SURAH YUSUF Dr Yasir Qadhi lecture transcript

150 the country and have expertise. This is the law of the earth that when people don’t know how to do things, they will give precedence to those who are in power already. So by this time, Yūsuf has the upper hand over the king, and the king is giving him deference. The story in the Old Testament supports this version of reading. By now, Yūsuf can tell the king, “I want my family to come,” whereas seven years ago, he doesn’t have that power. As we said already, this is a small land and country, and they don’t want seventy, eighty, ninety foreigners to come populate it. This is a big number for them, and they don’t want a foreigner population to come, but now Yūsuf has more power and more clout, so he can dictate the demands to the king. This is an interpretation that has a worldly understanding, and there is no problem in combining both of them and saying there is an element of truth to both of them. So now Yūsuf reveals himself, and he says, “Do you not remember what you did with Yūsuf and his brother when you were ignorant?” Some books of tafsīr mention that he took off his robe, and he was wearing the garments of his people underneath, and he showed them other signs at this time. Some ‘ulemā’ even said that he smiled at them in a friendly manner for the first time being brotherly and not being kingly and ministerly, showing them who he was. When he did this, for the first time it clicked because nobody in the world other than Yūsuf and the brothers knew what they did to Yūsuf. For him to ask the blunt question “Do you remember what you did to Yūsuf?”, there is only one person other than those ten who would know that, and that is Yūsuf himself. Nobody else in the world – not even Binyamin because he was a baby at that time – would know what they did to Yūsuf, so by asking the question and by then revealing something more personal and friendlier, it is clear now. The age would match and the characteristics would match. At the end of the day, Yūsuf is not an Egyptian. He is a Canaanite (Filistini). His ethnic features and facial features, and maybe he even spoke to them in their language, according to one opinion. He gave signs away. This is not the minister that they thought. This is their blood brother. Finally it clicks, and they say: Āyah 90 The Arabic here is very beautiful. In English, it would be: “Are you really, really that Yūsuf?” There is a triple emphasis here that cannot be translated into English. They are shocked now that this is really Yūsuf. One point I forgot to mention: Notice Yūsuf says, “Do you remember what you did to Yūsuf and his brother while you were jāhill?” Some scholars have said that it is as if he is criticizing them that they were jāhill and did this, but the stronger opinion is that he is actually giving them a way out even before he begins the story. He is actually making an excuse for them because he says, “while you were (in the past) jāhill (ignorant),” meaning

151 that now they are not jāhill and now they know better. It is like we say now, “You were a kid back then.” That type of attitude is being demonstrated. Even before Yūsuf moves on, in the very first sentence he opens up the excuse for them. In the very first phrase he allows some laxity and leeway. “You were jāhill at that time.” It is not as if he is saying it in a harsh manner. He is actually saying it in an excusing manner. This is of the perfection, which is just beginning. In these lines we will see Yūsuf never directly criticizes his brothers. Notice he didn’t even say, “Do you remember that you kidnapped me, threw me in the well, and left me to die?” No – he leaves it vague. “Do you remember what you did to Yūsuf?” He doesn’t mention details. This is of the perfection of Yūsuf’s character that never once does he explicitly mention what happened and never once does he explicitly criticize them. Wallāhi, this takes a real man to do this because he has the power and upper hand and there is nothing to prevent him from even throwing in one jab – as we say in English – or one criticism. Not even the slightest ‘uff in these words. “Do you remember what you did to Yūsuf and his brother?” Notice he says ‘Yūsuf’ and not even ‘me’ because when you say ‘me’ here, it is more personal. It makes you feel guiltier. He uses the third person to even try to minimize that. “Do you remember what you did to Yūsuf and his brother back in those days when you were jāhill?” They say, “Are you really that Yūsuf?” There is no other person that could know, and the signs have been shown. Of course by now it must have dawned on them that the characteristics, the ethnicity, the looks, and maybe the language, as we said, and the age as well because they know how old Yūsuf was and how old he would be now, so everything clicks in, and they say, “Are you really that Yūsuf?” He said, “I am Yūsuf, and this is my brother.” He called him to come out at that time, which means he was hiding behind the curtains in the other room and when this conversation takes place, he calls Binyamin out. “I am Yūsuf, and this is my brother.” Qad mann Allāhu ‘alayna. Immediately he attributes all good to Allāh. “This is not my power. I didn’t do this. I’m not gloating that I have the upper hand. I am not showing you who is richer and more powerful.” As soon as he acknowledges that he is Yūsuf, the very next phrase is: “This is not from me. Allāh has given us all of this.” Manna – it is a gift. It is not even earned or deserved but something that He gifted because of His Generosity. “Verily, whoever has taqwa and patience, Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) will never cause to go to waste the rewards of those who are good.” Notice here that he ascribes the blessings directly to himself from Allāh. “Allāh blessed us.” Then he says in the third person, “Whoever is righteous and patient, Allāh will reward that person.” He doesn’t say, “I was righteous and patient so Allāh rewarded me.” Wallāhi, each word and each phrase shows the humility of Yūsuf. You could not think of a more humble paragraph than this. He says, “Allāh blessed me without anything deserving” because manna means to give without recompense – there is no reason to give and it is just giving from generosity. You didn’t earn it; it is a gift. He is acknowledging: “Allāh has gifted this to me.” Then he says, “Verily, whoever (third person, generic) has righteousness and patience, Allāh will reward the efforts of those who are good.” The understanding is that Yūsuf

152 was muttaqi and was patient, but it wouldn’t be humble of him to say this. Also, this is tazqiyyat’l-nafs and ascribing piety to yourself, which is not the way the Muslim talks. So he makes it generic and he says, “Whoever has taqwa and ṣabr, Allāh will never cause that good to go to waste.” Notice he ascribes two characteristics that he truly had because the only thing that will protect you from zina in the case of Yūsuf and in that scenario when there is temptation and a woman is there and calling and beckoning you and nobody is watching, the only thing that will possibly save you is taqwa. What saved him from the well and caused him to stay in prison for so long, so much so that when the crier came, he says, “Go back to your master and ask what happened to those women.” The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “May Allāh have mercy on the ṣabr of Yūsuf. Had I been in his case, I wouldn’t have lasted and would have immediately rushed out.” He mentions ṣabr because it was ṣabr that allowed him by the blessings of Allāh to remain in the well and to remain a slave and to remain in jail until finally Allāh rewarded him with becoming the minister. He mentions taqwa and ṣabr because these two are the two Islamic principles that have characterized him throughout the entire story. The whole message of the story is summarized right here. “Whoever truly has taqwa of Allāh” – and we talked about taqwa many times before in these series of lectures, and it means that you build a protection against Allāh’s punishment through Allāh’s commandments. Taqwa means you protect yourself from Allāh through Allāh. You turn to Allāh to protect yourself against Allāh. Only Allāh can protect you from Allāh. This is what taqwa means. Ṣabr of course is to control yourself and be patient. The theme of the whole sūrah is this line: “Whoever has taqwa and is patient, Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) will give them all that they desire and more.” Of course, there is a subtle message here as well. Notice that all of the message to the brothers is not direct and not in your face and not gloating. It is for them to benefit and not for them to feel bad. The message is: You tried to gain what you wanted through ḥarām and didn’t get what you wanted. You tried to get what you wanted by disobeying Allāh, which is why you didn’t get what you wanted. As for me, I was patient and put my trust in Allāh and had taqwa and Allāh gave me more than anyone could even imagine. This is the subliminal message, which is not flouted in their face; it is for them to ponder and become better and more righteous. Also realize that, subḥānAllāh, it is as if Yūsuf is giving them a khuṭbah. It is as if he is giving them religious advice. Instead of going into the story of what happened and how he got there, the first thing on his mind is: I need to benefit my brothers religiously and bring them closer to Allāh and cause them to repent from that sin and be better people. This is always on the mind of every righteous person that any opportunity he sees to bring about religious feelings and to bring about love of Allāh, fear of Allāh, and religious remembrance, he will take that opportunity. He is giving them a khuṭbah at the family reunion. He is giving them a reminder at the family reunion because what better place for that reminder to sink in. When they see the effects of piety and the effects of sins in their own lives, what better place to remind them? Notice what is on his mind is to remind them of Allāh.

153 Āyah 91 They said, “By Allāh! Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) has preferred you over us and chosen you over us. And we certainly have been sinners.” Tallāhi is one of the ways that you give an oath or swear. The in here is zā’ida – even though some scholars don’t like calling anything zā’ida in the Qur’ān – it is for emphasis. Notice now that this khuṭbah and religious advice has had the desired effect of making them feel guilty and cause them to repent to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). That is exactly what has happened. Āyah 92 He said, “There shall be no blame on you today.” Tathrīb means to be reminded of one’s sins and to feel guilty over it. It means to humiliate and to basically flout it in your face and make you feel guilty by remembering the sin over and over again. He doesn’t even say, “I will not blame you.” He makes it third person and neutral and removes himself from the picture. Saying “I will not blame you” would make them feel extra guilty. He makes it generic and says, “There shall be no blame on you.” This is completely neutral. You can stop on two different places here. The first is to say: “Qāla la tathrība ‘alaykumu’lyawm. Yaghfirullāhu lakum.” This translates as: “Today there shall be no blame on you. Allāh will forgive you.” Today your sins have been made manifest. If you are not going to be blamed today, then you will not be blamed afterwards. The second way is: “Qāla la tathrība ‘alaykum. Al-yawma yaghfirullāhu lakum.” This means: “There shall be no blame on you. Today Allāh will forgive your sins.” Both are valid. From today you shall not be blamed anymore. Why? Because today Allāh has forgiven your sins. Both meanings are complementary, which shows us some of the beauty of Arabic. As I said many times, simply analyzing the Arabic phrases and the Arabic words and the structure of the Qur’ān shows us that this is not the speech of a man and it is a divine speech. Every single precise wording, letters and ḥarakahs are miracles in and of themselves. Yūsuf is saying, “Today there shall be no blame on you. Allāh will forgive you.” How can Yūsuf say, “Allāh will forgive you”? What right does Yūsuf have to say this? There are two

154 responses to this. Firstly, because the wrong was done to Yūsuf, when he forgives, then they are forgiven because the ẓulm or injustice was done to Yūsuf. As we know in our religion, when you commit a crime against a human being – when you steal someone’s money, dishonor them, backbite – then forgiveness is in the hands upon whom ẓulm (injustice) has been done, and until he forgives you, you will not be forgiven. Allāh’s Forgiveness is easier than the forgiveness of this person because Allāh is Merciful and Al- Raḥīm. When Yūsuf has forgiven them and they have repented, he can be certain that Allāh will forgive them because he has forgiven them. The second interpretation is: “I hope inshā’Allāh that Allāh will forgive you.” There is a missing phrase and the meaning is: “I’m optimistic that Allāh will forgive you.” Both of these interpretations are valid, and there is no contradiction in them. “And He is the Most Merciful of all those who show mercy.” Remember that Sūrah Yūsuf was revealed when our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was undergoing the most difficult period of his life: the year of sorrow. It was the year when Abu Ṭālib died, Khadījah died, and the incident of Ṭā’if took place. This is the lowest of the low. Allāh revealed to him Sūrah Yūsuf in order to make him optimistic and encourage him. SubḥānAllāh, at the pinnacle of his career and prophethood when he marched into Makkah, finally conquering the city that expelled him, he was reciting Sūrah Yūsuf. When he stood on the Ka‘bah and called the people around and asked them, “What do you think I will do to you today after all that you have done to me and after persecuting and killing so many of my followers and after expelling me and my people from this land?” They are all begging and pleading for mercy and saying, “You are our noble brother and son of our noble brother. You are our relative.” What does he do? He recites this very verse of Sūrah Yūsuf. This was the purpose of Sūrah Yūsuf – to cheer him up and give him optimism and hope and to make him realize that: You are not the only one whose people have persecuted him and you are not the only one whose relatives and blood brothers have expelled him from their homes. The brothers of Yūsuf expelled him and threw him into the well. Your people are not the first and they are not going to be the last. When it was the turn of our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and he was sitting on the symbolic throne of the Ka‘bah, he now has the upper hand. The people are now around him. He cannot help but remember the exact same sūrah because of which Allāh revealed this sūrah. He recited this very verse to them. “There shall be no blame on you today. Allāh will forgive you. And He is the Most Forgiving and the Most Merciful.” By this, Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) once again is showing his perfection by not mentioning any crime by name and by not saying, “I am not going to blame you anymore.” When we forgive somebody, we say, “I forgive you.” What did Yūsuf say? He didn’t even mention the ‘I’ because in this there is ego. He said, “There shall be no blame on you. Allāh will forgive you. He is the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.” Āyah 93

