Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah Yusuf Ayah 101 onwards 262017
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AI: Transcript ©
I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed
Satan.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the
Merciful.
My Lord, You have given me authority and
taught me the interpretation of the hadiths, the
Creator of the heavens and the earth.
You are my protector in this world and
the Hereafter.
Take me as a Muslim and join me
with the righteous.
This is from the news of the unseen
which We reveal to You.
And you were not with them when they
gathered their matter while they planned.
And most of the people, even if you
were keen on the believers, you would not
ask them for a reward.
It is only a reminder for the worlds.
The brothers of Yusuf and his mother, his
stepmother and his father came to Egypt and
they were welcomed to Egypt and then the
prostration took place which was the culmination of
the interpretation of the dream of Yusuf that
started at the beginning of the surah.
So the eleven brothers and the stepmother and
the father, they prostrated before him and as
we mentioned last week, this was not a
prostration of ibadah, it was simply a prostration
of respect or there are some scholars that
say that the prostration did not take place
to Yusuf alayhi salatu wassalam, towards him, rather
it was a prostration for Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala out of gratitude for taking them
out of the difficulties that they faced for
so many years before that.
The difficulty of the loss of Yusuf alayhi
salam and then the loss of Binyamin and
his brother again and the famine and all
of the other difficulties that they had to
endure.
Finally as they came out of it and
they were relieved of those tensions and those
burdens, they fell into prostration out of gratitude
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this is one interpretation of the scholars.
So after this, Yusuf alayhi salatu wassalam thanked
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the blessings
and this is where we start, where he
says رَبِّ قَدْ آتَيْتَنِي مِنَ الْمُلْكِ وَعَلَّمْتَنِي مِنْ
تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ Oh my Lord, Rab is the
word Tarbiyah, it is from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, He is the Rab, He is
the one who sustains and He gives and
He takes care.
So He is the Rab from many perspectives
and from many angles we can say that
He is the one who is taking care
of us, He is providing for us, He
is giving us life, He is giving us
air, He is protecting us from all kinds
of evils that are around us.
So the word Rab, it is a very
all-encompassing word.
So Yusuf alayhi salatu wassalam uses that word
and he says Oh my Lord, which is
the usual translation we have for the word
Rab, but it is a much more broader
meaning than just Lord.
He says رَبِّ قَدْ آتَيْتَنِي مِنَ الْمُلْكِ Indeed,
You gave me this kingdom.
You gave me from the kingdom, meaning that
You are the one that gave me this
position.
You are the one that elevated me to
this status.
You are the one that gave me what
I have.
And this is actually the attitude that we
should always have with Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala in good situations and bad situations.
Whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us,
it is from Him and whatever He takes
away, it is His choice and whatever He
wants to take away from us, He takes
away from us.
And that's a very famous verse in the
Quran, in Surah Al-Imran, in which Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, He says قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ
مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ
مِنْ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَنْ
تَشَاءُ بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرِ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٍ
Tell them, O Prophet of Allah, to make
this dua.
O Allah, You are Malikul Mulk.
You are the King of Kingdoms.
Meaning, You are the owner of kingdoms.
You give kingdoms to whom you like.
You give al-mulk, تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ
You give the kingdom to whom you want.
وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِنْ مَنْ تَشَاءُ And you take
away the kingdom from whom you want.
We are seeing that in so many different
countries in the world recently, right?
That a person, a dictator, who's been in
power for so many years, suddenly, overnight, you
can say, his kingdom is taken away from
him.
His dictatorship is taken away from him.
His rule is taken away from him.
And instead of sitting on the throne of
power and ordering people around, and, you know,
using his loftiness and his arrogance, he becomes
a person who is languishing in some cell
or some prison.
And he is at the mercy of his
captors and the people that have imprisoned him.
So, Allah SWT gives the kingdom to whom
He wants and takes it away from whom
He wants.
This is the Qadr of Allah SWT.
It is within the power of Allah SWT.
وَتُعِزُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ You give
respect to whom you want and you disgrace
whom you want.
So respect and disgrace is simply in the
hands of Allah SWT.
بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرِ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٍ All
khair is in your hands.
And Allah, you have the power over everything.
