprisoned. And then the king sees a dream. And he sees his weird dream that he tells his people
then he you know, one of the servants sees that, you know, actually, I know someone who can interpret the dream, so they call use of. So the King's dream is the first to be it gets interpreted, then Yusuf has released from prison as a result, because he says I can interpret it but I'm not coming out until, you know, I'm not coming out until my innocence has proven but he is officially released, even though he's volunteering to stay inside. Then the Egyptian ladies confess to what they had done long ago with him, because they had schemed against him. This is followed by the minister's wife, she herself admits what she had done. And then eventually the brothers of use
have come back and the whole scheme is made, and they confess to their mistakes. And finally, use of stream that started was fulfilled, which is, you know, he saw a dream that 11 stars, the sun and the moon are prostrating because of him. Now, this these are this the scene by scene by scene depiction of the solar. What's remarkable is that it's a complete symmetry. In other words, the first piece that I mentioned was useless dream. And the last piece I told you was uses dream as interpreted, it's fulfilled because he, you know, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars are right before, I'm humbled right before him. And that's the last part. If you notice the second part of the story, it
was when the plot his brothers plot against him. And the second last part of the story is when they learned their lesson. The third part of the story is the minister's wife attempts to seduce him. The third last part of the story is the minister's wife admits that she was wrong. The fourth part is women tried to seduce him. The fourth last part is the women admitted that they had tried to do such a thing. The fifth part is use of gets imprisoned. The fifth last part is he's released from prison. And right in the middle, the king sees a dream. And Yusef interprets the dream, which tells you that use of interpreting the dream was one of the most important things that had to happen. Why because
lives were at stake as a result, right? So it's actually a story that merges together right into the center. And the center is actually giving you what the profound larger good was in all of the suffering that went on in one household and how many people were saved how much more suffering was saved as a result and ally even saw them through by the end. And everybody benefited by the end Subhanallah it's a complete literary cemetery for an oral tradition for recited tradition to be this profoundly organized, it's just absolutely mind boggling. How does Allah do that? subhana wa Taala so here's the last part about use of so this is incredible organization but one thing I didn't tell
you is that this sort of begins with not the story. You know, cauliflower right you guys will be will be in
La Casa La Casa La Casa de Marina La, la,
la. The Prophet is being addressed in the beginning of the surah. We're giving you the most profound of stories you had no idea about. That's what the prophets being told. The last passage of this is also an action
directly to the prophets lesson in which the Prophet is told Look, there are some people no matter how you try to follow how to study what meaning they're not going to become believers in no matter how much you try, don't worry, don't try to impress them. There are some people who are just a lost cause there you know, and you're not asking them for any compensation matters.
All you have to do is add the URL in Allahu Allah Salat and just keep calling to Allah with eyes open. You know why? Let's add that to the prophets. I saw them because things were becoming so impossible. He's calling his brethren his brother in Christ. He's calling him a Sunday just not listening. They're not listening. They're not listening. They're so hopeless. And he's actually recalling that a father couldn't even convince his children to get their act together and the story of use of he couldn't even get them but eventually they came around and so the profits I saw was being given hope Look, it's it's gonna happen Don't worry about it. At the end, Java home look at
this word, London and Hong Kong cozy boo Johanna Suna
profits came before and they were convinced that they've been called a liar. They've been denied, then our help King so.
So like I mentioned by the end of the sutra,
the prophets was themselves convinced nobody's gonna believe in them anymore. And then our aid came, you know, what's amazing? When did the aid come to the profit, so I set up the aid came to the Prophet slicin on his agenda, he will fit into NASA toluna he didn't have water. When you see people entering into the religion and multitudes hordes at the conquest of Makkah, which is going to happen years later, this is a Madani, Tamaki surah. That's years later. And years later, when finally the aid of Allah came, and the prophet SAW some is dominant over his brethren, and they're embarrassed will for what they did to him, just like use his brother and we're embarrassed for what they did to
him. What is the Prophet say to the gathering of the idol worshipers, his own brethren in Mecca? He says, I will say to you today, what your brother use have said to his brother, what my brother use have said to his brother, that as the body chameleon, he borrowed the word sensibilities of no harm shall fall upon you today. Just like in the surah the Prophet was commanded or told, given hope, you know, eight is coming. When he came, he remembered this surah and he said, I'm gonna say no harm shall fall upon you today. reconciliation between me and my brothers Subhana Allah, Allah azza wa jal help us appreciate the profound beauty and the endless beauty of soldiers of jellico hidden
salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
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