155 “Go with this shirt of mine and throw it on the face of my father and he will gain his vision back. Bring me all of your family.” Now they shall leave the valley of Canaan and immigrate to the land of Egypt. He tells his brothers, “Go with this shirt of mine.” SubḥānAllāh, once again notice the theme of the shirt, which is a common theme in this story. It has been mentioned three times. The first time the shirt is mentioned when it comes to the story of the wolf. The second time the shirt is mentioned is when it comes to the seducing in the palace. Now [for] the third time the shirt is mentioned. Every time the shirt is a sign of life. The shirt is what gives hope to Ya‘qūb that his son is alive. When the brothers came to Ya‘qūb with the bloody shirt, he looked at it and said, “What a merciful wolf this is that it eats up my son but doesn’t scratch the shirt!” The shirt gave the plot away that the brothers had plotted something. In the seduction story, the shirt saves Yūsuf, and it makes him innocent. Now the shirt once again is a sign that Yūsuf is alive and well and the brothers are coming back with the truth. Scholars say it was the sight of the bloody shirt that caused Ya‘qūb to go blind and now seeing the beautiful shirt that Yūsuf was wearing will bring the sight back to him because the cure and the disease are always opposites. It was the sight of the shirt that caused him to go blind, and it will be the shirt, by the blessings of Allāh, that will bring his eyesight back to him. Āyah 94 “When the caravan departed [from Egypt] their father said, ‘I can smell the smell of Yūsuf, but only the fact that you will think that I am a senile old man I would tell you even more or I would walk out to meet him.’” There is a missing phrase here: ‘otherwise I would do even more.’ Notice he smelled it when the caravan left Egypt. They are still a thousand miles away. When it leaves Egypt and he is in Canaan, he smelled the scent of Yūsuf. SubḥānAllāh, there is no doubt this is a miracle from Allāh ‘azza wa jall that He has given to Ya‘qūb; otherwise, it is not even humanly possible to smell the smell at that distance. Allāh has given him a miracle, an optimistic sign, and a hope that something is changing. He remembers the smell of his son Yūsuf. SubḥānAllāh, it has been forty or fifty years, and he remembers how Yūsuf smells. Look at the love that he had for his son. When he smelled that smell, he knew that this was the smell of Yūsuf.

156 Āyah 95 They [the grandchildren and great grandchildren] said, ‘You are still in your ways of old.’” Āyah 96 “When the bearer of glad tidings came…” Many scholars say Allāh calls him bashīr here, and he was the same one who came with the bloody shirt in the beginning. Once again, Allāh mentions the good and ignores or neglects the bad. As we said, this is a standard motif. When the praise is due, Allāh mentions specifically, but when there is criticism, Allāh tries to cover it up unless there is a need to mention it. Here Allāh praises him, and most of the scholars say he was the same one. He insisted and said, “Since I am the one who caused the harm, I am now going to bring the shirt back.” Allāh calls him the bearer of good tidings and the one who came with the good news. “…he threw the shirt into his face, and he regained his eyesight. He said, ‘Didn’t I tell you after all these years that Yūsuf is alive? I told you go find him. I told you don’t lose hope in Allāh, but you kept on trying to deny this. Didn’t I tell you that Allāh has told me that I know something that you don’t know?’” Āyah 97 “They said, ‘O our father, ask Allāh to forgive us. We have committed an evil sin.’” Here they say the exact same thing for a second time. They said it once to Yūsuf and now they say it to their father. Clearly they are repentant. SubḥānAllāh, the number one stepping stone to repentance is acknowledgement of guilt. You cannot repent until you acknowledge guilt. This is why the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Feeling guilty is the essence of repenting.” Unless you feel guilty and acknowledge the sin, there is no repentance. If you simply say “I’m sorry” but there is no genuine guilt, this is not tawbah. We can clearly see the brothers are feeling guilty. They have asked Yūsuf to forgive, they have asked their father to forgive, and they have admitted they made a mistake. Until you admit to making a mistake, you are not repenting to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). That is why the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “The best du‘ā’ for seeking forgiveness…” It is a long du‘ā’ and you should all memorize it. There are two phrases that relate to us: ‘O Allāh, I acknowledge all of your favors upon me, and I acknowledge that I have committed a sin.’ This is sayyid’l-istighfār and the pinnacle of seeking

157 forgiveness. How do you do that? The first phrase in it is: “I acknowledge my mistake.” Without acknowledging the mistake, there is no tawbah. Here we have the brothers of Yūsuf going to Yūsuf and their father and they say, “O our father, ask Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) to forgive us for our sins. Verily, we have been sinners.” They are asking Ya‘qūb because Ya‘qūb is the senior prophet. Yūsuf is still their younger brother even though he is a prophet. They seek forgiveness directly from Yūsuf because he is the main person they have done wrong to. As for Ya‘qūb, because he is the older prophet, they say, “O our father, ask Allāh to forgive us.” There is a difference here. For Yūsuf, they ask directly because they committed the wrong to him. They also committed a wrong to their father, but their father isn’t just their father but is also the prophet of Allāh on earth, so his status is very high up. They are feeling guilty and want Allāh to forgive them, so by asking their father to ask Allāh to forgive, they are getting forgiveness from both because their father would not ask unless he has forgiven. They could say, “O our father, forgive us,” but it is more eloquent and more powerful to say, “O our father, ask Allāh to forgive us” because they are getting both the forgiveness from their father and Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). They say, “O our father, ask Allāh to forgive us. Verily, we have committed a grievous sin.” Āyah 98 “He says, ‘I shall ask Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) to forgive you. Verily, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.’” “I shall” means that he will in a while but not right now. Why did he delay? Pretty much all of the scholars say that he delayed the du‘ā’ until the last third of the night in his tahajjud prayer. This seems to be the unanimous opinion of all of the scholars, and this is how they understood this. Ya‘qūb (‘alayhi’l-salām) wanted to delay the du‘ā’ to the most blessed time. He wanted to ask Allāh in the best state, which is sajdah, and at the holiest time, which is the last third of the night, and many scholars add that it was on the Friday as well, the holiest day of the week. We know that our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said that Allāh ‘azza wa jall descends down to the lowest heavens in the last third of the night in a ḥadīth in Bukhāri and Muslim. He descends down to the lowest heavens in the last third of the night and says, “Who amongst My servants is asking Me, so I shall give him what he wants. Who amongst My servants is seeking refuge in Me, so I shall protect him. Who amongst My servants wants his sins forgiven, so I shall forgive them.” Making du‘ā’ in the last third of the night is the most blessed time to make du‘ā’. There is no time that is more blessed than this in our 24-hour cycle. When Ya‘qūb is saying “I shall do it,” meaning in a while, he is simply delaying it to a time that is more conducive because he wants them to be forgiven. One of the scholars of the past, ‘Ata (the student of Ibn ‘Abbās), said, “It is easier to ask a young man for something than to ask an old man because when they asked Yūsuf to forgive them, he immediately said he had forgiven them, but when they asked Ya‘qūb, he said wait a while and he would do it in a bit.” This is a little bit tongue-in-cheek and humorous, but

158 there is an element of truth to it that generally speaking youngsters are more easy going whereas elders are more set in their ways and accustomed to how they want to live their lives. One of the main lessons of the whole story for us is that a person’s final status is dependent upon how he ends his life and not how he begins it. This is a huge optimism for us sinners. A person’s status in the eyes of Allāh is dependent upon his end and not the beginning. Here are the brothers of Yūsuf who are basically would-be murderers almost. In a court of law in our times, they might be accused of manslaughter, attempted murder, and kidnapping. In this story, the end result is that they are forgiven and not just forgiven, but according to the majority opinion, they even become minor prophets in their own rights – not to the level of Yūsuf and Ya‘qūb but minor prophets. That is why in the dream, Yūsuf compares all of them to the stars in the sky because they are literally stars – they are not as high as the sun and the moon, but nonetheless they become stars. As one of the scholars of the past said, if this story will not give sinners hope, then what story will give hope? Have you ever attempted to kill your brother or kidnap your brother or thrown your brother in a well? I hope not. If Allāh can forgive them, then surely my sins and your sins are more worthy of being forgiven. If Allāh can allow them to become prophets after they have done this crime, then how about forgiving me and you? But what is the condition? Turning over a new leaf and having a new beginning and having a sincere intention and new relationship with Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). They return now to Yūsuf, and this is the fourth time the brothers have made the journey. It shall be the last time for over 500 years that they make this journey. They will make it once again in the opposite direction in the exodus. Now they are leaving the Holy Land of Canaan or Palestine, and they are making their way to Egypt. Āyah 99 “So when they entered upon Yūsuf, he took his parents to himself / sheltered his parents / gave his parents comfort.” The scholars say that he led a procession of the cavalry or army to greet them and there was celebration and a lot of jubilation. Of course this is well deserved at this point in time. He himself led the delegation to welcome them. He led the delegation outside of the city to greet his parents, as any dutiful son should do. “He said, ‘Enter into Egypt. With the permission of Allāh, all of you will be safe.’” The meaning of ‘inshā’Allāh’ here is ‘in the Name of Allāh, you shall be safe.’ This is difficult to translate into English. Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “When you make du‘ā’, don’t say ‘inshā’Allāh’ at the end” because you don’t make du‘ā’ by assigning it to Allāh. Let me give you an example. You don’t say, “O Allāh, forgive me inshā’Allāh” because Allāh will forgive you if He wants to, and your saying ‘inshā’Allāh’ won’t change anything. You have to beg and plead because you need Allāh’s forgiveness. You say, “O Allāh, I need your forgiveness, forgive me.” You don’t need to

159 add ‘inshā’Allāh’ because Allāh will forgive you inshā’Allāh. If Allāh wills, He will forgive you. You do not relegate it to Allāh’s Will. You say, “O Allāh, I need this.” The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “When you make a du‘ā’, be firm in your request.” Don’t be wishy washy and add the inshā’Allāh because Allāh will not change the decree because of your inshā’Allāh. Nobody can force Allāh. Allāh will give you if He wants, inshā’Allāh. The reason I’m saying all of this is because some people may ask why Yūsuf made a du‘ā’ and said “inshā’Allāh.” The response is, to put it simply, that this “inshā’Allāh” is not that “inshā’Allāh.” This “inshā’Allāh” is “with the blessings of Allāh” and “in the Name of Allāh.” Yūsuf promised them safety, and they were safe, but their descendants were not safe, and that is what happens centuries later when Fir‘awn comes and starts persecuting the children of Israel, which is a story taken up later in the Qur’ān. Now he says, “You will be safe.” When you go to the Egypt airport and get out of customs, you find a big sign there saying “Udhkulu miṣra inshā’Allāhu āminīn.” That is the only country in the world that can cut and paste from the Qur’ān and say “let us enter Egypt inshā’Allāh āminīn.” Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) tells his father and his brothers that they shall enter into Egypt inshā’Allāh and will be safe and secure. Āyah 100 “And he put his parents on the throne…” What throne? Perhaps he had a throne or perhaps, as we already said, he actually has more power than the ruling king and has access to the palace and can also visit the palace at will, and so this is more likely he actually put his parents on the throne of Egypt to symbolically show them that this is the respect he gives them. He put his parents on the throne of Egypt. Being bedouins and peasants in a barren land, overnight he is putting them on the throne of the mightiest kingdom at the time to show them respect as his parents. When he did that, they came off the throne and prostrated to him, and the brothers all fell into prostration. Some scholars say they actually fell onto their faces, and some scholars say that they bowed down (i.e. rukū‘), but the meaning of sujjada in Arabic can mean both. Even if you lower your head to a great extent, you also call that sājid even though for us when we say sājid we mean on the ground, but the Arabic term sujjada or sājid can also imply lowering the head. Whatever they did, they are showing respect. We have to mention here that lowering the head for respect was something that was allowed in the previous legislations if you did it to show respect. In our Sharī‘ah, in our legislation,

