Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Conversations Episode 13 We will tell you a story Surah Yusuf
AI: Summary ©
The story of the deceased Prophet and his son's death is discussed, including the negative impact on his family and his relationship with the Prophet. The struggles of people in the town of Hashim, including the struggles of Khadique Bani's death and loss of family, were also discussed. The story of the culture and implementation of the culture in the United States is also discussed, including the use of words and phrases during crisis periods and the importance of empowering emotions to attain success. The story is recounted by the brothers of murals, who are remorseful and sad, and by the woman, Khadique Bani, who was supposed to lead a plan.
AI: Summary ©
Hang on.
Are we still there?
We're there.
SadaqAllahul Azeem.
I hope you all are doing well on
the 13th day of Ramadan.
Is it?
It's 13th for me, 12th for a whole
lot of you.
We're moving right along in the seerah of
Rasulullah ﷺ in light of these conversations that
Allah is having with Rasulullah ﷺ as the
different events in his life are unfolding.
Now, of course, we read the story in
retrospect once it's already been written, but the
one writing it is Rasulullah ﷺ and Allah.
They are the ones writing the story, their
stories, and the story pretty much has an
influence.
It impacts history for generations and generations to
come.
That's how powerfully the story was written.
And within the story of Rasulullah ﷺ, he
gets to hear a lot of other stories,
stories that influence his life.
One particular instance, when a very important story
is told to him, it comes at the
most difficult time in his prophethood.
And that is what we know as the
year of grief.
What happens in this year of grief is
that the Prophet ﷺ suffers two huge losses.
One of them is the loss of Abu
Talib, his uncle.
Now, the relationship between Rasulullah ﷺ and Abu
Talib has been one of the most important
ties, most important relationships of his entire life.
Abu Talib, after Rasulullah ﷺ lost one caretaker
after another, I mean, we know he was
born an orphan.
Father had already passed away.
He went in the care of Halima Sa'diyah
and her husband, and then he came back
to Amina, his mother.
She passed away.
Then he went to his grandfather, who passed
away.
And then finally he came to the care
of Abu Talib, and he was raised by
Abu Talib.
So from there, it's something of a father
-son relationship as well.
And Abu Talib being the leader of the
tribe as well, when Rasulullah ﷺ announces his
prophethood, all the opposition that the Quraish wanted
to extend to Rasulullah, they were not able
to extend it because of Abu Talib.
Because despite not being a Muslim himself, he
did not accept Islam as the Ahlus Sunnah
tradition we hold on to, we believe.
He still provided a protection to Rasulullah ﷺ
that he's part of my tribe.
And it is important also to realize that
Abu Talib not accepting Islam, but still extending
this protection to Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ was a
slap in the face of the Quraish because
Abu Talib's stand was that this is me
standing by him in accordance with the values
of our tradition.
That Rasulullah ﷺ or Muhammad, he has these
rights according to our tradition.
And I am willing, despite not believing in
him or becoming a believer as such, I
am standing by him to the point that
he had to suffer.
Now his suffering on account of Rasulullah ﷺ,
not just him, the entire tribe of Banu
Hashim, they were boycotted by the rest of
the Quraish.
There was something of an economic embargo on
them.
There was a social boycott.
They had to leave the main city.
They had to live in this valley.
It was called the Shayb-e-Bani Hashim.
And they did not have access to basic
amenities of life.
Yet they refused, despite these economic sanctions, to
give up Rasulullah ﷺ or to retract their
protection that they had extended to him.
They were not doing it for their belief
and their love for Islam.
They were doing it for a member of
their tribe.
It was those tribal values that they were
holding on to, that Abu Talib was holding
on to, in accordance with which he extended
the protection and support to his nephew.
So whatever Rasulullah ﷺ was doing in Makkah,
as much as it hurt the Quraish, as
much pain has it extended to the Quraish.
Of course, he's not giving them any physical
pain, but just that he is standing his
ground was so painful to them.
And that they can't lay their hands on
him the way they would have liked to.
It's because at that point, up till that
point, Abu Talib had been extending that protection,
standing strong.
