Zia Sheikh – Yusuf AS in the prison & his interpretation of Dreams Day 11
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Last night we started Surah Yusuf and the
story of Yusuf A.S. has been described
by Allah SWT himself as Ahsanul Qasas, which
means the best of stories.
And not just a story in the sense
that it's an interesting or a beautiful story,
rather it's a story which has many, many
lessons in it.
That's why Allah SWT describes it as Ahsanul
Qasas, what we call in Arabic, keeping one's
self and one's own character pure from engaging
in relationships which are outside the boundaries of
Islam in terms of, and this is something
that Yusuf A.S. protected himself through, and
even because of that he had to end
up in prison, he was willing to deal
with that and put up with that rather
than fall into the haram relationship, so this
is a very key element of this Surah.
I'm not going to go into that, I'm
going to talk about the event that took
place while Yusuf A.S. was in the
prison itself.
Allah SWT says, Two young men, they entered
the prison with Yusuf A.S. and they
had got the news from people that Yusuf
A.S. knows how to interpret dreams, and
according to one opinion, they decided to just
test him out.
They didn't see any dream, but they decided
to just test him, so they said, okay,
we've had these dreams, so interpret them for
us, and according to other opinions, they actually
did see the dreams and they asked him
to interpret the dreams.
What were the dreams?
One of them said that I am seeing
in my dream that I am squeezing wine,
squeezing wine means squeezing grapes so that they
become wine, and the other said, and the
other said that I see in my dream
that I am carrying bread on top of
my head and birds are pecking at that
bread.
Give us the interpretation of these dreams, indeed
we regard you as somebody who is a
Mohsin, as a well-wisher and one who
wants good for us, so interpret these dreams
for us.
So Yusuf A.S., he didn't give the
answer immediately.
What did he say?
He said that when your dinner comes, when
your food comes, that's when I'll be able
to interpret the dream for you, and this
is what Allah SWT has taught me.
So there's a couple of meanings that the
scholars have said this means.
One that Yusuf A.S., by looking into
the food itself, he could interpret the dream.
And there's something which maybe people are familiar
with, looking into tea leaves is something what
so-called fortune tellers do.
They look at, they take a cup of
tea and the tea leaves, and nowadays you
have tea bags, but traditionally when you make
tea, it's used with the loose tea.
So people, fortune tellers, what they do is
they look inside the tea itself and they
look at the shape of the tea and
everything and they tell the fortune from that.
Now telling fortunes is haram and this is
not something that we encourage.
But some scholars say that Yusuf A.S.
mentioning that, that when the food comes, I'll
tell you the interpretation, maybe it's something along
those lines.
And another interpretation is that Yusuf A.S.
was simply saying that at the time when
your food comes, Jibreel A.S. is going
to tell me what the interpretation of the
dream is and this, basically it will be
ilmul ghayb, directly from Allah SWT, and I'm
going to wait for that to come.
And also from this we learn that if
a person doesn't know something immediately, and this
is especially for those people in leadership positions
or in responsible positions, and especially when it
comes to religious knowledge, the person doesn't know
the answer to the question, he should research
it rather than giving a guess to save
face.
It's easy to just blurt out an answer
that a person doesn't know.
Imam Abu Hanifa, he used to say, to
say I don't know, it is actually half
of knowledge.
Because if a person doesn't know, then he
is going to try to make an effort
to learn what he doesn't know.
But if a person doesn't even admit that
he doesn't know, then obviously he's not going
to make an effort.
So, to ask for time and to say,
well I'll tell you later, there's nothing wrong
with doing that, as Yusuf A.S. did.
The Ayah goes on to say, The wording
is this, I have left the way of
a people that have no Iman with Allah
SWT, and they are denying the Akhirah, they
deny the Hereafter.
So the wording suggests that Yusuf A.S.,
he was on the path of disbelief or
Shirk, and he left that path and he
came onto the path of Tawheed.
But this never happened.
He was born in the house of a
Prophet, he was the son of a Prophet,
he's a Prophet himself, so he was never
on the path of Shirk or the path
of Kufr.
So what does it mean?
Why does he use this wording?
This is the way of giving Tawheed to
people.
Many people, what they tend to do when
they are advising, even with good intention, they
put the person on the spot and tell
him, you are doing this, and you should
do this, and you should not do this,
and you are doing this wrong, and you
are doing this right.
So basically the person feels like he is
being put into a corner, and he is
the only person who is doing anything wrong.
Whereas, if a person, and you'll see this,
most scholars they will use this kind of
terminology when they are giving lectures.
They will say, we, we should make sure
that we don't engage in any type of
Shirk, and we should make sure that we
should never engage in any type of Bid
'ah.
You know, everybody is included in that, including
the person who is engaged in those wrong
things, and yet he doesn't feel that he
is being addressed in that way.
And this was something that the Prophet ﷺ
used to do.
He used to never name people in his
lectures or his Khutbahs when he used to
want to address a weakness amongst the people.
He used to say, You know, what's wrong
with some people that do such and such
actions?
He didn't even use to name them, but
in general he used to mention the weaknesses
of the people or the wrong that they
were engaging in without directly putting them down
or making them look inferior in any way.