160 this has been made forbidden. We are not allowed to lower our head in front of any created object out of respect. Lowering your head out of worship has always been forbidden except for Allāh. Even in the previous Sharī‘ahs, you couldn’t lower your head out of worship. You had to lower it out of worship only to Allāh. When Allāh told the angels to prostrate to Adam, what type of sajdah is this? This is the sajdah of respect. In this sūrah as well, the brothers of Yūsuf and the parents of Yūsuf fall into a prostration of respect. In our Sharī‘ah, this is forbidden. We are not allowed to bow down in respect, and if we do so, this is not shirk, but it is a sin and ḥarām. There is a beautiful ḥadīth in the Sunan of Abu Dāwūd in which Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal, the famous companion, came back from Syria and entered the masjid, and the first thing he did was fall down in front of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) in prostration. He fell down facing the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) in prostration. Can you imagine the scene? He is literally falling in prostration in front of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) became shocked and amazed and said, “Ya Mu‘ādh, who told you to do this? Where did you get this from?” Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal said, “I just came back from Syria (the Roman Empire), and I saw that the Romans would prostrate to their priests and leaders, so I felt that you have more right to be respected than they did. I felt that I should respect you more than they respect their elders.” The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Do not ever do this again!” It is not allowed for any human being to prostrate or to lower his head in front of another human being.” Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) made it forbidden. It is now ḥarām in our Sharī‘ah to do this. It was allowed in the previous Sharī‘ahs, which is why to this day – although I think now the custom has gone – but once upon a time when a fair lady passed by, a man would bow his head down as a sign of respect. This type of bowing down was something that the previous Sharī‘ahs allowed. For us, our Sharī‘ah has not allowed this. We only lower our head to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). Allāh says in the Qur’ān, “Don’t prostrate to the sun or to the moon or to anything created. Prostrate only to Allāh who has created them.” Ya‘qūb and the brothers all fall down. A quick point here – the āyah says that he put his parents on the throne. We already said that the strongest opinion is that his mother had already died and that his father had married Yūsuf’s maternal aunt (i.e. his wife’s sister). Allāh calls them “parents” even though she is actually his khālah (mother’s sister). This shows us that the mother’s sister has the same rights and equivalent status of the mother because Allāh called them “parents.” In fact, our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said in a ḥadīth in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad that the mother’s sister has the same rank as the mother. SubḥānAllāh, it is amazing – and all of us who have maternal and paternal aunts – and we know that the love that a maternal aunt shows is different than the love that the paternal aunt shows. The love of the mother’s sister is different and more motherly than the love of the father’s sister even though both have their own types of love. This is something that the Qur’ān clearly indicates that our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) explicitly said. The khālah is at the same level as the mother. “Yūsuf says, ‘O my father, this is the actualization of my dream that I saw so many years ago.’” The word ta’wīl here means actualization. How many years has it been? We have no idea but some scholars say forty-five years have gone by. A lifetime has gone by.

161 “My Lord made it a certainty.” As we said, the dreams of the prophets are all true. “And how generous He has been to me.” Once again he is ascribing the blessings to Allāh. When they are showing him so much respect, he feels awkward and ascribes all of this to Allāh. When they prostrate to him, he reminds them of Allāh and says, “Allāh has been so generous to me when He caused me to be saved from the prison and caused you to come from the barren lifestyle after Shayṭān caused some problems between me and my brothers.” SubḥānAllāh, once again amazing phrases. He is saying, “How generous Allāh has been to me when He caused me to leave the prison.” Notice he doesn’t mention when He caused him to be saved from the well even though to be saved from the well is a bigger blessing than to leave the prison because you are going to die in the well but you are not going to die in the prison. You are going to starve in the well but you are not going to starve in the prison. In the prison there is humanity around you and light and air. In the well it is much different. In the prison he was an adult, and in the well he was a child. Why doesn’t he mention the well? By mentioning the well, he is reminding his brothers of what they have done, so he completely glosses over it. He had said, “You are not going to be blamed.” So when he is recounting the favors of Allāh, he doesn’t even mention that because if he were to do so, it is as if he is putting some salt on their wound, and he is not going to mention that. He says, “How generous was Allāh to me when He caused me to be saved from the prison. How generous Allāh has been to you when He has caused you to leave this bedouin lifestyle…” The bedouin lifestyle is much harsher and more difficult than the lifestyle of the city and the villages. That is why, by the way, our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) forbade a bedouin who has settled in the city from returning to the bedouin lifestyle. It is actually a fiqh ruling. Once you move into the city, your lifestyle, mannerisms, and culture increase. Once a person comes to the city, he should remain there. Also, Allāh ‘azza wa jall tells us in the Qur’ān that: “We only sent before you prophets who were from the cities.” All the prophets of Allāh were city-dwelling folk, and there were no bedouin prophets. Therefore, when Allāh sent prophets to the bedouins, they were from the cities. Why? Because when you live in the city, your level of civilization and mannerism is much higher and more refined. When you live in the plains and the deserts, you don’t have that lifestyle. You all know what the bedouin did when he came to the Prophet’s (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) masjid – that is his lifestyle and his way of looking at the world. The people who live in the cities are at a higher level. By causing Ya‘qūb and the children of Ya‘qūb to be saved from the harsh lifestyle of the desert and enter into Egypt is a blessing. “After Shayṭān caused problems between me and my brothers.” Notice once again you cannot think of phrases that are more beautiful. It is not even humanly possible. He is recounting the favors of Allāh, and of the biggest favors is that they are all one family together after they were split up and after Shayṭān caused problems. Notice he didn’t say his brothers caused the problems. It was all Shayṭān. All evil is his fault and not

162 his brothers. He says, “between me [sharing the blame 50-50] and my brothers.” What did he do that he has to mention his name? He didn’t do anything, and he mentions himself first. Isn’t this amazing? He doesn’t even say “after Shayṭān threw some evil into my brothers.” It is as if he has something to share in the blame even though he has zero. SubḥānAllāh when you phrase it this way, there is no reminding of the evil that they have done. It is as if they get of scot-free because that is the promise to them that they are not going to be criticized after that. “My Lord is Laṭīf to whomever He pleases.” What does Laṭīf mean? Laṭīf, as you know, is one of the Names of Allāh ‘azza wa jall, and it is a beautiful Name to use here. Yūsuf is saying, “My Lord is Laṭīf to whomever He pleases.” Laṭīf actually means ‘the One who is aware of the most intricate and hidden secrets.’ From this, there is a secondary to meaning to Laṭīf, which is to have a protective care, a nourishing care around somebody because you are very familiar with their faults, weaknesses, and problems. Because you know it, you will protect them. The original meaning of Laṭīf or the ‘aṣl of Laṭīf is to know the hidden, secret, and ghayb of something. It is stronger than khabīr, which means you know, because laṭīf means you know the hidden. Khabīr means you know the open, and laṭīf means you know the secret. Because you know the secret and know that which is hidden, you are able to fill in any gaps, protect any weaknesses, take care of any issues. People think you are okay; Al-Laṭīf knows you are not okay and because He knows this, He will take care of you. This is a beautiful Name to use. Laṭīf means because Allāh knew his state, He took care of him. Because Allāh knew what was going on, He was nourishing and guarding over him. “He is Laṭīf to whomever He please. Verily He is Al-‘Alīm Al-Ḥakīm.” He is the One who knows everything and the One who is All-Wise. Once again two Names of Allāh ‘azza wa jall that are very relevant. He knew all along what was happening. He was Ḥakīm. He had a wisdom – Yūsuf didn’t know it, they didn’t know it, but now we see that wisdom. Ḥakīm means there is a wisdom of why He is doing all of this. Allāh knew everything that is happening to all of them. He was doing everything for a wisdom, and now we see that wisdom in front of us.

163 PART 13 In our last halaqah, we were just concluding the very final passages of Sūrah Yūsuf. We had actually finished the story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) except for the one du‘ā’ that he makes at the end. This du‘ā’ is what we are going to start off with today and finish up half a paragraph and hopefully inshā’Allāh by the next halaqah we will completely finish Sūrah Yūsuf and summarize some of the main points in Sūrah Yūsuf. After he had raised his parents on the throne and after they had fallen down in sajdah, he then makes a du‘ā’. He mentions the blessings that Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) has given him. He mentions the blessings without ever mentioning anything to do with his brothers because he has told his brothers “there is no criticism on you after today.” All of the blessings that he mentions – to be saved from the prison and to be saved from fitnah – he doesn’t mention anything to do with being in the well or anything to do with his brothers. He praises Allāh ‘azza wa jall for having guided his parents and bringing his parents from the bedouin livelihood into the cities. Then he makes a private du‘ā’ to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). The first paragraph was public. He says: Āyah 101 “O my Rabb…” We clarified in the last halaqah the meaning of Rabb. Rabb has three meanings to it. The first meaning is the Owner. You call out to the One who owns you because ownership necessitates responsibility. When you own your car, you have to take care of it. When you own something, you are the one who is in charge of it. The second meaning of Rabb is Nourisher / Sustainer, and from this we get the word tarbiyyah, which is a spiritual nourishment. When you call out to Rabb, you are saying, “O the One who takes care of me. O the One who will nourish me.” The third meaning of Rabb is Lord and Master, meaning the One who is obeyed. This is why the Name of Allāh Al-Rabb is one of the most comprehensive Names of Allāh. This is why it is the most common Name that is ever used in any du‘ā’. Rabbi zidni ‘ilma. Rabbana ātina fi’l-dunya ḥasanatan wa fi’l-ākhirati ḥasanatan wa qina ‘adāb’l-nār. All of these use Rabb – why? Because when you call your Rabb, you are calling your Owner, Master, Nourisher. Therefore, Has to nourish and sustain you. Anything you ask for your Owner, Nourisher, and Sustainer has to give it to you; therefore, you invoke your Rabb.

164 He mentions two things: “You have given me something of power and something of the knowledge of interpreting dreams.” Why does he say ‘something’? Because he is invoking Al-Mālik and the One who is Al- ‘Alīm. He is saying, “O Al-Mālik, You have given me some mulk. O Al-‘ Alīm, You have given me some ‘ilm.” In contrast to Allāh ‘azza wa jall, who is he and what is his power and what is his knowledge? In contrast to everybody on earth, there is no doubt he has the most knowledge, but now he is invoking Allāh ‘azza wa jall and saying, “O Allāh, You have given me a little bit of Your Power.” Min here means a little bit. He is trivializing the knowledge that he has with ‘min’ because in comparison to Allāh that knowledge is trivial and in comparison to Allāh that power is nothing even though at this point in time he is the most powerful man on earth, even more powerful than the king, because he controls food and people are starving. He is the minister of food, and people need food more than they need anything else. He is also the most knowledgeable people on earth. It is very rare in the history of humanity that power and knowledge have been combined to perfection. Perfection of knowledge is prophethood. It is very rare that the prophets have also been rulers, and that is why our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is no doubt the most successful of all of Allāh’s messengers even though they were all successful in their own way. Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was the most successful because he combined al-mulk and al-‘ilm. Very few people before him had combined these two, and of those who combined partially was Mūsa (‘alayhi’l-salām) in that he was given some dominion, but he still did not ever see the Holy Land. Mūsa died in the exodus when they were wandering around, but nonetheless he did have some political power. ‘Īsa (‘alayhi’l-salām) did not have any political power, and he led a different life. Ibrāhīm (‘alayhi’l-salām) did not have that type of political power. Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) and a few other prophets – of course Dāwūd and Sulaymān (‘alayhi’l-salām) are the best examples in this regard – were given mulk and ‘ilm, and there is no doubt that this is the perfection. What is the most prized possession of any human being? Power. When you have power, everything else follows – fame, prestige, money, all of your lustful desires can be satisfied whether it is food, drink or sensual pleasures. When you are king or prime minister, everything else follows. All of the other pleasures of this dunya cannot compete with the pleasure of power because when you have power, everything else is subservient to that. The greatest blessing of this world, if it is used properly is power. The greatest blessing of the spiritual realm is knowledge. Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) is, therefore, mentioning the two blessings that Allāh has given and perfected. And of the knowledge, he mentions the most rare type of knowledge, and that is the knowledge of the interpretation of the dreams. As we have said over and over again, most knowledge is learned from books, and you can memorize the Qurʾān, study tafsīr, study fiqh and ḥadīth. This knowledge is difficult to obtain, but nonetheless it is available. There are a few types of knowledge that you cannot study and learn. It is a pure blessing from Allāh ‘azza wa jall. You can study for years and years and never master a

