Yahya Rhodus – Lessons from the Quran and the Prophets
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The importance of words and actions in shaping culture and its legacy is emphasized, along with the significance of words and symbols in shaping the story and its characteristics. A Prophet named Sayyidina Al-Khattab recounts a dream where he meets Sayyidina Ali Geoff, and the importance of remembering a past sin is emphasized. The transcript describes a series of symbols and symbols that symbolize Islam's beliefs and teachings, including holy spirit, holy water, holy river, holy tree, a holy label, a holy tree, a holy label, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree, a holy tree,
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Wa Sallallahu Ala Sayyidina
Muhammadan Ashraf Al-Anbiyai Wa Al-Mursaleen Wa
Ala Alihi Al-Tayyibin Wa Al-Tahireen Wa
Sahabati Al-Akrameen Wa Tabi'innana Bi Ihsan
Ila Yawm Al-Deen Wa Alayna Ma'ahum
Wa Fihim Bi Rahmatika Ya Arham Al-Rahimeen
Allahumma Salli Wa Sallim Ala Sayyidina Muhammadan Nuri
Kassari Wa Madadika Jalil Wa Jama'il Bihi
Fi Kulli Atwari Wa Ala Alihi Wa Sahbihi
Ya Noor Alhamdulillah, all praise is due to
our Lord Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala He is
the Gatherer, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and He
is the Uniter And He is the One
who has united all good aspects of character
and completed it In our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wa Sallam And this is what we've
come this evening to celebrate The blessed legacy
of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam Which
from the bounty of our Lord Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala is a living legacy That it
has been transmitted in an unbroken chain of
connection From the time of the blessed Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam Until this very
moment In the hearts and chests of blessed
men and women throughout the ages Until that
it was from the bounty of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala That made available for you
and I to attach to and to connect
to and to benefit from Even in this
time in these far off lands in the
hinterlands of the far far wild wild west
And what a blessing from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala To be able to mention the
name of our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wa
Sallam With longing To mention the name of
the blessed Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam with
yearning To mention his blessed name Sallallahu Alaihi
Wa Sallam Have your heart filled with love
What a blessing And that moment or these
moments that we spend Where these great powerful
states of heart arise therein Are some of
the most precious moments of life And they
are some of the weightiest of all in
the scale As one of the scholars has
said There is no scale large enough to
be able to weigh The love of our
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam It is so
heavy there is no scale that can ever
truly weigh The love of our Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wa Sallam In other words is that
when Allah Ta'ala blesses one of his
servants to have love For the best of
creation Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam in his heart
That that act is so heavy that it
simply can't be weighed in the scales It
is so precious and it is so heavy
and it is so beautiful Nothing else should
be really sought when we truly know what
it means To love the best of creation
Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam Because this is the
love that leads to the greatest level of
all Which is to be beloved to our
Lord Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala And just as
there is no scale to weigh that love
There is no tongue that can possibly articulate
what a servant receives When they become beloved
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Here in
this world let alone when we return to
him And we that enter into his presence
Nuzulan min ghafoorun rahim And that you that
enter into this state where you receive divine
hospitality From the all-forgiving he is the
ghafoor All of the major sins that we
committed All of the major wrongs that we
did He is al-ghafoor He is the
one that forgives even major sins that we
committed Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala And he is
also rahim And this is a special mercy
that he shows to the believers Wa kaana
bil mu'mineena raheema And he Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala is merciful with the believers And when
we come together to reflect upon the book
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala And the
various stories that he mentions therein We come
to the conclusion that it is the prophets
That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sent That
are the elect of his creation These are
the people that we want to emulate and
follow These are the people that we want
to be like And we have to pay
close attention to what transpires In their blessed
stories in his book Just as we have
to pay very close attention to what it
is that they say Of all people who
use language to express meanings No one used
language to express meanings Like the prophets of
God Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala They are the
ones that articulated perfectly The intended meaning that
they wanted to say And when we hear
that what Allah Ta'ala mentions in his
book That what was uttered by these blessed
souls Then we can follow in their footsteps
And hopefully be like them And this is
possible This is what they said about this
great Imam al-Hassan al-Basri Because of
who he was connected to He met Sayyidina
Ali ibn Abi Talib Because he was born
with about two years left Of the Khilafah
of Sayyidina Umar al-Khattab So he would
have met Sayyidina Ali ibn Abi Talib Even
though he eventually moved to Iraq Like Sayyidina
Ali did when he was a young man
But they used to say that his words
As if that they were words of prophets
And this is because that he grew up
in the household Where his mother was a
servant of Umm Salama He grew up in
one of the blessed homes of our Prophet
ﷺ And then he was raised by the
likes of Sayyidina Umar al-Khattab And some
of the other great companions That he met
at an early age And they planted seeds
in him And he became the great Imam
that he was But if we look in
particular At the story of the great Prophet
Yusuf ﷺ There is that very powerful meanings
that we can glean When we...