So Yusuf A.S., when he is making
this dua to Allah SWT, he is submitting
and admitting that Oh Allah, whatever I have
and the respect and honour and the status
and the position that I have, it is
simply from You and not from anybody else.
And this is unfortunately many people when they
get to high positions, when wealth starts coming
in or they start a business and that
money starts coming in, they start to become
arrogant and they start to take that power
and the wealth and everything that they are
getting, they take it upon themselves.
And they say that it is because of
my knowledge and because I am smart and
I have a good business mindset that I
am making this much money and I have
got the status that I have achieved.
And then Allah SWT comes out of the
equation and they take Allah SWT out of
the picture and it is all me, me
and me.
It is because I did this and it
is because I have this knowledge and it
is because I have this smart business attitude
that I have the ability to do what
I have done.
So this is again something that we need
to keep in mind when Allah SWT gives
us respect or position or money or anything
like that we should always, always, always remember
Allah SWT and thank Him for the blessings
that He gives us and not take Allah
SWT out of the picture.
You know the story of Qarun, right?
Where people told Qarun Qarun was a very
rich man so rich that it is said
that the keys of his treasures were carried
by strong people.
So you can imagine how much treasure he
had and how much wealth he had but
this person became arrogant.
So the people told him لا تفرح, do
not be arrogant إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَرِحِينَ
because Allah SWT does not love arrogant people.
وَابْتَغِ فِي مَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ أَدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ Whatever
Allah SWT gave you, seek through that the
abode of the Hereafter.
وَلَا تَنْسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا But this doesn't
mean that you live like a poor man
yourself.
If Allah has given you wealth, then use
it in a good way.
Buy a nice house, buy a nice car.
Do not forget your own share from this
world.
وَأَحْسِن كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ وَلَا تَبْغِي الْفَسَادَ
فِي الْأَرْضِ Just like Allah SWT has done
good to you and He has done Ihsan
towards you, أَحْسِن, make Ihsan towards other people.
Bestow favours upon other people through your wealth.
وَلَا تَبْغِي الْفَسَادَ فِي الْأَرْضِ And do not
spread corruption on the earth.
And these are the things actually that happen
to wealthy people.
When that wealth gets to their head, then
all of these qualities, you will find that
they start seeping in to the mindset of
the people.
And Allah SWT through the story of Qarun
told us the traps we should not fall
into.
And then what happened?
فَخَسَفْنَا بِهِ وَبِدَارِهِ الْأَرْضِ Allah says, we sucked
him and his treasures and his house and
everything into the earth.
He was sucked into the earth, into a
sinkhole or whatever may have been, whatever happened
to him.
But it was a lesson and continues to
be a lesson for us until the Day
of Judgment.
So Yusuf A.S. said, قَدْ آتَيْتَنِي مِنَ
الْمُلْكِ O Allah, you are the one who
gave me this kingdom.
وَعَلَّمْتَنِي مِنْ تَأْوِيلِ الْحَدِيثِ And you taught me
the interpretation of the dreams.
Now the interpretation of the dreams, as I
mentioned before, it is something that some people
have the quality of doing.
But not every dream for a normal person
is something that a person should consider that
it has a meaning.
There is a one in three chance that
it has a meaning.
There are three types of dreams that you
have.
One dream is from the Shaytan.
One is from one's own psychology, one's own
mind, that a person is thinking about something
at night before sleeping and he has a
dream about that same thing.
And the third type of dream, it could
be from Allah SWT.
And even in the dreams when a person
gets a very clear and vivid message, for
example, he gets a message that you have
to slaughter your son when you wake up.
This is simply from the Shaytan.
This is not from Allah SWT.
A person should not think that just because
Ibrahim A.S. got the message to slaughter
his son in a dream, I should also
think that this dream is from Allah SWT
and I should do what this dream is
saying.
No, this is not what a person should
assume.
Only Ammi A.S.'s dreams are true dreams.
As for the lay person, then a person
needs to use his wisdom and he needs
to take knowledge from scholars about the interpretation
of the dream and he should not regard
every dream as having any type of particular
meaning.
So, وَعَلَّمْتَنِي مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْحَدِيثِ And Allah, you
told me the interpretation of the dreams.
فَاطِرَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرَضِ The shaper of the heavens
and the earth.
Oh shaper of the heavens and the earth.
He is still continuing to make the dua.
أَنتَ وَلِيِّ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ You are my
companion.
ولي means companion.
Very close companion, close friend.
And this is again a word which indicates
love and it indicates the affection that a
person has for his pious slaves that they
become his wali.
أَلَا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَءَ اللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا
هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ Allah SWT says, be aware that
indeed the awliya of Allah SWT Awliya is
the plural of wali.
They will not have any fear and they
will not have any type of worry.
So, to make Allah SWT our wali and
we become the wali of Allah SWT this
is a lifelong effort.
We need to make an effort to get
close to him.
تَزْكِيَةٌ نَفْسٌ Keeping ourselves pure and clean.
Keeping our lives pure from sin.
Making istighfar as much as possible.
Making sure that we have certain adhkar and
the recitation of the Quran regularly.
Making sure we complete all of these things
on a daily basis.
This will result in us inshallah becoming close
to Allah SWT.
So, Yusuf AS is saying that you are
my wali in the world and in the
hereafter.
Meaning, even he as a prophet indicates that
he needs Allah SWT in this world and
in the hereafter.
تَوَفَّنِي مُسْلِمًا وَأَلْحِقْنِي بِالصَّالِحِينَ O Allah, raise me
in the state of Islam.
This is a prophet asking Allah SWT to
raise him as a Muslim.
Meaning, to give him death as a Muslim.
تَوَفَّ it means, the literal translation is to
raise but it means to give death also.
وَفَات is from that word.
So, when a prophet is asking Allah SWT
for this dua, then what about us?
Normal people, lay persons, how much should we
be concerned about leaving this world in the
state of Islam and submission to Allah SWT?
This is something that we need to really
be concerned about.
The Shaytan will come from many different angles
and try to make a person slip up
at the time of his death and to
say words which are contrary to Islam and
Iman.
And if he dies in that state, then
his Iman could be under question.
So, that's why when a person is about
to die, which is known as Muhtadhar in
Arabic, the person who is on his deathbed,
we are supposed to make Talqeen of La
ilaha illallah as much as possible.
But Talqeen should not be with us telling
him to say La ilaha illallah.
Say La ilaha illallah, say La ilaha illallah,
not like that.
Rather, the best way is for us to
sit next to him and start the Tasbeeh
of La ilaha illallah by ourselves and upon
hearing it, he will join in.
And once he says La ilaha illallah, then
he should try to avoid talking altogether.
We should try to make him continue with
that Tasbeeh of La ilaha illallah because the
Prophet ﷺ said, مَن كَانَ آخِرُ كَلَامِهِ لَا
إِلَهِ لَا اللَّهِ دَخَلَ الْجَنَّةِ Whose last words
are La ilaha illallah before he dies, he
will enter Paradise.
But the lesson, the main thing that we
should focus on is the fact that even
as a Prophet, the Prophet Yusuf ﷺ is
making Dua, تَوَثَّنِي مُسْلِمًا And there are many
Duas narrated from the Prophet ﷺ along the
same lines.
يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَىٰ دِينِكِ يَا
مُسَرِّفَ الْقُلُوبِ سَرِّفْ قَلْبِي إِلَىٰ طَوْعَتِكِ You know
these words, Oh Turner of the Hearts, make
my heart steadfast upon your Deen.
And Oh the Turner of the Hearts, make
me steadfast upon your Ta'a, upon your
obedience.
Again, many many Duas like this narrated from
the Prophet ﷺ.
Allah ﷻ also says in another verse of
the Qur'an, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا
اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
Oh people of Iman, have the Taqwa of
Allah ﷻ as He deserves it.
And do not die except in the state
of Islam, meaning in the state of submission
to Allah ﷻ.
So Yusuf ﷺ is asking Allah ﷻ تَوَفَّنِي
مُسْلِمًا وَأَلْحِقْنِي بِالصَّالِحِينَ And make me join with
the Saliheen, with the pious people.
So this could be in this world, to
be always joined with the pious people.
And also obviously in the hereafter, we should
ask Allah to resurrect us amongst the pious
people.