165 particular type of science unless Allāh has bestowed it upon you. Of the most important of these sciences is the interpretation of dreams. As I have said over and over again, these booklets, encyclopedias and websites that you find are not worth the ink they are printed on, by and large, because dream interpretation is a gift Allāh blesses you with. It is not something that you learn. I gave some examples that the same dream can be interpreted differently based on the culture you are in and based on who is seeing the dream. The same symbol for one person will symbolize one thing and will symbolize something else for another person, so you cannot just look it up in a book. It is something that is a God-given gift. Yūsuf mentions the two most prized blessings he has been given. He begins the du‘ā’ by mentioning these special blessings for a number of reasons. Firstly, to acknowledge his gratitude. Of the best ways to acknowledge gratitude is to mention. We do this all the time in our lives and say, “I appreciate the favor you have done for me.” We thank verbally when someone has done something. Of the ways you acknowledge Allāh’s gratitude is that you say it. “O my Lord, I know that you have given me x, y, z. O my Lord, I know that you have given me wealth and given me status.” You begin the du‘ā’ by acknowledging Allāh’s favors upon you. The second point is that by acknowledging Allāh’s favors, it is as if you are saying, “O Allāh, You have given me this much, also give me this now. You are the One who has been so generous…” Again, we find this in our world as well. If somebody has been helpful and there is a donor to the masjid, then the first person we go to when we need help is the donor and we say, “Akhi, you already gave $50,000 last year māshā’Allāh, and this year we need this.” His generosity has now been established, so we go to the people who we know what their character is like. To Allāh belongs the more perfect example. By mentioning these favors, it is as if Yūsuf is saying, “O Allāh You gave me this, I know You will give me this.” This is how you begin the du‘ā’. That is why one of the ways that we should make du‘ā’ as well is by acknowledging Allāh’s Favors on us. This is how we should begin du‘ā’. The best du‘ā’ for istighfār (sayyid’l-istighfār) – the du‘ā’ that is the queen or master of all of the du‘ā’s of istighfār – begins with “O Allāh I acknowledge all of the blessings You have given me…” The du‘ā’ is for istighfār, and this is going to come later on, but before you begin the du‘ā’, you acknowledge and say, “O Allāh I acknowledge all of the favors You have given me, and I acknowledge my sins; therefore, O Allāh, forgive me.” “…Fāṭira’l-samawāti wa’l-arḍ …” Fāṭir is one of the Names of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. When the Name occurs, it is almost always followed by “al-samawāti wa’l-arḍ.” We rarely find Al-Fāṭir, but we find “Fāṭira’lsamawāti wa’l-arḍ.” What does fāṭir mean? It means the originator, the one who extracts and creates out of nothing. The verb faṭara literally means to carve in half and to split open. It is as if the person who created extracted from nothing – he opened and cracked open the seed or the egg and took out what was needed. The actual meaning of faṭara is to crack open and to put a split.

166 Fāṭir is as if Allāh has cracked open, if you like. This is metaphorical meaning. Allāh created from nothing. The meaning is as if He originated – this is the proper word in English – the heavens and the earth. By mentioning the specific blessings – “You have given me power, You have given me knowledge” – he then moves on to the general characteristic of Allāh: You are the Originator of the heavens and the earth. He begins by mentioning specific blessings and then general blessings. The specific blessings: You have given me something You have given nobody else. The general blessing: You are the Creator and Originator of the heavens and earth. “You are my Wali in this world and the next.” He mentions two Names in this verse: Fāṭir and Wali – after of course mentioning Rabb, which is already mentioned in the beginning of the du‘ā’. What does Wali mean? Al-Wali is of the Names of Allāh ‘azza wa jall as well. Al-Wali and Al-Mawla are sister names. By [the term] sister names, I mean there are Names of Allāh ‘azza wa jall that are overlapping and similar and derived from the same root. For example: Al-Ghāfir, Al-Ghafūr, AlGhaffār. For example: Al-‘Alīm, ‘Allāmu’l-ghuyūb, There are Names of Allāh ‘azza wa jall that are very similar and have minor differences. Of them are Al-Wali and Al-Mawla. Al-Wali and Al-Mawla are from the same verb yali, which means to be right next to. Al-Wali, therefore, literally and originally means the one who is in your proximity and around you. Therefore, your supporters and your comforters and your family and your protectors are all in Arabic called your wali. The Qurʾān uses the terminology wali to talk about the one who takes care of the orphans because he is the one who is monitoring and caring for them. The Qurʾān and Sunnah use the term wali to talk about the wali in the case of a nikāḥ (marriage) – the young woman who has never been married needs a wali. A wali is a guardian and somebody who will care for her and protect her interests. Because he is protecting her interests, he is a wali. Allāh ‘azza wa jall is not just a wali but Al-Wali, which means He is the One who is protecting and caring and in close proximity to the believers. He is the wali of the believers only. “Allāh is the wali of those who have īmān.” In the Qurʾān in Sūrat’l-An‘ām: “Should I take any wali other than Allāh? Fāṭira’l-samawāti wa’l-arḍ.” Wali and Fāṭara are mentioned in the same āyah just like in Sūrah Yūsuf. Why? Al-Fāṭiris the Originator and Creator of the physical world, and Al-Wali is your guide and protector in the spiritual. He has created the world around you and is the physical Owner, Master, Originator, and then He has to take care of you and nourish you spiritually; therefore, He is your Wali. Also, the Name of Allāh ‘azza wa jall Al-Mawla is mentioned many times. “Allāh is a sufficient Mawla, and Allāh is a sufficient Protector.” Nasīr and Mawla are paired together to show you what the meaning of Mawla is. In the end of Sūrat’l-Baqarah: “Anta Mawlana (You are our Mawla) fanṣurna ‘ala qawm’l–kāfirīn.” It is the job of the Mawla. The Wali is around you and in your proximity and caring for you and protecting you just like the wali in the nikāḥ and the wali of the orphan isn’t caring for himself but is caring for the one he is protecting. The meaning of wali in the nikāḥ and for the orphan is that his interests are the interests of the other party. He is going to protect the other party; therefore, when you are the wali in someone’s nikāḥ, you will look at her interests and what will protect her. To Allāh belongs the better example. When Allāh is our Wali, everything that happens He is doing for our own good because He is our Wali.

167 At the end of the story, Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) is saying, “I know, O Allāh, that all that has happened You were protecting me and You had a plan. You are my Wali in this world and in the next.” By acknowledging Allāh as his Wali, there are two meanings here. The first is that it is a statement of fact that Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) is acknowledging that he has īmān that Allāh is his Wali. The second is that it is a du‘ā’ implicit in the statement of fact: “O Allāh, continue to remain my Wali.” Let me repeat. By saying “anta waliyy fi’l-dunya wa’l-ākhirah,” Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) is acknowledging two things. The first of them is that he is making a statement of fact and expressing his īmān. “O Allāh, I know You are my Wali.” By expressing his īmān, he is affirming his faith in Allāh. The second is that he is implicitly extracting a du‘ā’ from Allāh: “O Allāh, because You are my Wali, protect me in this world and the next.” So there is both a statement of fact and an implicit du‘ā’ mentioned. SubḥānAllāh, look at what a beautiful Name Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) has chosen in light of his own story. Again, he is a prophet of Allāh and will choose the best Name. He could have chosen Al-Khabīr or Al-Ghafār, and all of these are appropriate, but by choosing Al-Wali, he is indicating “O Allāh, I know you protected me.” That is what a wali does: protect. “O Allāh, I know You protected me throughout all of my trials. Because you protected me in this world, also protect me in the next.” By acknowledging Allāh’s wilāyah, and by praising Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) in this manner, the whole paragraph as of yet has been praise after praise after praise. “You have given me the kingdom. You have taught me the knowledge of dreams. The Originator of the heavens and the earth, You are my Wali in this world and the next.” Now comes the du‘ā’. After all of this praise, now his request comes. This shows us, once again, the appropriate manner of making a du‘ā’. Once the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was passing by somebody who was making du‘ā’ who raised his hands and said, “O Allāh, give me this and give me that.” The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “The man has been hasty. He didn’t do his job properly.” They said, “What should he have done?” He mentioned a du‘ā’, and from it we derive that he should have praised Allāh and made taḥmīd and begun by expressing glory to Allāh ‘azza wa jall and then worked his way to the du‘ā’. It is a hasty du‘ā’ – we are not saying it is wrong. To fulfill a real du‘ā’ and the proper etiquettes of du‘ā’, you raise your hands up to Allāh and begin by praising Allāh and by acknowledging what Allāh has given you. You begin by praising Allāh a general praise and a specific praise. What is a general phrase? Fāṭira’l-samawāti wa’l-arḍ. What is a specific praise? In our case, you think of what blessing Allāh has given you, and you say, “O Allāh, You have blessed me with a beautiful family. O Allāh, You have given me this. O Allāh, You have given me that.” Acknowledge Allāh’s blessings and praise Allāh in a general manner and then you get to your du‘ā’. What is the du‘ā’? “Cause me to die as a Muslim, and allow me to join those who are righteous.” Some people have misunderstood this verse to mean that Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) was asking for his own death and that he is raising his hands to Allāh and asking Allāh to give him

168 death. One of the scholars of past said, “No one of the righteous ever wished for death other than Yūsuf” because he is saying “tawaffani musliman (cause me to die).” The majority refuted this and said that this is a misunderstanding. Why? The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “None of you should wish for death because the life of the believer is nothing but good.” When you die, your good deeds are closed, and you are not going to get the amount of good that you are getting when you are alive. The life of the believer only brings about more good and, therefore, how can a prophet of Allāh wish for death when his life is nothing but good? And, therefore, the majority interpretation and opinion is that he is saying, “O Allāh, when death comes to me, let me be in the state of Islam.” This is clearly what Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) is intending, and even Allāh ‘azza wa jall says, “Do not die except in a state of Islam.” This doesn’t mean that we should rush to death but that we should be persistent in our Islam. This du‘ā’ at the end after all of this praise is very profound. Why? After all of these blessings that he mentioned, there is a blessing that is more precious to Yūsuf than the kingdom and knowledge, and that is Islam. The blessing of Islam is something that is more important to him than anything else. Wallāhi this is something that we should really think about. We take Islam for granted so much. I ask myself this and I ask you: When was the last time you genuinely praised Allāh and thanked Him for being a Muslim? When was the last time you raised your hands up to Him and said, “O Allāh, allow me to live as a Muslim and die as a Muslim.” This is what is on the mind of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām). He has been given the kingdom and the knowledge, which is very rare even amongst the prophets, and yet there is a blessing that outshines and excels all of these blessings, and that is the blessing of Islam. It is something so simple and we take it for granted, but Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) understands how precious it is. He says, “Allow me to die in the state of Islam.” The meaning of this is: allow me to persist in being a good Muslim until death comes to me. Nobody knows when death will come, so whenever death comes “allow me to be in that perfect state of Islam.” “…and cause me to join the righteous.” Once again, there is a profundity here. He is worried about his companions in the next life and who he will be hanging around in the next life. Why? In the next life, there are only two categories and camps – there is no middle camp. In this world there is a middle camp and we can pick and choose, but in the next, everything is sifted. Therefore, he wants to be in the camp of the winners and not of the losers, and he says, “O Allāh, cause me to join the righteous.” As a prophet of Allāh, he obviously is righteous, and he is asking Allāh to be amongst the righteous. There is an implicit du‘ā’ “allow me to be with my forefathers who are also prophets and my brothers who are now also prophets.” Either they [the brothers] became prophets now or later. By making du‘ā’ to Allāh to be with the ṣāliḥīn, he is making du‘ā’ to be with his own father and grandfather. It is said in the books of history that Ya‘qūb (‘alayhi’l-salām) died, and Yūsuf was griefstricken by his death and died shortly two or three years after. Ya‘qūb lived a very long