And there's so many depths of meaning in
fact But to just point out one And
when we know that after everything that transpired
in his life And towards the beginning of
Surat Yusuf He recounts a dream Where there
are 12 stars in the sun and moon
That were bowing to him And then his
blessed father who was a Prophet Sayyidina Yaqub
ﷺ He interpreted that dream for him But
then he went through a number of tribulations
There was rivalry between him and his brothers
And they were first conspiring to take his
life But then decided they were going to
just throw him in a well And then
he's taken out of this well And he
is sold into slavery When?
That he's from one of the most noble
families That you could possibly be from And
then when he's in the house of the
Potiphar And everything that happens with the Potiphar's
wife And then he's unjustly imprisoned after that
And then that he miraculously gets out of
prison And then everything transpires until he is
reconnected with his family And then Allah ﷻ
eventually said towards the end of Surat Yusuf
When his father and his mother And some
say it was one of something It was
that one something that was related to that
someone else But and then his brothers that
they all come back to Egypt And that
to fulfill the dream that he had They
all then bow before him And then that
he goes on to say وَقَالَ يَا أَبَتِي
That he says that O father هَذَا تَأْوِيلُ
رُؤْيَي مِن قَبْل This is the interpretation of
my dream that I had before Then immediately
And this is the first thing that we
want to notice قَدْ جَعَلَهَا رَبِّ حَقًا My
Lord has made it come true The very
first thing that he mentions Is his Lord
ﷻ Allah was the one who blessed him
with that dream And the dominant opinion was
That this transpired 40 years after he had
the dream So someone might have a dream
And in that dream is a great glad
tidings for that individual But it might take
a long time to actually come true in
real life And other scholars say 80 It
was a long time Between he had that
Between when he had that dream Until when
it actually manifested And this tends to happen
When Allah wants good for someone He will
that either drift that person a dream Or
have other people around that person See dreams
about that individual But it's not going to
happen on the timeline of anyone And the
way that people think And how that people
think it's going to happen It's going to
happen in the way that Allah ﷻ wants
it to happen Nor does it mean that
it's going to be easy Just look at
all the difficulties that Sayyidina Yusuf went through
Look at all of the difficulties But we
see here this is a story of guidance
And this is a story of not just
guidance But it's also a story of patience
And it is also a story That when
a prophet is gifted something like this And
by extension That anyone who Allah ﷻ gives
a divine gift There was a way that
you and I have to be Because we
know with those glad tidings And with that
guidance There's going to be tribulations and difficulties
That one has to go through So it
is a story of bearing difficulty It is
a story of bearing hardship And having patience
in the face of all of that But
then one of the main themes of this
story Is one of Ihsan This word Al
-Muhsineen The people of Ihsan Shows five times
in this blessed story In the very beginning
Wa qadhalika najzil muhsineen And thus that we
reward the muhsineen And then on two different
accounts Inna naraka mun muhsineen This is the
way that Sayyidin Yusuf was That both of
them Those who were in prison And then
his brothers When they come back to Egypt
say Indeed we see you We indeed see
you As being from the muhsineen The people
of Ihsan And then Allah ﷻ says In
two slightly different ways Wala nudi ajar muhsineen
Wa inna Allah la yudi ajar muhsineen Allah
ﷻ will never withhold or neglect The reward
of the people of Ihsan So we're learning