He was an evidence against the Quraish that
you can be in a relationship, a very
solid, a very meaningful, a very fruitful relationship
with Muslims, despite not being one yourself.
And that the Muslims themselves, of course, are
pretty, they accommodate these relationships, these ties.
These are very essential with respect to their
values as well.
And we would see more of this as
Rasulullah ﷺ migrates to Medina.
But we talk about that at that point.
Here, Abu Talib is standing strong by Rasulullah
ﷺ.
He passes away.
The pain of him not having accepted Islam
is one.
The pain of having lost him, not just
as the political support that he had to
offer, but also the emotional support that he
had to offer.
He was still his elder.
He was so much to Rasulullah ﷺ.
And right around that time, he also loses
Khadijah ﷺ.
The two of the greatest, strongest supporters of
Rasulullah ﷺ in the Meccan period, one after
another, they are taken away from him.
And he is devastated.
Rasulullah ﷺ in that Amul Huzn, the Sahaba
describe, he did not smile for the whole
year.
He was that sad.
He did what he had to.
He did what he had to in terms
of communicating the message, in terms of leading
those handful of Muslims that were there in
Mecca, in terms of meeting people that he
had to meet from other tribes, from outside
of Mecca.
He did all of that.
He was hurting.
He was grieving.
And he continued to grieve that whole time.
It was at this point that Allah reveals
Surah Yusuf.
That when Rasulullah ﷺ is grieving, he is
hurt yet again, now in a completely different
way.
He was hurting before as well.
There was a lot of pain before.
There was a lot of loss that he
had suffered.
There was a lot of torture, persecution.
All of that is still going on.
All of that is still going on.
The Shaybah Bani Hashim, it barely ended.
The boycott in the valley of Hashim where
the economic sanctions put in place by the
Quraish were so strong or they were so
strict that Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba did
not have food to eat.
Not just Rasulullah ﷺ and the Sahaba, the
Bani Hashim, all of them, even their kids,
did not have basic food to eat.
They would literally be eating shrubs, leaves.
And how many of those do you have
in the desert?
They would literally melt leather.
Try and cool that off.
And they had to have that passed down
their throats to quench their hunger, their thirst.
It was pretty much all that they had.
Food had to be smuggled in.
It had to be smuggled in.
That was the difficulty that they just went
through, they just experienced.
And now Abu Talib passes away.
Khadijah r.a now passes away.
Khadijah r.a whose memory lived with Rasulullah
ﷺ till his own death, whose anybody saying
anything against her, even Hazrat Aisha r.a,
Rasulullah ﷺ would not tolerate that no one
said anything about Khadijah years after she passes
away, years after she passed away.
He remembers her.
He sends gifts to her friends in her
memory.
And he continues to proclaim that she was
the first to believe in me.
She supported me when nobody else was supporting
me.
She was believing in me when nobody else
was believing.
And he remembered that till his last and
always reminded others of it as well.
Of what Khadijah r.a means to this
deen, means to Rasulullah ﷺ, he loses her.
Again, we started off with the sort of
support that she extended to Rasulullah ﷺ, when
he's not believing in him, when he's not
even believing in himself, when he's doubtful.
His anxiety, it's at its zenith.
And Rasulullah ﷺ was held strong by Khadijah.
He loses her.
So this grief is responded to in Surah
Yusuf.
In Surah Yusuf, another question is also answered
by, because by this time we're entering the
last part, the last few years, last couple
of years in Mecca.
The interaction with the Bani Israel had started.
Somehow the Quraish had started deputation, sending them
to the tribes in Medina and started sort
of complaining about Rasulullah ﷺ that this guy
is like making all these claims about being
prophet and you guys got prophets.
You have a prophetic tradition, books, holy books,
revelation, all of that stuff.
We don't know nothing about this.
So can you give us some questions so
we can sort of trump him?
We, you know, ask him something he can't
answer.
And so most of those questions, three in
particular, they get answered in Surah Bani Israel
and Surah Kahf.