169 life. Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) died shortly after his death even though he might have lived much longer for that time period, but Allāh ‘azza wa jall willed that he die shortly after his father. This du‘ā’ becomes even more meaningful. “O Allāh cause me to be amongst the righteous.” No doubt who comes to mind will be his own father. Also the concept here is that you will be with those whom you love and hang around. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said that man will follow the methodology of his friends, so be careful who your friends are. If you are with the ṣāliḥīn in this world, chances are you will be with the ṣāliḥīn in the next. If you avoid the ṣāliḥīn in this world, then chances are that you will not get to the ṣāliḥīn in the next. Of the most important benefits that we derive from this paragraph is: how to make du‘ā’, the etiquettes of du‘ā’, the sincerity of du‘ā’, and what to make du‘ā’ about. As I said when I was giving the halaqah two days ago, when you reach a high level of īmān, your mind does not think about “O Allāh give me a million bucks. O Allāh give me a fancy car.” Your mind transcends such petty things. Here is Yūsuf asking what we would consider the lowest common denominator amongst everything and that is Islam. For us this is the lowest common denominator. Wallāhi, I ask myself and you again: when was the last time you asked Allāh for Islam? We take it for granted, isn’t it? We ask Allāh for this world and we ask Allāh for matters that might not be as important, but Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) understands what is most important. This paragraph and this du‘ā’ is a very profound paragraph that summarizes the gist of the story and the īmān of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) and what he is thinking about. He wants Islam in this world and he wants Jannah and the ṣāliḥīn in the next. Another point here: Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) was a prophet. There is no question that he would remain a prophet until he died. In other words, there is no question that he would ever lose Islam. A prophet of Allāh can never commit shirk or kufr or else he wouldn’t be a prophet. Prophets are sinless, meaning they cannot commit major sins, yet Yūsuf (‘alayhi’lsalām) is asking for that which is guaranteed for him. Islam is guaranteed for him and he has no fear of losing it in the real sense. There is no way that he can ever not be a Muslim and yet what is on his mind is giving him Islam. This reminds us of ‘Umar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb, which is one of the most interesting stories of īmān. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) told Umar that he is of the people of Jannah, yet 15 years later, he is begging Hudhayfah, “Tell me if I am one of the munāfiq the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) told you about.” Do you see the contradiction here? If he truly believes in the Rasul (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), then he must also believe that he is going to Jannah because the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) told him he is going to Jannah, but because his īmān is at a level beyond what we can understand, he is overzealous and over concerned more than he needs to be that he doesn’t have the one thing he has been guaranteed by the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). He is worried about the impossible because of his own īmān. We see this in the story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’lsalām). Yūsuf is making a du‘ā’ for something that in reality he doesn’t need, but he is so eager for it because he knows that this is all that he needs. A du‘ā’ in Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhāri: “O the One who changes the hearts, make my heart firm in worshipping you.” Once again, can our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) ever not be

170 firming in worshipping Allāh? Can that ever happen? It is not even possible, yet this is the du‘ā’ that he is making. It is not even conceivable that our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) would not be upon the dīn of Allāh, but his du‘ā’ is “O Allāh, make my heart firm in your dīn.” Once again it is that level of īmān. The same in the story of Ibrahim (‘alayhi’l-salām). The worst sin is the worship of idols, and it is not conceivable that a prophet of Allāh can worship an idol. Yet when is standing in front of the Ka‘bah after he has finished building it with his son Ismā‘īl and he is filled with awe, the du‘ā’ on his mind is: “Make me of Your worshippers, and save me from worshipping an idol.” Once again, the impossible, but when you get to that level of īmān, this is what you are worried about. The moral of all of this is that if this is the du‘ā’ of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām), our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), and Ibrahim (‘alayhi’l-salām) and they are guaranteed, then where do you think I am and you are? How much sincerely do you think we, who have absolutely no guarantee at all, should be making du‘ā’? Should we not be making this du‘ā’ with so much zeal and vigor? Yet, as I say, when was the last time we made a du‘ā’ for what we consider to be the lowest common denominator? In this beautiful du‘ā’ of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām), we have the affirmation of tawḥīd, the perfection of Allāh’s Names and Attributes, and the pure submission to Allāh ‘azza wa jall when he says, “Make me of those who submit to You.” We see that his dying wish is to die as a submitter or worshipper of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. With this comprehensive du‘ā’, the actual story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) finishes, and the story goes on for a page or so. Today we will do a little bit and then next week we will try to finish up inshā’Allāh. Just to finish up some loose ends here: Realize that Ya‘qūb was living in the land of Canaan which is now called Filistine. He had been promised this land, but he had not cultivated it. He was living in the wilderness and in a barren valley. He had been promised this land but had not taken over it and was living as a bedouin. When the drought happened and when people are dying, Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) calls them to Egypt and gives them a luscious, beautiful life, but they know that this is a temporary phase and they have to eventually go back to the Promised Land. We find in our books – and Allāh knows how true this is or not – that Ya‘qūb (‘alayhi’lsalām) gives the wasiyyah to bury him as close as possible to the Promised Land in Egypt. As for Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām), he made an even stricter wasiyyah and this is from an authentic ḥadīth, so we know this for sure. When Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) was on his deathbed, he took a covenant with his children that: “whenever Allāh tells you to return to the Holy Land, you must take my body and my corpse and travel with it and bury me in the Holy Land.” He made a promise with his children to do this. Hundreds of years went by between Yūsuf and Mūsa. When Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) came, they were 75 people and by the time Mūsa came, there were probably a quarter of a million or something. We don’t know exactly, but at least a quarter to half a million. We have a huge number of people in the actual exodus. Hundreds of years go by and our ḥadīth tell us that when Mūsa (‘alayhi’l-salām) tried to leave, he was physically prevented from doing so. He could not go and he knew this was

171 from Allāh ‘azza wa jall, so he asked his people, “What is going on?” Somebody tells them that there is a legend that they know and a story that they heard that Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) made a promise with his progeny that they could not leave the land except with his body. Mūsa (‘alayhi’l-salām) said, “Where is he buried?” They said, “We don’t know. It has been hundreds of years.” They went through every single house and every single person of the children of Isrā’īl until they came across a very old lady from of the descendants of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām). She said, “I remember my forefathers telling me that he was buried in this location.” They went to that location and dug up the body and carried it with them for over forty years in the wilderness until finally they arrived in the Holy Land and he was buried there. Mūsa (‘alayhi’l-salām) was not alive when they entered the Holy Land because of the forty-year exodus that they were given. Mūsa (‘alayhi’l-salām) was wandering in the wilderness and died in the wilderness, but Allāh ‘azza wa jall told Mūsa that he was about to die, so he told the angel of death to take his soul in an area where he could at least see the Holy Land. He climbed up a hill and overlooking them was the Holy Land. He died there and was buried there. There is clearly this concept and notion that the people of Isrā’īl knew that they would return to the Holy Land. Our Prophet Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) also knew this, which is why he told his progeny to take his body to the Holy Land. This is the conclusion of the actual story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām). The sūrah goes on, and the next verse says: Āyah 102 “This is of the news of the ghayb…” I think I already mentioned in the first class that the difference between hādha and dhālik is the distance. Hādha is over here, and dhālik is over there. By using the word dhālik, Allāh ‘azza wa jall is elevating the story. The story is right here, and we just finished it. Technically to say hādha may be more precise to say linguistically in the sense that we have just finished the story, but by saying dhālik, Allāh ‘azza wa jall is showing the majesty of the story and elevating the rank. It is connecting the verse, yet Allāh uses dhālik to indicate how exalted the story is. “All of this is from the knowledge of the ghayb that We have inspired to you.” The word min is ‘from.’ “And you were not with them when they gathered together to plot against Yūsuf (‘alayhi’lsalām).” Allāh ‘azza wa jall mentions one incident in the whole story: when they gathered together to plot against Yūsuf. Why does He mention this one instance? He doesn’t say that the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was not with them in the palace of the king or that the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was not with him when he was in the well or that the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was not with them when they went to Egypt. Why doesn’t He mention all of these? Why does He mention the one point that he was not with them when they gathered to plot against Yūsuf? It was the most secret point of the whole story. Nobody

172 knew it. They intended to make a secret out of it, and they hid from everybody else, and nobody could have ever told him the conversation in the beginning of the surah other than Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Allāh ‘azza wa jall is saying, “You weren’t there when they gathered together while they were plotting and planning against Yūsuf.” Allāh signifies the most secretive of all of the gatherings in the whole story. What is the purpose of saying, “You weren’t there?” Of course the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) knows he wasn’t there. Why is Allāh addressing him by saying, “You weren’t there”? Allāh ‘azza wa jall is addressing the world through him and is asking mankind to think. Where do you think these stories come from? Of the greatest miracles of our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is the fact that the Qurʾān mentions these stories. I need to impress upon all of you the society at the time of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). The world at the time of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is a world that many of us would not understand. We are living in a very modern world now. The best I can say is imagine in the jungles of Africa that are still in our times cut off from electricity and the internet or in places in Australia where maybe the aborigines are still living – I don’t know if they still live like that, but I am just saying. Imagine if somebody lived like that and came forth in our times. He was discovered in the middle of the desert having no education, not speaking the languages of the people around, having no library and having no access to books and yet he is a computer programmer or a doctor. I’m just giving you a ridiculous example. How is it possible? One would be amazed. Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) did something infinitely more miraculous. We need to understand that Arabia was literally a barbaric society and it wasn’t even civilized. There was no government. One of the signs of the most uncivilized people is that there is no government. Isn’t that true? Government is the basic level of civilization. The Arabs didn’t even have a government. Every tribe was warring against another. There was no unified government and no law and no order. They don’t have a script with which to write. Basic Arabic was so confusing, even Arab experts now cannot read that Arabic. In Makkah, we can estimate roughly from the sources that there were around ten people in the whole city of at least a thousand who knew how to read and write. There was not a single library in the whole of the Arabian peninsula. There was no book written in Arabic at this time – not one book written in Arabic. They only wrote mu‘āllaqāt. They did not have volumes at the time. They didn’t even have two-story houses. It was such a primitive society and within a hundred years would become the leaders of the world, but that is a separate story. This primitive society has no connection with Judaism and Christianity. In Makkah, there were no Jews and Christians unlike Khaybar and unlike Yemen. The people of Makkah are not growing up on the stories of Joseph and Jacob and Mary and Jesus. It’s not their culture. That’s the culture of the Romans and other societies. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) has been raised and born in Makkah, yet here he comes forth with a book the likes of which beats any eloquence their poets have. The language is beyond this world, literally. The power and beauty and profundity and, for the purposes of this āyah, the content. Where did he get it from? Allāh says, “You never used to write books before this. You never used to recite poetry before this. If you had done so, perhaps those who doubt would have a reason to doubt.” This is another point here. For forty years, the Prophet

173 (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) never once gave a line of poetry. He never once was known for literature. He was known for honesty, character, and bravery, but he wasn’t known for literature. Instantaneously overnight – and this again is something that is not humanly possible; you cannot become a doctor, computer programmer, or expert in anything without experience. Even to drive a car or do anything, you need experience. Allāh is telling us that overnight our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) begins to spread a revelation, teach a message, recite stories. “Neither you nor your people before you had access to these stories.” What is really amazing is that many of the details of these stories are not even found in the Old Testament and are only found in the Qurʾān. This is even more amazing because if there was complete parallel, then you could have said – and this is a theory that used to be popular a hundred years ago – that the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) copied from the Bible. Now no serious researcher says this because there are so many differences in the stories, the details, and the format. There is clearly no direct copying going on at all. More impressive than this was that there was no access. The first Arabic translation of the Bible was around 180 AH, which is very much later on and way after Islam came. Before this time there wasn’t even an Arabic translation of the Bible, so the question is where then did an illiterate unschooled man in the middle of a peninsula that was wild and far from the cultures of Rome and Persia get this from? This is what Allāh is saying in the Qu’ran. “This is of the knowledge of the ghayb. We are the Ones who inspire you.” This is a miracle of Allāh ‘azza wa jall by telling us the story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām). If you remember many months ago when we started this story, I said one of the reasons that is given for why this surah is revealed is that the Quraysh sent a delegation to the ahl’lkitāb of Madinah saying, “We have someone amongst us who claims to be a prophet. What can we do to prove that he is not a prophet?” The ahl’l-kitāb there said, “Test him with a number of questions.” They gave a number of questions. One of them was: “Test him to tell if he can tell the story of Yūsuf and the strange things that happened to him.” The ahl’lkitāb knew that nobody knew this except for them, and they themselves did not have their libraries in Madinah. It was oral tradition and secret; only they knew it. It was another city two weeks journey away from Makkah, and the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) had never been to Madinah as an adult. They go to the Quraysh and say, “Ask him the story of Yūsuf.” They asked him the story of Yūsuf and what happens? Allāh reveals Surah Yūsuf. Then Allāh concludes the story by saying, “This is of the knowledge of the ghayb that We inspired to you. You weren’t there.” What is going to happen? The next verse: Āyah 103 “And most of mankind will not believe even if you are eager for their belief.” In other words, Allāh ‘azza wa jall is concluding this story by talking about its miraculous aspects. How did you get this story? It came from Us. “This is a clear sign that you are a truthful prophet, yet most of mankind will not accept it.” To this day, by the way, the same challenge applies. As you know, I’ve studied in academia as well. I find it very interesting