how to be And when we see that
Sayyidin Yusuf Immediately after thanking Allah ﷻ And
noticing this is from him Wa qad ja
'alaha rabbi haqqan Allah ﷻ was the one
that made this dream true But then he
goes on to mention a few things And
this is very important Because this teaches us
how it is That you and I need
to be Wa qad ahsana bi idh akharajani
man as-sijan He was truly kind to
me When he freed me from prison So
part of Ihsan Allah ﷻ is showing you
Ihsan So what else should we do In
relation to all of the Ihsan That Allah
ﷻ has shown us And when Allah ﷻ
that blesses us To be people of Ihsan
This is what we receive from him Is
that Ihsan Here probably best translated As benevolence
from his presence Subhanahu wa ta'ala But
there's something here That he didn't mention That
happened before this And they actually specifically Mentioned
in the tafsirs One of the wisdoms And
why he didn't mention Being thrown into the
well Because his brothers At this point had
repented For doing what is what they did
And that's not from Ihsan That is not
from goodness To mention something That would have
That troubled people's hearts When they've turned away
from it And this is what they say
If you've committed a sin in the past
And you don't remember anymore And you've moved
on in life You're actually not supposed To
remember that sin That is the etiquette However
if someone has committed A sin in the
past And you fear falling back Into that
sin Then it is good to remind yourself
Of how you felt after that sin To
deter you from actually Doing that thing again
But if you've moved on in life It
is not from Ihsan To mention it You
move on And you keep going And so
he didn't even mention The story of being
thrown into the well Because he didn't want
that To hurt the hearts of his brothers
For that having repented So he just mentions
The great bounty of Allah For bringing him
out of the prison And if you think
about He was put into prison Unjustly was
from none of his doing But he saw
this as the bounty of Allah And then
the one that comes to the family That
he brought you from the desert And his
family was reconnected After Shaytan That
created a rivalry Between me and my brothers
And so if you look at this That
he's making an excuse For his very brothers
That some of them wanted to kill him
They were jealous of him And then did
everything that they did Throwing him in a
well Hoping that he would either die Or
that he would be taken away by a
caravan That would come get water out of
the well He's making an excuse for him
For them and everything that they did And
saying it was Shaytan That created this fitna
And then he mentions his own self First
after mentioning this fitna Between me and them
And he had nothing to do With the
fitna in the first place He had a
clean heart That was free from any ill
feelings Towards his brother But this is the
way of the people of Ihsan They see
themselves They look internally What did I do?
Maybe there was something That I might have
done That would have led to this potential
situation But it was Shaytan He pointed it
out That it was from Shaytan And this
is how you and I need to be
Because Shaytan One of the greatest ways That
he tries to get between people Is to
create problems between them Is to try to
create hatred and rancor And when you go
through life That there'll be things that happen
Between you and other people But what we
need to work towards Is islah, rectifying the
hearts Being willing to forgive other people Letting
go And that giving people a chance Coming
back Preventing Shaytan from splitting the ranks And
then after recounting these blessed favors Sayyidina Yusuf
a.s. teaches us We should always be
aware Of what name of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala Is manifesting in any given situation
And we should attribute that to him Subhanahu
wa ta'ala What does he say here?