One of those questions gets addressed in Surah
Yusuf as well.
Maybe this question came at a different time.
But the question was as to how the
tribes, the 12 tribes of Bani Israel, how
did they end up in Egypt?
With the story of Musa ﷺ, Musa ﷺ
is in Egypt.
The Fir'aun and the whole fiasco that's
taking place with Fir'aun, that's in Egypt.
Whereas Ibrahim ﷺ had left Yaqub ﷺ in
Jerusalem.
So how did they end up in Egypt?
And the story of Yusuf ﷺ answers that
question.
So it's answering the question that the Bani
Israel, that the tribes of the Jewish people
in Medina ask.
It is answering Rasulullah ﷺ's emotional need.
For so many, for the way the story
is narrated, it is for Rasulullah ﷺ to
identify with Yusuf ﷺ.
Because within the story, Yusuf ﷺ is betrayed
by his brothers.
At that point, in that state of isolation,
having lost his greatest support, the betrayal of
his own brothers, being Quraysh, his cousins, these
are people of his own tribe.
It is becoming all the more pronounced now
that his greatest supporters are no longer alive.
So the pain that the Quraysh are giving
Rasulullah ﷺ, the betrayal, is the betrayal of
brothers.
And so for him to identify with Yusuf
ﷺ as to how, as a child, he
was betrayed by his brothers, left in a
well, sold off in slavery, all of that,
the jealousy that the brothers had.
And so many times in his interactions with
the Quraysh, they didn't have intellectual problems, they
didn't have religious problems.
They had personal problems of envy.
You became prophet, God chose you and not
me, or not us, and not the great
chiefs of the two awesome tribes of Mecca
and Tarif.
How could this be?
It was envy.
This is something that we find acknowledged by
the likes of Abu Jahl.
That we were competing with them neck and
neck in everything.
They gave charity, we gave charity.
They were hospitable to the pilgrims, we were
hospitable to the pilgrims.
And now they've produced a prophet, how the
* do we match that?
They set it out right.
So much of it was jealousy, like the
jealousy of the brothers of Yusuf ﷺ that
Yusuf is more beloved to our father than
us.
Rasulullah ﷺ gets to identify in this surah
with Yusuf ﷺ, yes, but also Yaqub ﷺ.
Yaqub ﷺ and the pain that he was
feeling when his sons, Yusuf ﷺ, Binyamin, Yehuda,
three sons, for the most part, Yusuf, for
the most of his life, was taken away
from him.
That pain, the bathi wa huzni, innama ashkub
bathi wa huzni illallah, where he says that
I'm going to complain to Allah about my
pain, about my grief, about my suffering.
Rasulullah ﷺ has that to identify with.
And all the aspects of identification being able
to relate with people of strong moral character,
his own ancestors, his own brothers from the
prophets, Rasulullah ﷺ also gets a prophecy within
this surah.
And the way the Qur'an prophesizes, the
prophecy is not in the sense that this
is what is going to happen to the
dot.
It is vague.
It is implied.
And there is a whole lot that the
person receiving the prophecy, the prophet himself, has
to do and his supporters have to do
to make it come true, to make it
come into reality.
So Rasulullah ﷺ in that moment of extreme
dejection, sadness and weakness is being told, Yusuf
ﷺ was, he prevailed in the end.
The brothers were remorseful.
They were sad.
They were dejected.
They were incredibly guilty.
And they presented themselves before Yusuf ﷺ and
before Yusuf ﷺ in this abject state of
destitution, utterly humiliated, asking for forgiveness.
And we get to see the same state
expressed by Abu Sufyan when in his abject
state of destitution, look at the Quraysh in
Mecca, the way they're treating Rasulullah ﷺ and
the Sahaba, the arrogance, the might, the power,
نحن أصبح.
What the brothers of Yusuf ﷺ said, our
father loves Yusuf more and we are the
strong people.
We are the strong bunch.
And you look at the Quraysh expressing the
same arrogance.
Look at us, we're so strong, we're so
gifted, we have so many, look at Walid
bin Mughirah and how many sons he has
and look at Abu al-Hakam and how
much intelligence he has.