174 how various people try to interpret the life of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and how the non-Muslims who reject the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) explain his lifestyle and his reasons and mannerisms. To be honest, there is no feasible explanation that they have. There is nothing that is sensible. To this day there are a lot of theories. People say that he might have gone to Syria, but all of this is conjecture. They are not willing to acknowledge the most logical and rational possibility that is it came to him from the Ultimate Source, Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). Allāh is saying, “Even though it is so clear that this Qurʾān is from Allāh and even though it is so clear that you are getting waḥy, most of mankind will not believe despite the fact that you want them to believe.” This clearly shows us the mentality of our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). He wanted good (khayr) for his ummah. Ḥariṣ means to be extra eager and extra passionate about something. Allāh ‘azza wa jall uses this word for our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) in Sūrah Tawbah: “There has come to you a prophet amongst you. He finds it difficult to see your pain. He is ever protective, ever careful, ever loving towards you. ‘Alaykum bi’l-mu’minīn ra’ūfu raḥīm.” Al-Ra’ūf and Al-Raḥīm are two Attributes of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Take the alif-lām out and our Lord ascribed them to our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). The Rasūl is extra merciful and extra compassionate as much as humanly possible. Allāh ‘azza wa jall Himself calls our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) ever eager to help you and guide you. Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) also explained in one ḥadīth: “My example with my nation and my people is that I see them trying to jump into the fire, and I’m holding onto their belt trying to drag them out, and they want to try to disobey me and jump into the fire.” He is describing his relationship with the people. He doesn’t care if they are acting foolishly, he has to try to save them. This is what Allāh ‘azza wa jall is saying: “I know you are eager for your people. I know you want to guide your people, but it is not your job. Your job is to convey. Our job is to judge.” In Sūrat’l-Kahf, Allāh uses a very blunt and frank verse. Baqi‘ means – and this is a very harsh word – that you may die of frustration. You might literally die of anguish if they don’t accept īmān. In other words, Allāh ‘azza wa jall is saying to the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) to calm down because he is so worried and thinking about and loving and caring for his people that he may kill himself in his grief. His grief will drive him almost to death because they don’t accept īmān. The eagerness of our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is clearly mentioned in the Qurʾān and Sunnah. Another benefit of this verse here is that most of mankind will not believe. I want us to think about this profoundly, especially in the times that we live in. Many of us have a very naïve understanding of da‘wah. Many of us really think, “Let me just give him a few Deedat cassettes or Zakir Naik CDs or I might practice myself at home a little bit and try and quote a few verses and he is going to convert.” Ya akhi, the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) preached for 23 years and for the first 13 of those years, most of mankind rejected him. Most of mankind who lived with him, walked with him, and saw the miracles did not accept him. Do you think that you and I will be more effective than he was? This is the Sunnah of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Look at the history of all of the prophets. ‘Īsa’s (‘alayhi’l-salām) own people rejected him. Yaḥya’s (‘alayhi’l-salām) own people killed him. Mūsa’s (‘alayhi’lsalām) own people mocked him – forget about the outsiders. How about then our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and the other prophets?

175 The point being Allāh has given us the general rule that people want to live animalistic and hedonistic lifestyles. Allāh is saying that most of these people are worried about is their animalistic desires. They just want to eat and drink and have a good time. When you come to them with the truth, it is too difficult to follow the truth and live. And wallāhi we talk about non-Muslims, how about Muslims? For every one of us sitting in this masjid in this city, there are at least forty or fifty who we never see in the masjid. Why should we talk about non-Muslims when we have Muslims we know – our friends, relatives, acquaintances, and even ourselves. How many of us know the truth and yet we find it difficult to follow. Allāh ‘azza wa jall is just giving us the status quo that “no matter how eager you are, ya Rasūlullāh, and no matter how much you want to guide them, the majority of people, even if you want, are not going to be guided.” This shows us that the truth does not necessarily lie in the majority. The majority can say something, within Islam or outside of Islam; the truth is independent of numbers and quantity. The truth is quality. Sometimes it has quantity, such as the time of the sahabah, and sometimes it doesn’t. This is a verse that clearly shows us that if 20 people or 50 people want to propagate something, it doesn’t necessarily make it the truth. The truth is different than what the majority might say.

176 PART 14 We have basically come to the conclusion of Sūrah Yūsuf. In these last verses, we had begun talking about the fact that Allāh ‘azza wa jall is telling the people that this story is a story that clearly indicates that this is a Qur’ān from Allāh, that the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is a true prophet, and yet, “the majority of people, even if you want to, ya Rasūlullāh, will not be believers. Even if you want them to be believers, your eagerness is not going to cause them to believe.” Āyah 104 “This is despite the fact that you are not asking for any reward from them. This is only a dhikr (reminder) for all of humanity.” In other words, remember what is the conclusion of Yūsuf. Why is Allāh ‘azza wa jall going into this conclusion? Allāh ‘azza wa jall is linking the sūrah to the message of our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). He is linking the stories to the life and times of Rasūlullāh (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and is telling the people: “Where do you think this sūrah is coming from? Where do you think this Qur’ān is coming from? You did not know these stories. The story of Yūsuf and his brothers was unknown to you, and it is an accurate story that is being revealed in the most eloquent language to an illiterate, unlettered man. Where did it come from?” Then Allāh is proving the fact that this is a book from Allāh and is saying, “Your sincerity is clear. You have no motivation.” Now Allāh gets to the issue of motivation. It is human nature that we do everything for a motive. Everything that we do has a motive to it. You go to work for a reason. You do everything in your life for a reason. Even in a court of law, if you establish certain evidence, you also have to say what is his motive for the crime and why he did it because it is human nature that there is a motive for everything that is done. Allāh ‘azza wa jall in this āyah is challenging the people to think why would a man start to go against his whole nation and preach a doctrine that will bring about initial persecution and humiliation. What is in it for him? Does he want power? He is being humiliated and is almost going to lose his life and you are trying to kill him. Does he want prestige? What prestige is he getting when you are mocking him all over the world and when any caravan comes and you stand outside the city and say that there is a madman, a sāḥir, a majnūn. What is his motivation? Do you think he wants money? He is not asking you for money. This is one of the Sunan of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Allāh has Sunan and Rasūl has sunan. Allāh’s Sunan are mentioned in the Qur’ān. Allāh has Sunan. What is the Sunan of Allāh? It is the custom of Allāh and the manner of Allāh. Allāh has a custom that He shows in humanity. A part of the custom of Allāh is that the messengers never get any reward in this world. They don’t get money. They don’t get any reward in this world, and, therefore, every prophet comes and says the same message: “I am not asking you for money. I am not asking you for power. I am not asking you for any reward.” Because their motivation has been negated except for sincerity – in other words,

177 any possible motivation has been negated. “I’m not asking you for anything other than this message and call.” There is no question that when a person has no monetary motivation and he does something, you feel better about it and feel, “Oh man, this guy must believe in his cause.” There is no question about this. Therefore, the prophets of Allāh, to demonstrate the perfection of their sincerity, have been refused to get any money, so much so that it is ḥarām for Rasūlullāh (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) to be given zakāh and for the descendants of Rasūlullāh to receive zakāh because this is not befitting the messengers that anybody doubt their intention for this reason. It is not allowed for them to do so. Here Allāh ‘azza wa jall is saying, “I am not asking you for any reward to do so.” I find this personally fascinating as a person who studies in academia and the Western study of Islam. As you know, I am specializing in this. This has always fascinated researchers from the medieval times that why did the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) do this. In medieval times, they would give the most ludicrous of excuses: power, fame, and sensuality. This was propaganda. In the last 100 years when people have tried to be a little bit fairer and a little bit more honest, they realized the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) did not benefit even when he became the “king” of the Arabs. Even when he became the leader of the Arabs, his lifestyle did not move up. He still lived in the exact same house, slept in the exact same bed, and did not own any extra camels. SubḥānAllāh, when we get a pay raise, the first thing we do is upgrade our status of living. We earn 10% more and khalās, the car comes in, the house gets expanded, we build the room. Here Rasūlullāh (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) starts his life literally as a shepherd, which is the lowest, if you like, menial labor that he can have, and when he passes away, his standard of living has not increased at all significantly. You all know the famous ḥadīth of ‘Umar b. Al-Khaṭṭab. He walks in and finds the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) does not even have a mattress, meaning a soft cloth, to lie on. They had soft cloths and mattresses, and he began to cry and said, “Ya Rasūlullāh, surely you deserve better than the kings of Rome and Persia. At least have a comfortable living.” He (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was sleeping on basically what we would call the frame of the bed. This is in our vernacular. He is sleeping on the palm tree leaves and the fibers of the palm tree. This is the frame and not the mattress on the frame, and he is sleeping on that. ‘Umar begins to cry because when the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) gets up, you see the marks of the frame. He says, “Ya Rasūlullāh, at least look at the kings of Persia and Rome.” Instead of saying, “You know, you’re right, maybe just get me a soft cloth,” what does he say? You all know. He says, “O ‘Umar, what is the matter with you? Aren’t you thinking straight? Don’t you want to have the ākhirah and let them have this world?” It is clear that he doesn’t desire money. The day he is gifted a new cloth and the reason somebody gave him the cloth is that they saw patches and spots here and there and felt sorry that how could the Rasūl (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) be dressed like this, so they gave him a brand new cloth. For the first time he (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is coming out wearing this cloth. A ṣaḥābi came and said, “O Messenger of Allāh, gift me this cloth.” He literally wore it for two minutes and is walking outside and somebody comes and says, “Ya Rasūlullāh, give me this cloth. Gift it to me.” The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “I will do it.” It is the only cloth he is wearing. He goes back home and dresses

178 in the patched garments again and comes out again and leads the ṣalāh. When he goes back, all of the ṣaḥābah get angry with this person. “Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind? Have you no shame? You know that the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) never refuses a request. How could you have asked him for the cloth that he was gifted?” So he says, “I didn’t do it for my dunya. I wanted to be buried in this garment so that I can plead with Allāh ‘azza wa jall about the generosity of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) that he gave this to me. I wanted this to be my kaffan, and that is why I asked it from him.” The point being that it is clear that he has no worldly motivation. He doesn’t have a motivation for dunya, power, or prestige. This is what the āyah is saying. As I said, I find it fascinating that to this day, there is not a solid excuse that they have managed to discover. They have long ago stopped saying things like he wants power or he wants greed. Now they try to be fair in our times. A hundred years ago you didn’t have to be fair and could smear the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). In our times, you cannot say any of this. By and large, most people think he had worked himself up into the belief that he is a prophet. In other words – astaghfirullāh – he is delusional that he is a prophet and sincerely thinks he is a prophet. Basically this goes back to the claim in the Qur’ān that the Quryash said that he is majnūn. They cannot outsmart the Qur’ān. They cannot go outside what Allāh said. They use the same excuses. Some of them said he is a fancy poet. Some of them said he is a sāḥir. Some of them said he is a magician and some of them said he is majnūn. These are the classical excuses, and the Qur’ān mentions all of them and refutes all of them. My point is that modern researchers cannot go outside of these few excuses. Every one of them Allāh has explicitly mentioned and refuted. Also, for the claim that he is delusional, really you are claiming that a man has lived the sanest life in every field – he has been a commander, a military leader, and family person – and yet you think that in one aspect that he is a messenger of God he has somehow become delusional. Wallāhi, this doesn’t make any sense. Even non-Muslim biographers and analysts have to conclude that he thought he was sincere. Nothing else explains his lifestyle other than the claim that he genuinely believed himself to be a prophet. Of course for us, he genuinely believed himself to be a prophet because he was a prophet. This is why Allāh is saying, “You are not even asking even money from them.” This is a powerful tool that we can use when we talk about Islam: go study the life of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and go see for yourself why he would preach this. What did he gain? The message is simple, powerful, and rational. The messenger is flawless. What can you say? “This is only a dhikr for all of the world.” ‘Ālam generally is translated as world and means every community, every group. In one sense, ‘ālam means the world of men, the world of jinn, the world of animals. In another sense, ‘ālam means the world of nations – the nations of the Romans, the nations of the Persians, the nations of the Chinese. ‘Ālam literally means a genus or category of people. Allāh is saying that this Qur’ān is a dhikr for any category, whether it is humanity versus the jinn or even within humanity there are many different groups. This Qur’ān is a dhikr. What does dhikr mean? Dhikr means a remembrance or a reminder. This is one of the most common names of the Qur’ān. The Qur’ān has many