Indeed that my Lord is Latif He subhanahu
wa ta'ala Is subtle in fulfilling what
he wills This blessed name of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Al-Latif Is a name
that relates to knowledge Is a name that
relates to benevolence Is a name that relates
to gentleness Is a name that relates to
subtlety All four of these meanings are combined
In the name of Allah al-Latif And
this is one of the greatest ways To
read this blessed story Through the lens of
the name of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
Al-Latif The whole story From the beginning
to the end Is a manifestation of his
name Subhanahu wa ta'ala Al-Latif The
subtly benevolent Or the subtly gentle Or the
subtly knowing Subhanahu wa ta'ala Innahu wa
al-'alim wa al-hakim Allah is the all
-knowing Everything that happens Happens for a divine
wisdom In al-hakim He does everything As
it's supposed to be done In the time
that it's supposed to be done In the
way that it's supposed to be done Subhanahu
wa ta'ala And then He starts to
again Recount the blessings of Allah Tabarak wa
ta-rabbi Qad ataytani man al-mulk You
have surely granted me authority After all of
that You put me in charge of the
khaza'in Of the storehouses of the earth
Wa alimtani man ta'weel al-hadith And
you taught me the interpretation Of dreams Ta
'weel al-hadith And others say Interpretation of
events Is that he knew how to interpret
events Not many people know how to interpret
events The vast majority of people go astray
Through events that take place But prophetic knowledge
is one Where we learn to interpret events
What should we do?
What should be our position regarding that?
What should we avoid?
What should we take part in?
And then the last meaning is And really
they all go hand in hand Is that
he taught me That the wisdom that was
in previous scriptures And notice here This is
out of his habit Min ta'weel al
-hadith This is min lataba'eed Yani you
taught me that something He's not claiming a
lot of knowledge But he's saying that this
is from Allah who is The fatir al
-samawati wa al-alt He is the originator
of the heavens and the earth So now
he's praising Allah Tabarak wa ta'ala Anta
waliyi fit dunya wa al-akhira You are
my guardian in this world in the hereafter
If you and I come to know what
that meaning is Inna waliya Allahul lazeen nazzala
kitabuhi wa tawalla al-sadiheen What does it
mean for Allah to be our wali?
He is our guardian He will take care
of our affairs He will look after us
Subhanahu wa ta'ala He is our patron
He is the one who will give us
victory All of these meanings Anta waliyi You
are my wali Everything that I went through
You were the one who helped me in
all of these different situations And just as
you are my wali in this world You
will be my wali in the hereafter And
then what did he then ask for?
Wa al-hikni mis-saliheen Wa al-hikni
mis-saliheen And gather me, join me with
the righteous This is a matlab nabawi This
also comes on the tongue of Sayyidina Ibrahim
in Allah's book Rabbi habli hukman, oh Allah,
grant me wisdom Wa al-hikni mis-saliheen
And gather me with the righteous Because I
know And salah is a wasp It is
a description of the prophets Just as it
is a description of those Who don't reach
the rank of prophets And this is something
that we should seek Salah Being righteous people
With pure hearts Devoting ourselves to him Subhanahu
wa ta'ala And wanting to be with
him This is a prophet who's asking this
Yani what this means is his aba His
blessed ancestors His father and his grandfather And
so forth and so on And also all
of the others That were chosen to be
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And in
his divine presence From those who are righteous
These blessed words are the words of a
prophet They're teaching us how it is that
we need to be Despite what transpires in
our life This is how we have to
speak But we can't speak like this if
this is not our state They are telling
us what our state needs to be like
How we need to be when we go
through tribulation How we need to rely upon
our lord He is our wali Our guardian
subhanahu wa ta'ala And how we need
to be when we receive divine favors And
to point them out And to thank Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala for them Just as
they teach us what it is that we
need to ask for What it is that
we should desire If this dua touches our
heart This is one of the greatest meanings
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Could possibly
grant anyone In any time or in any
age A desire to be with the righteous
And to be with the one that we
love A man is with the one he
loves You are with the one that you
love When these attachments start to build in
the heart This is the sign of the
greatest sa'ada This is what they say
The sign that you love Allah Is that
you love his righteous folk And the sign
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves you
Is that his righteous folk love you May
Allah ta'ala revive our hearts with these
meanings May it bless us to be people
who dedicate their lives To following the people
who should be followed That is the prophets
May we be like them and speak like
them And act like them and resemble them
in all of our affairs And from the
barakah of these moments coming together May we
be gathered with them May we be rejoined
with them May we be with them In
the highest levels of paradise