Look at all of these people.
Look at all the might of the Quraysh
and of the Qa'if and of the
people of Qa'if, the Saqif, the tribes
of Saqif.
Look at all of that and he's getting
prophethood.
He's being made a prophet.
The jealousy, just like the brothers of Yusuf
ﷺ.
Hang on, my Instagram's messing up.
Come on, come on, come on, come on,
coming back.
Why isn't it coming back?
Come on, what's wrong with you?
Nothing I can do.
It'll just come back on its own time.
Are you back?
It's back, okay.
That's something you can identify with and then
the apology, the destitution, the weakness of the
Quraysh, of Abu Sufyan begging Rasulullah ﷺ to
renew the pact of Hudaybiyyah.
You see that being reiterated or you see
that being prophesied in a sense when the
brothers of Yusuf are openly acknowledging in the
court coming in destitute poverty that have mercy
on us.
And when they recognize that this is Yusuf
ﷺ, they said our father was right.
You deserve to be chosen over us.
You deserve to be chosen over us.
The words that Rasulullah ﷺ uses at the
conquest of Makkah are the exact same words
that Yusuf ﷺ uses for his brothers.
لا تثريب عليكم اليوم No blame on you
today, forgiven.
He reenacts that forgiveness of Yusuf ﷺ.
So imagine this عام الحزن, this year of
grief in which Allah is telling Rasulullah ﷺ
this story.
And Rasulullah ﷺ is holding on to this
story for so many years until the conquest
of Makkah where he realizes the story himself.
Where he writes this part of the story
as it was prophesized himself with the help
of the Sahaba.
He makes it come true.
Of course with the help of Allah.
The possibility was opened up before him at
this time when he is at his lowest
emotionally.
He is at his lowest.
And this is something that the story acknowledges.
Just to go into the words that are
used.
We'll just do a few ayats from the
beginning and a few ayats towards the end
of the surah.
Alif, Lam, Ra تلك آيات الكتاب المبين Allah
says Alif, Lam, Ra These are the ayats
of the clear book.
إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيجًا We have definitely sent
down this Qur'an.
This Arabic Qur'an.
لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ So that you use your aql.
Incredible.
Again, unprecedented in spiritual traditions or at least
the way spiritual traditions were understood at the
time of Rasulullah ﷺ.
Revelation is being sent down.
Why?
To empower the aql.
Not to negate it.
Not to put it to a side.
But to empower it.
So that people use it.
Particularly, why is that aql necessary?
Because it is through that aql, through understanding,
through knowing, that you're able to attain self
-mastery, self-control, especially when you're emotionally overwhelmed.
And the necessity of that spiritual and intellectual
understanding and its significance can only take place
if we understand the significance of how emotionally
overwhelming certain experiences can be.
And how emotional human beings really are.
And how that leads to a better society.
In this particular state, Rasulullah ﷺ emotionally overwhelmed
because of the loss that he's just experienced.
And the sahaba, of course, are grieving with
Rasulullah ﷺ.
نَحْنُ نَقُسْتُ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ الْقَصَصِ Allah says, let
us relate to you the best story.
The best of stories.
بِمَا أَوْحَيْنَ إِلَيْكَ هَذِا الْقُرْآنِ Just like we've
revealed to you this Qur'an.
وَإِن كُنْتَ مِن قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الْغَافِلِ And before
this, you were of those who did not
know.
You were ignorant.
You were of those who are ignorant.
Again, a consistent attitude that the Qur'an
inspires in its readers, in its listeners, to
understand your state of not knowing.
That's how you're gonna benefit from the knowledge
that you're getting.
Get rid of that arrogance.
Bring this humility forward so that you can
learn.
You can grow stronger.
The story then goes on, of course, to
talk about Yusuf A.S. and his youth
and his childhood actually.
Very weak.
Blessed, but weak.
Brothers, very strong.
Did all of what they did.
And you will relate that Surah Kahf has
a very similar constitution to Surah Yusuf.