179 names. The most common names are the Qur’ān and the Kitāb – these two are the most common names in the Book of Allāh. Alḥamdulillāhi’lladhi anzala ‘ala ‘abdihi’lkitāb [18:1] — so Kitāb is mentioned. Qur’ān is mentioned. Both of these are mentioned around 75 times. The two names are complementary. Qur’ān means that which is recited, and Kitāb means that which is written. The Qur’ān and the Kitāb are complementary because Allāh has promised to preserve the recitation along with preserving the writing. You always need the recitation along with the Book. The ḥāfiẓ has the Qur’ān and uses the kitāb. Both are complementary names. One is the recitation and the other is the speech. The third most common name of the Qur’ān is Dhikr. This is what is used over here. Dhikr here means that it is meant to remind and meant to bring about something that you already know. This is a powerful message that the message of the Qur’ān is not unique and you should know it. I repeat – what I said is so simple, but I want you to understand the implications. What is Allāh saying by using the word dhikr? By using the word dhikr, Allāh is implying that the basic message of the Qur’ān you should know, and when the Qur’ān comes down, it should remind you of that basic message. You guys are following this point, right? The Qur’ān is a dhikr, meaning that it is nothing new. What is not new? The basic message that there is One God who is All-Perfect and worthy of being worshipped. This is a message you don’t need to be taught; you know it already. How does mankind know this message? Because we believe as Muslims that Allāh ingrained in every human being the inherent capacity to know God and to believe in God. That is why even the most primitive societies were religious. I don’t know if you know this or not – atheism is a very, very modern phenomenon. In fact, the first devout atheist is actually in the 19th century – 150-200 years ago. Atheism was unknown in humanity because it is in your nature to affirm a God. It is in your nature to believe that this world came out of something. It is nonsensical to claim that this world came out of nothing. Therefore, atheism is a very modern trend. Allāh created mankind to know the truth. What is the truth? There is only One God. Most of mankind had deviated from this truth by believing in multiple gods, and so the thrust of the Qur’ān is use your fiṭrah and your intelligence and understand that there is not multiple but there is one God. This is why the Qur’ān is called Dhikr because dhikr means it is reminding you of a message you should know. Of course, dhikr also means that it is going to remind you over and over and over again. It is always going to be a reminder and is never going to go away. It is here to stay. Yet a third meaning of dhikr is a matter of prestige, it will bring about your remembrance. That is not the meaning in this verse, but it is the meaning in another verse. Allāh says in the Qur’ān: “This Qur’ān shall be a dhikr for you and your nation.” What is the meaning here of dhikr? One of the meanings is: “This Qur’ān will take you places. You will become remembered in the world. You will have an ‘izzah because of this Qur’ān.” This is exactly what happened. The Arabs used to be the mockery of the Romans and the Persians and used to be considered the most backward civilization at the time and were so barbaric and Bedouin. As I said, they didn’t have a unified government, language, script, or civilization. They were so backward the Romans and Persians didn’t even see the need to conquer them. It is like the people living in the jungles – why should we go and conquer them? Who

180 cares? The mighty empires of Rome and Persia have no need to descend down and conquer the warring Arabs. They didn’t care about oil back then, so what is the purpose of invading Arabia? There was nothing for them to gain. Yet this nation managed to destroy the Persian Empire in 20 miracles. Wallāhi, this is miracle we don’t understand. The Sasanid Empire collapsed. Also within 20 years half of the Roman Empire was carved up. Muslims conquered the seats of Christianity, and that is Damascus and North Africa. Alexandria is where Christian theologians met. The Council of Nicaea, where Christianity was invented, was in Turkey. Within another 500, 600, 800 years, there was more and more expansion until finally it conquered the seat of the Byzantine Empire and that is Constantinople, which is Istanbul. This civilization of backward nomads who did not even have a culture, language, or script became the leader of civilizations. Europeans would come to Andalus to study medicine, engineering, optics, and physics and then go back and began the Renaissance in the 17th century. Allāh is saying, “This book will take you places.” That is one of the meanings of dhikr. Dhikr in that context means: you will be remembered and you will leave a legacy because of this book. These are some of the meanings of dhikr, and Allāh ‘azza wa jall here is saying “This is a dhikr for all of humanity.” The fourth most common name is Furqān. You should memorize these names: Qur’ān, Kitāb, Dhikr, and Furqān. These are the four most common names of the Qur’ān in the Qur’ān. Furqān means the criterion. Furqān means that which separates good from evil, truth from falsehood, īmān from kufr. In this verse, once again, the concluding verses all mean to prove the truthfulness of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and the religion of Islam. Allāh then says, Āyah 105 “How numerous are the signs in the heavens and the earth that they continually pass by and they are oblivious to these signs and don’t think about these signs.” Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) is saying, “Ya Rasūlullāh, you have clear signs. You are truthful, have miracles, and have no motivation. You are not the only sign. They have plenty of other signs. If they are ignoring you, ya Rasūlullāh, get some consolation that they have been ignoring other signs long before you came on the scene. You are not the only sign. How many are the miracles in the heaven and the earth.” The miracles of the heavens are the sun, the moon, the stars, and the creation. On this earth you have the natural and the man-made. Of the natural [miracles is], of course, the beauty of the oceans and the mountains and valleys and irrigation and cultivation. When it comes to man-made, you have the remnants of the nations of old. The Arabs had plenty of ancient

181 civilizations, which to this day are marvels to humanity. The people of ‘Ād, the people of Thamūd, those who carved things into the mountains. To this day, we have no idea how they built palaces. Have you ever seen pictures of the Nabiteans, the people of Thamūd? There are pictures you can see online and maybe some of you have been there and visited. They literally have palaces carved into the mountains. Their house is in the mountain. They have bunk beds carved into the mountains. They have rooms carved inside the mountains. The Arabs were very familiar with these cultures. To this day we have no idea how this happened just like the pyramids in Egypt. Allāh is saying, “Look at these signs. You are not the first civilization, and you are not going to be the last. How many are the signs they have walked by and they don’t even think about it.” Notice the beautiful choice of verb here: yamurrūn. Murūr literally in Arabic today means traffic. Yamurrūn means they are walking without thinking. Marra means just to pass by. Allāh ‘azza wa jall uses a very precise word. They walk by it without even thinking about it. They are completely turned away from it even though they are walking by it. While they are walking by, it is as if they have turned away. While they go right by it, they don’t even see it. This, of course, is the reality of humanity. We see the beautiful signs around us – natural signs and miracles – and we don’t think about it. Then Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) consoles the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) once again. Āyah 106 “Most of them don’t believe in Allāh ‘azza wa jall properly. They commit shirk along with this belief.” This again is a very profound verse. For the majority of the Quraysh, their problem was that they believed in Allāh but along with Allāh they believed in multiple gods. Here Allāh ‘azza wa jall is pointing out a fundamental fact of our religion: to believe in Allāh is not the essence of īmān. The Quraysh also believed in Allāh. The Quraysh believed Allāh created them and will resurrect them and Allāh is All-Powerful, but that did not make them Muslims. This is a very important point in our times. There are people who do believe in all of these things, but they are guilty of very grave crimes of shirk. By explaining to them that the Quraysh believed in Allāh but committed shirk, we can explain to some of our fellow Muslims who have gone to excessive practices. So, for example, common practices that we find sometimes is that people are invoking the dead and making du‘ā’ to those whom they call the ‘awliyah. They go to the grave and say, “Ya Fulān… Ya AbdulQadir…. Ya Chistie…, forgive me, give me a child, grant me this and that.” They make du‘ā’ to this person. If you were to ask them, “Akhi, how could you make du‘ā’ to this person? Aren’t you a Muslim?” He would say, “Of course I am a Muslim. Astaghfirullāh. I believe in Allāh and I believe Allāh created me and will resurrect me.” All that he has just said is exactly what they Quraysh would say, and this verse clearly

182 shows it. Most of them believe in Allāh and Allāh says, “They have īmān in Allāh but they do shirk along with that belief.” Ibn ‘Abbās explained this verse. He said, “This verse means if you ask them, ‘Who created you?’ They would say, ‘Allāh,’ but when it comes to what they need, they ask other than Allāh.” The sad reality is that we find the exact same attitude letter for letter, word for word, dot for dot in some minority segments of our fellow Muslims. They say, “I am too sinful. I cannot approach Allāh directly. I have to go through the wali. I believe in Allāh. I am a Muslim.” Even Iblīs believes in Allāh. Does Iblīs deny Allāh exists? Is he an atheist? No. Didn’t Iblīs make a du‘ā’ to Allāh “Qāla Rabbi…”? What does “qāla Rabbi” mean? My Rabb. Iblīs is saying, “Allāh is my Rabb. Allāh is my Lord. Allāh is my Creator.” Iblīs even makes du‘ā’ to Allāh, “O my Lord, allow me to live until the Day of Judgment.” Does that make Iblīs a mu’min because he believes in Allāh? Of course not. A lot of us Muslims don’t know our own religion and think that if we believe in Allāh then we are a Muslim. Iblīs believes in Allāh. Abu Lahab believed in Allāh. By the time testimony of the Qur’ān: “They have īmān in Allāh.” What did they do? They would ask others besides Allāh for what they need. They would go to their idols and say, “O idol, save me. O idol, give me a child. O idol, forgive my sins.” They thought that these idols would then take their requests up to Allāh. They used these idols as stepping stones and as intermediaries. SubḥānAllāh, the exact same mentality 100% is found in those people who go to the graves and the saints. They say the exact same thing: “We believe in Allāh, but we need to go through [them].” This is the beauty of Islam. There is a direct channel. You don’t go through the operator. There is a direct line between you and Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). Going through individuals is the essence of shirk. This is a beautiful verse that we can use to prove that believing in Allāh is not sufficient to be a Muslim. You can have īmān in Allāh and still be a mushrik. Allāh says, “They have īmān and they do shirk.” When you have īmān and do shirk, the shirk cancels the īmān and it is not accepted by Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Allāh ‘azza wa jall is saying, “Their problem is that they worship others besides Allāh.” Āyah 107 “Do they feel secure that a ghāshiyah will not come to them from the punishment of Allāh?” What is ghāshiyah? Ghāshiyah is that which covers up and that which envelops. Every single punishment is called ghāshiyah because you are enveloped in it. SubḥānAllāh we seek Allāh’s refuge from all of Allāh’s punishments. Look at what is happening now with the tsunami and earthquakes and what not. This is a type of ghāshiyah because you are overwhelmed and everything is neglected other than this. Ghāshiyah means you are covered

183 up in it and you cannot think of anything else. Look at these people now. May Allāh make the situation easy and protect us from any fitan. This is exactly what a ghāshiyah is. Allāh is now threatening the Quraysh. “The signs are so clear, the truth of the Prophet is manifest, I’ve given you so many miracles. What is left? Do you not worry that a punishment from Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) will come that will overwhelm you?” “Or the Day of Judgment will come and you are not even expecting it.” “If I don’t punish you in this world immediately, then the only other alternative is the Day of Judgment. Between these two there is no third alternative. Either you are going to get a punishment that will destroy you and immerse you in it, or you will have to face the wrath of Allāh ‘azza wa jall in the Day of Judgment.” The Day of Judgment will come suddenly. The primary meaning is the real Day of Judgment. However, the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Death is the minor Day of Judgment.” It is the individual Day of Judgment. There is a reference here that: “If you don’t correct your act, I will either punish you with a punishment that will destroy you or you will die a death you weren’t prepared for and will have to face Me. Choose which one of these you want. Are you not worried?” Afa’ aminu means do you feel safe that Allāh is not going to harm you? This clearly shows us, brothers and sisters – and I have to say this honestly – in our times, when we give da‘wah to people, we ignore this tangent of the Qur’ān. The Qur’ān has a carrot, but it also has a stick. The Qur’ān entices with bashīr, reward, Jannah, and mercy, but it also has punishment. If you reject, you are going to have to face your Lord. The fact of the matter is that in our times, we consider it politically incorrect to talk about the fire of Hell. We say when we give da‘wah let’s not talk about “if you refuse, you have to face the wrath of your Creator,” whereas the Qur’ān has both. Human beings need both. You need the carrot and you need the stick. If you concentrate on one to the exclusion of the other, you get problems. By always mentioning the carrot and no stick, people will say, “Okay fine, I’ll think about it.” Tell a person directly, “Are you prepared to meet your Lord?” This type of question: “Are you ready to die and meet your God?” By the way, there is nothing wrong with using the term “God.” I think I mentioned this before. We should have no problem, and when we speak to non-Muslims it is in fact better to use “God” for them because “God” means the Creator. Amongst ourselves of course we use “Allāh,” but when we speak to non-Muslims, in the beginning we talk about God because we believe in God. Allay says, “Our God and your God is one.” Ilah is “God” and Allāh calls Himself ilah. There is no problem using the term “God.” Some Muslims are a little bit sensitive about this. We tell them, “Are you prepared to meet your God? Are you prepared to meet your Creator? Are you willing to defend your beliefs and your lifestyle?” Wallāhi I have tried this in my da‘wah with people, and so many times you see the faces of people change because you are not threatening him but you are threatening him with his Creator. You are saying, “Are you prepared to meet your Lord?” This really throws a person into shock. A lot of people have never been asked this question, and this is exactly the question Allāh is asking directly. “Are you not worried that a punishment of Allāh will come or death will come and you are not even ready for it?” If Allāh ‘azza wa jall can ask this question directly, it is our