So both of these things are very important.
To join with pious people, have friendship with
pious people, so that their piety, their habits,
and the things that they are practicing, it
rubs off on us.
The very beautiful hadith of the Prophet ﷺ,
he described the good friendship and bad friendship
in a hadith.
He says that the bad friendship is like
the person who works as a blacksmith.
The person who is making metal and melting
metal and there's smoke and there's sparks flying
everywhere.
So a person who sits with this person,
he goes in, takes a nice shower, he
wears white clothes and he goes and sits
next to this person, what's going to happen?
There's going to be sparks flying everywhere, there's
going to be smoke and he's going to
come out stinking of smoke and he's going
to be sweating.
So this is the example of a bad
friendship.
And he gave the example of a good
friendship as Hamilul Misk, the person who sells
musk, a perfume seller.
You go and sit with a perfume seller,
you don't even have to apply the perfume,
but by sitting next to this person who
is giving samples and spraying the perfume or
selling the perfume to people, you come out
still smelling or smelling even better than when
you went in.
So this is the example of pious friendship,
friendship with pious people.
This is what we should try to adhere
to in this life.
And if you have bad friendship and if
we feel that that friendship may influence us
negatively, then we need to stay away from
that type of friendship.
Only and only if we feel that we
can advise that person and take him towards
the truth, take him towards Haqq, take him
away from what he's in at this time,
then we should stay close to him.
Otherwise if we feel that we can be
negatively affected by that person, then that friendship
needs to be avoided.
So obviously in the hereafter, we would make
dua, Allah SWT says, وَمَن يُطَعِ اللَّهُ وَالرَّسُولُ
فَأُولَئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنَعْمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ
وَالسِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَالصَّالِحِينَ وَحَسُنَ أُولَئِكَ رَفِيقًا
Whoever has the ta'a of Allah and
His Prophet, Allah is going to resurrect him
amongst who?
Amongst the Anbiya A.S. and the Shuhada
and the Salihin, the pious people.
He is going to be resurrected with these
pious people.
So the ta'a of Allah and the
ta'a of the Prophet will result in
this happening for us in the hereafter.
So this is something that we should aspire
to and adhere to as much as possible
so that we can be resurrected amongst these
pious people.
After that Allah says, ذَلِكَ مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ
نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ Allah is addressing the Prophet S
.A.W. here and He is telling him
that these are the news, meaning the stories
of Ghayb that we have inspired to you,
that we have given to you in Wahi.
So these stories were found in the Old
Testament and amongst the people of old, even
prior to the Prophet S.A.W. But
the Prophet S.A.W. didn't know about
these things.
Allah SWT, He tells us in another verse
of the Qur'an, وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُ أَنَّهُمْ يَقُولُونَ
إِنَّمَا يُعَلِّمُهُ بَشَرٌ Indeed we know that people
are going to say that a human being
taught him.
And this accusation is even found to this
day.
This accusation that the Qur'an was taught
or the stories in the Qur'an were
taught to the Prophet S.A.W. by
Christians and so on, so this accusation is
still there.
But Allah SWT has already answered that accusation
in this verse.
He says, لِسَانُ الَّذِي يُلْحِضُونَ إِلَيْهِ أَعَجَمِيٌّ وَهَٰذَا
لِسَانٌ عَرَبِيٌّ مُّبِينٌ The tongue in which the
previous people had their stories in, that was
a non-Arab tongue.
In Hebrew or Greek or other languages, Aramaic.
But this Qur'an is found in Arabic.
It is in Arabic.
So the Prophet S.A.W. first and
foremost, he didn't even know how to read
or write.
وَمَا كُنْتَ تَتْلُوْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَلَا
تَخُطْطُهُ بِيَمِينِكِ إِذَا لَرْتَابَ الْمُبْتِلُونَ You could not
read anything or you could not write anything,
O Prophet of Allah.
If it was the case that you could
read or write, then the people who were
مبتلون, meaning they were involved in fabrications and
accusations, they would have fallen into doubt.
But very very clearly, the Prophet S.A
.W. was الأمي.
He was the unlettered one.
He could not read or write.
So all of these stories that have been
mentioned in great detail in the Qur'an,
these were inspired to him by Allah S
.W.T and by nobody else.