Begins with a group that is weak.
The Ashab ul Kahf.
Tortured.
And they correspond with, of course, what Sahaba
and Rasul A.S. are experiencing in Mecca.
And the Surah ends with Dhul Qarnayn.
The powerful, strong king.
And his example to inspire the believers.
That's at the end of Kahf.
Yusuf A.S.'s story, he's weak in the
beginning.
And towards the end of the story, he's
almost a king.
He's the closest to the king.
He's a person of power.
Right?
So, both of these Surah implying a prophecy.
This is your destiny should you choose to
make it come true.
Look at how, what stages Yusuf A.S.
went through.
How he expressed sabr.
And what came out of that.
And towards the very end, towards the very
end, of course, and I do have a
more detailed, of course, in our Ramadan nights,
we've done this and that'll be shared soon.
An entire series on Surah Yusuf going ayah
by ayah, relating with all the different aspects
of Sira as they occur in this particular
Surah.
So towards the very end, the Surah in
its last ruku, it talks about, it talks
about the stake.
ذَلِكَ مِنْ أَنبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ نُحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ This is
from the news of the unseen.
نُحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ Which we revealed to you.
وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ You were not with them,
with Yusuf's brothers.
إِذْ أَجْمَعُوا أَمْرَهُمْ When they were planning their
plan.
And they agreed on their plan and they
reached a consensus.
وَهُمْ يَمْكُرُونَ And they were scheming.
وَمَا أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ And despite
your desire, most of the people will not
believe.
You showed them this, you had no idea
about this and it was an answer to
their question.
And you've given it in so much detail
which corresponds to the details that they have
that you don't have access to.
Yet they're not going to believe.
وَمَا تَسْأَلُهُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ أَجْرِ And it's not
that you're asking them any reward for it.
You're not going to get paid for this.
This is just a reminder for the people
of the world.
And the ayahs go on as to what
Rasulullah ﷺ is supposed to do in this
state.
And it mentions something that the help of
Allah ayah number 109, I'm skipping the ayahs
but for the lack of time.
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ إِلَّا الرِّجَالَ نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْهِمْ
مِنْ أَهْلِ الْقُرَىٰ We did not send before
you messengers except men to whom we revealed
choosing them from the people of the town.
أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ Don't they travel through
the land فَيَنظُرُوا تُسِيِّي كَيْفَ كَانَ عَتُبَتُ الَّذِينَ
مِنْ قَبْلِهِ What was the end of those
before them وَلَا دَارُ الْآخِرَةِ خَيْرُ لِلَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا
And the hereafter is better for the people
of taqwa.
أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُوا Don't you use your aql.
حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَتَسْتَيْتْ أَثَىٰ الرُّسُولُ Until when the
messengers gave up hope وَظَنُّوا And started thinking.
So this is to depict the state of
affairs as it prevailed among the small band
of believers in Mecca.
The going had become so tough.
The situation was so difficult, so constricted, so
strained that this ayah, ayah number 110 telling
Rasulullah ﷺ about how this was similar in
previous prophets as well.
That it became so bleak that even the
messengers gave up hope and started thinking.
You can't control your thoughts that come in
a state of completely being overwhelmed emotionally.
That's where your aql and your spirituality are
to be harnessed and to be strengthened to
continue standing.
They had started to think أَنَّهُمْ قَدْ قُذِّبُوا
That maybe they were lied to.
That the help of Allah is not coming.
جَأَهُمْ نَصْرُنَا It was at that point that
our help comes to them.
And they had almost broken.
And they had almost broken.
That's how difficult things get and got.
فَنُجِّيَ مَنْ تَشَالُ Then whoever we wanted, we
saved.
That's what Rasulullah ﷺ is being told at
this stage.
And we know what you're going through.
We know it very well.
You and the Sahaba.
رضي الله تعالى عنهم That is to depict
the state that it was in and that's
where this story comes in.
And it was upon Rasulullah ﷺ upon hearing
this story, it was upon him to make
this story his story.
Make this come true for himself and he
did.