So the fact that Yusuf A.S. is
saying, I left the way of the people,
it means that you also, if you are
engaging in Shirk and you are doing something
wrong and engaged in Kufr and you don't
have belief in the Hereafter, you, along with
me, you should also adopt that belief and
leave Shirk, leave Kufr and follow the way
that I am following.
So this was why Yusuf A.S. did
that.
And I followed the way of my forefathers,
Ibrahim, Ishaq and Yaqub.
Now, his father was Yaqub and his father
was Ishaq and his father was Ibrahim.
So he should have gone in that order,
right?
But instead, he mentioned Ibrahim A.S. first.
Ibrahim A.S., his great grandfather was mentioned.
Tawheed emanated from him.
Anbiya A.S. came from him.
He was Abu'l Anbiya, the patriarch of
the Prophets and that's why Ibrahim A.S.
was mentioned and then after that Ishaq and
Yaqub.
And he says, It was not appropriate for
us that we should commit Shirk with Allah
SWT in the least.
This is the Fadl of Allah SWT, the
blessing of Allah SWT upon us and upon
the people but most people, they are not
grateful.
And then he gives, Yusuf A.S. gives
the two people that came to him Dawah.
He says, Oh my partners of the prison.
See how he gets them close.
Oh my partners of the prison.
Oh my companions of the prison.
Again, not demeaning them, rather bringing them close.
He says, Different Gods or different Lords.
Are they better or one all-powerful God?
Is that better?
What you have been worshipping other than Allah
are simple names that you have invented.
That Allah SWT has not revealed any proof
for.
Indeed, the judgement is for Allah SWT only.
And he has ordered that you should worship
only him.
That is the straight path or the right
religion or the straight forward path.
But most people are unaware.
And then he tells them the interpretation of
the dream.
So, first he gives them the importance of
Tawheed.
Importance in belief in Allah SWT.
Importance of getting away from shirk.
And then he tells them what they came
for.
Oh my companions of the prison.
One of you is going to be giving
wine to his Lord.
Meaning his master.
Meaning he is going to be set free
from the prison.
And he is going to go back to
the king.
And then he is going to serve wine
to him.
Meaning he is going to be one of
the servants that are going to be serving
wine.
And the other is going to be hanged
and birds are going to be eating from
his head.
Meaning the rotting body, the carcass is going
to be hanging up there.
And birds are going to be eating from
his head.
So, he didn't say which one is which.
It was very clear who is going to
be who.
The order or the issue of a matter
about which you have been seeking the fatwa
has been ordained.
Meaning the dream has been interpreted.
And this is something that is mentioned in
the hadith.
That when you see a dream, you should
not tell it to people who will just
make up an interpretation.
According to this hadith of the Prophet, he
said that when a person tells a person
a dream, and that person, he makes that
interpretation of the dream, then sometimes whatever that
interpretation is done, this is something that is
mentioned in a hadith.
So, when a person sees dreams, he should
try to keep them to himself, or go
to only a knowledgeable person who can tell
him what the dream is.
Many people come to me with scary dreams
and things that they have been seeing for
a long time.
I simply tell them, you know, just give
sadaqah, inshallah everything will be fine.
And this is what probably a knowledgeable person
will tell you.
That this is how you are supposed to
deal with these kinds of dreams.
If you feel that those dreams are going
to come true, give sadaqah, and the dreams
do not need to be interpreted every single
time.
And then he said, Yusuf A.S. said
to the one who he thought is going
to be free, Remember me with your master.
When you go to the master and you
are giving him wine, remember me.
So, this was a plan of Allah SWT,
that these two young men are entered into
the prison with Yusuf A.S. They ask
him the interpretation of the dream, and then
he gives them the interpretation of the dream,
and one of them is going to go
back to the king and he is going
to work in the king's castle, or wherever
the king was living.
And Yusuf A.S. told him that when
you go to the king, remember me.
Remember me, meaning mention me.
But then, when the person got free, he
forgot all about it and stayed in prison
for a few more years.
Until the king had a dream.
And then the king asked for the interpretation
of the dream.
Nobody knew the interpretation of the dreams.
And that person then remembered Yusuf A.S.
after so many years, went back to the
prison, got him out.
He didn't get him out.
While he is still in the prison, he
asked him the interpretation of that dream.
Yusuf A.S. gave the interpretation, and then
because of the giving of that interpretation, ultimately
he was released and he became the treasurer,
or the minister of agriculture.
He became responsible for all of that.
So from going from a prison, he was
put into charge of a government position.
He got this huge position that nobody could
have dreamt that a person in his position
could have attained.
So this is what ultimately happened.
But the point is that two men entered
into the prison with Yusuf A.S. And
one of them, many years later, became the
means of his release.
So, the plan happened in many, many strange
ways.
You meet somebody and that person can help
you many, many years later.
Only Allah SWT knows how those relationships work
and how those things work out.
So, we should always keep a trust in
Allah.
You know, whenever we are going through difficulties,
Allah SWT has a plan sometimes.
We don't see it immediately.
Yusuf A.S. saw the benefit of being
with those two people many years later, eight
or nine years later, after he was in
the prison, but he did see it.
So, similarly, we should keep in mind that
Allah SWT sometimes has plans.
We go through difficulties in our life, hardships
in our life, and bring us ease.
It may take us many years to see
that ease, but Allah SWT does have a
plan and we should always keep our trust
in Allah SWT.