So this is what Allah S.W.T
is saying here.
ذَلِكَ مِنْ أَنبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ And the
same thing, a similar verse is mentioned after
the story of Nuh S.A.W. ذِلِكَ
مِنْ أَنبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ That is the
wording used there.
And another story that is mentioned, a similar
wording is mentioned, is the story of Zakariya
S.A.W. when he wanted to take
Maryam into his care and they drew lots
and threw pens into the water.
Allah S.W.T says وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ
إِذْ يُلْقُونَ أَقْلَامَهُمْ أَيُّهُمْ يَكْفُلُ مَرْيَمٍ This detailed
story, you were not there when they threw
their pens into the water with this intention
to find out who would take care of
Maryam.
So, here again Allah S.W.T is
saying that these are the stories of the
Ghayb that we have inspired to you O
Prophet of Allah.
وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ أَجْمَعُوا أَمْرَهُمْ وَهُمْ يَمْكُرُونَ
O Prophet of Allah, you were not next
to them when they were united in their
plan.
Meaning, when they decided to do what they
did with Yusuf A.S. and they united
and they had Ijma' and consensus وَهُمْ يَمْكُرُونَ
while they were making Makkah, while they were
making these evil plans.
You were not there, but we told you
this story in great detail.
Why?
Because this story is from us.
The Quran is from us.
وَمَا أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ The reality
is that most people, even though you would
want it O Prophet of Allah and you
would wish that to happen, they are not
going to have Iman.
This is the word that is used in
the Quran again and again for the misguided
people is أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ Most people are always
going to be misguided.
So the question you might have is, you
know, this religion is the truth and the
Prophet A.S. gave it, there are so
many miracles told to us, but there are
still going to be people that are going
to reject the clearness, the clear message, the
miracles, everything is going to be rejected by
the majority of the people.
So أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ is mentioned in the Quran.
So even today, even though the Muslims are
a great religion and they are a big
portion of the population of the earth, they
are still approximately 1.2 billion, which is
approximately one-sixth you can say, or just
more than one-sixth, maybe one-fifth, of
the population of the world.
You know, four-fifths are not Muslim.
So again أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ The majority of the
people are not going to be believers.
So this was told to the Prophet A
.S. so that to console him, because he
was very, very worried.
And there are many places in the Quran
that say that he, because of the worry
and the concern for his Ummah, he was
almost kind of killing himself.
He was dying inside because of the worry
and concern he had for the people around
him.
لَعَلَّكَ بَاخِيٌّ نَفْسَكَ أَلَّا يَكُونُ مُؤْمِنِينَ لَعَلَّكَ بَاخِيٌّ
نَفْسَكَ عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ إِلَّمْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِهَذَا الْحَدِيثِ أَسَفَةً
And many, many verses in the Quran which
indicate how the Prophet A.S. was concerned.
So Allah is addressing him again, وَمَا أَكْثَرُ
النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصَّ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ That the majority of
the people, even though O Prophet of Allah,
you want that to happen, you wish it
to happen, they're not going to have Iman.
It's not going to happen.
وَمَا تَسْأَلُهُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ أَجْرٍ إِنْهُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرُ
لِلْعَالَمِينَ And you're not asking them for any
kind of recompense.
Whenever the Prophets came, they didn't ask people
for worldly things.
They didn't ask for mansions and palaces and
money or anything of that nature.
They came with a sincere message and it
was simply, obey Allah, believe in Allah, obey
Allah's commands, follow my way that I'm teaching,
I don't need anything from you.
And this is exactly the same thing that
every single Prophet came with.
The same message.
I don't want anything from you.
So again, Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ,
you're not asking them for any type of
reward.
You're not asking them for any type of
recompense.
All you're asking them to do is become
believers.
إِنْهُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرٌ لِلْعَالَمِينَ This is simply a
reminder for the worlds, meaning this reminder has
been sent, this Qur'an has been sent,
and it's been sent at your hands, so
the people who want to believe in it,
they will believe in it, and the people
that don't want to believe in it, they
will reject it.
So with this we finish today's lesson.
I pray that Allah gives us sufficient to
understand and practice what has been said in
here.