184 job to spread this āyah as well. Of course we change it in a manner that befits them and say, for example, “Are you ready to meet your Lord? Are you ready for death and resurrection? Your Lord will ask you, ‘What did you do with your life? What did you do with the blessings I gave you?’” Leave it at that. Say, “Don’t answer me. I’m not going to judge you, but are you ready?” Leave the question at that. I have tried this myself a number of times, and I’ve seen the effect. The effect that this has is a very different effect than debate and quoting verses of theology. That has its place but this also has its place, and the Qur’ān uses both of them. After mentioning the carrot and the stick, if you like, and after mentioning so many miracles of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and creation, the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is then told to say: Āyah 108 “Say: This is my path. I am calling to Allāh.” The path of Islam is a path that links you to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). The path of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and the job of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is to call people to this path. How does he do this call? ‘Ala baṣīrah means upon a clear knowledge. “I’m not calling you based upon ignorance. I’m not jāhil. I know what I’m calling you to.” Baṣīrah is from baṣarah, which is to see. Baṣīrah means it is crystal clear. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said in one ḥadīth, “I have left you upon the shining path. Its night is like its day. No one can deviate from this path except that he wishes destruction.” The path is clear. “I am doing this [calling upon baṣīrah] and those who truly follow me also call.” This is a beautiful message here. Whoever claims to be a follower of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) had better be calling to his path because this āyah demonstrates and characterizes the followers of Rasūlullāh (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) as being of those who call to this path. “I and all those who follow me all call to this path upon knowledge.” This shows us that on some level, calling others to Islam (da‘wah) is on some level farḍ ‘ayn. What do I mean by ‘some level’? Our biggest problem when it comes to da‘wah is that we don’t know what da‘wah is. We think that da‘wah is always intellectual debate and basically being a Zakir Naik or Ahmed Deedat. This is the biggest misconception of da‘wah. Da‘wah, or calling others to Islam, is not only about intellectual arguments and debates. Throughout this story we have always been mentioning the number one stepping stone to da‘wah is manners. The number one stepping stone to people’s heart is: “We have seen you from the ṣāliḥīn. Tell us the interpretation of the dream. We think you to be a good man.” The king says this, the interpreter says this, everybody says this: “We see you to be a righteous person, help us out.” This is the primary way of da‘wah. Every one of us has to

185 give da‘wah simply by being a good Muslim in our characteristics and manners. This is the best da‘wah and far better than intellectual debate and argumentation. Some people can go to the intellectual side and debate side and talk about theology and what Christianity and Judaism says. This is for the educated in the sciences of religion. On some level, every Muslim has to call others to Islam not by the tongue and not by knocking on the door and giving pamphlets – this, in my opinion, is not the best da‘wah – but simply by humanizing yourself to your neighbors and to your coworkers and showing them that your life is the meaning of Islam. This is the best da‘wah. Your relationship with Allāh ‘azza wa jall, your religiosity, your akhlāq. And when you do so, you are opening up doors that arguments can never open up. Also notice that Allāh ‘azza wa jall mentions the path to Allāh in the singular. Qul hādhihi sabīl. Ihdinas ṣirāṭ’l-mustaqīm. The path to Allāh is one. Whatever opposes it is in the plural. “Don’t follow the paths because then you will be misguided from the one path.” “Allāh takes them out of the darknesses to nūr.” Allāh takes them out from multiple darknesses to the one light. Notice truth is one. Falsehood is many. This is a clear point in our religion. These days people don’t like to say truth is one and instead say truth is relative – you have your truth and I have my truth. No, this is not the Qur’ānic message. Truth is one. Allāh is the Truth. The way to Allāh ‘azza wa jall is one and is the ṣirāṭ and the sabīl. Once the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) sat down in the sand and drew a straight line and said, “This is the straight path of Allāh ‘azza wa jall and leads to Allāh.” Then he drew lines that go out in the sand. By the way, this shows us that it is of the Sunnah and the methodology of teaching to employ diagrams and charts. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is the greatest teacher, and you can go into a tangent about how he used to teach. He would draw diagrams and charts. He is drawing diagrams and saying, “These are the paths that lead away from the one path.” The path to Allāh is a straight path and one path. All that opposes it are multiple paths. “I am upon a knowledge.” This shows you that if you want to be a true follower of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), you have to have knowledge. If you are a jāhil, you can never get to that level of following. A true follower of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) knows his religion. “I do this, and all those who follow me. And all exaltation is due to Allāh ‘azza wa jall, and I am not of the idol worshippers.” In other words, “this is my path; I am calling to Allāh.” By saying, “subḥānAllāh,” it is as if he is saying, “And while I am on this path, I praise and glorify Allāh.” That is what it means here. “As I am on this path, and as I am calling to Allāh, I make it a ritual to praise Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) as well, and I am never going to be of those who worship others besides Him. Āyah 109

186 “There has never come before you prophets except that they have been men whom We have inspired from the towns/cities.” The characteristics of the prophets are that they have been men that have been inspired from the cities. What does this mean? The point of saying this is to say the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) has all of the characteristics the previous prophets had as well. “You have the exact same characteristics. You are not alone.” This is a message to the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) to console him. Remember this sūrah was revealed at a relatively depressing point in the life of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam). He is being reminded: “You are not the only person that has suffered. Many are the prophets before you that We have sent.” SubḥānAllāh, it is human nature that when you find somebody who has suffered the same calamity as you, you feel a little bit of relief that you are not alone. Our Rasūl (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is being reminded, “You are not alone. There have been many prophets before you that have come.” His people are being reminded, “Why are you so shocked? What are you amazed at? The characteristics of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) are the exact same as the prophets before him.” This also shows us some theological points. All prophets have been men. This is the standard position of ahl’l-sunnah wa’l-jamā‘ah. There have been no female prophets. We firmly believe this even though there is a small minority opinion that Maryam (‘alayhi’lsalām) was a prophet, but it doesn’t appear to be the case. Rather, she saw an angel, and angel communicated with her, but she did not receive waḥy. She did not receive a book from Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Angels can come to women and can appear in front of women, but this does not make them prophets. Prophets means you get a revelation from Allāh, waḥy, and the dominant opinion has always been [all prophets have been male], and it is quite clear from this verse. This is because for a woman to become a prophet, it would be more difficult for her to be accepted in any society, especially a patriarchal societies of old. Also, a woman has her own issues – such as if a man is attracted to her. It is not going to be the same as a man being a prophet. No doubt, in our society it is politically incorrect to say that men and women are slightly different. We believe that they are different and spiritually equal. We don’t believe that men and women are equal physiologically or emotionally. It doesn’t mean that men are better or women are better. It is that Allāh has created each one for a role and a purpose, and Allāh ‘azza wa jall has made prophecy amongst men. By the way, if any Christian or Jew argues with you, you can ask them to look at the Old Testament, which is full of male prophets. There is no female prophetess over there either. This is something that we firmly believe: they have been men. And they have been men who live in cities. There have been no bedouin prophets. Bedouins (people who don’t live in the cities) are, generally speaking, more uncouth and harsher and more gruff. They don’t have

187 manners and don’t know how to talk. You all know the ḥadīth of the bedouin who walked into the masjid and lifted his pants in front of all the other men and urinated. This is what a bedouin does because he doesn’t live amongst other men, so he is not used to interacting with other men. Of the characteristics of the prophets is that they come from cultures of the cities. They have manners, akhlāq and morals. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) came from the Quraysh, and the Quraysh were the most noble of all the Arabs. “Haven’t they traveled in the land and seen the fate of those who were before them?” Of course the Arabs knew the fate of the people of Ṣāliḥ, and in our times we have the pyramids and Petra in Jordan and the Herculaneum of Rome and Pompeii. We have so many signs and Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) is asking, “Haven’t they seen these signs? Haven’t they gone through the earth and seen the fate of the people of before?” SubḥānAllāh, it is the Sunnah of Allāh that every nation and society thinks that it is the pinnacle. Every nation believes they are the most powerful and they think that they have reached the pinnacle of civilization. Such was the case of the people of Pompeii. Such was the case of the people of Rome and the emperors of Persia. Such was the case of the pharaohs of Egypt. Every single civilization and society said, “We are the lasting legacy. We have achieved what no other society achieved.” We still the same sentiment in our time as well, yet Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) is telling the Quraysh and people around them you are not the first, and you are not going to be the last. Stop being so arrogant. Allāh ‘azza wa jall has created so many different societies and nations. Learns from the lessons of those before. Where are they now? Where is their power now? Where is their fame? Where is their might? All of it has now gone. You don’t even see except for the remnants you visit in museums and see one house out of thousands that used to stand. Don’t you learn that your civilization one day will also be the same? It will be a lesson for other societies, so take advantage and benefit before the end comes to you. “Surely the house and the abode of the Hereafter is better. Don’t you think and understand this?” You are seeing the abodes of the people before and marveling at them. The pyramids, the people of Ṣāliḥ and Thamūd and the grand palaces of Petra. You marvel at that. The meaning here is that after setting up the stage for the miracles of the prophets, the sincerity of the prophets that most of the people have rejected that the prophets have been preaching, all of these verses when you read them initially you think every verse is different, but when you actually study it, you see a beautiful message is in the background. You just need to understand it. What is that message? “Ya Rasūlullāh, you are not the first prophet. You have a message, you have a methodology, you have miracles. Many people before you had the same miracles, and they were all rejected.” What was the end result? Āyah 110

188 “Until finally when the messengers gave up hope (of their people believing), and the messengers thought that they had been rejected.” Kadhaba means to reject. Kudhiba means they have been rejected. Depending on how you recite the verse, kudhibu or kudhdhibu. Khudhibu means the people thought that the promises of the prophets were false. The people thought that here is a man telling us that Allāh is going to punish us if we don’t believe, but we haven’t believed, so where is the punishment? He must be lying. The people thought that the prophets are telling lies. When the people thought that the prophet was telling lies, that was when Allāh’s safety came to save the people of the faith and punishment came for the disbelievers. In the other qirā’a, “and they thought that their nations had rejected them.” The prophets came to the realization that their nations would not believe. These are the two meanings. Who is the one doing the thinking and doing the assuming? If it is the people, then the people have assumed that the prophets are telling lies. If it is the prophets, then the prophets have realized that the people will not believe. SubḥānAllāh, both of them are correct. One of the principles of Qur’ānic recitation is that all of them are equally valid and both of them are correct. When both have become exasperated, when the prophets are fed up of their people and the people are fed up of their prophets – basically it is a two-way street. They are allowed to preach until this exasperation is reached. What happens then? “The prophets receive Our Aid. They are saved.” Once again there are two qirā’a: nujjiya and nunji, and both of them are authentic. Both of them add complementary meanings? Why? Again, not to go into too much detail, one of them is in the past tense, and one of them is in the future tense. Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) is saying that the people of the past when Allāh’s Command came, We saved them, and as for the ẓālimīn, they will get there punishment. In the other recitation, which is in the future, it is a reference to our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) that a time will come when We will save you and you will be saved from the clutches of them, and they shall be punished by the punishment of Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). Both the past tense and the future tense play in perfectly. Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was saved multiple times. He was saved on the night of hijrah and the assassination attempt. He was saved in the battle of Badr when there was very little hope otherwise. He was saved in the battles of Aḥzāb and Uḥud. Every single one of these battle situations became very tense. “We will save (or We had saved – meaning the previous prophets).” Once again, it is the perfect choice of two qirā’at here. Allāh is saying, “We saved the people of the past. Surely We will save you as well.”

189 “Our punishment will never be averted from the wrongdoers.” No one has the power to come between Allāh and the decree of Allāh. Now we get to the final verse. Āyah 111 “Indeed, in their stories there is an ‘ibrah for those of intelligence.” ‘Ibrah comes from ‘abara which means to cross over. You cross over the bridge, let’s say. ‘Ibrah is a benefit you derive at a deeper level. You cross over to the hidden or inner meaning. You think about it, cross into an inner meaning, and get an ‘ibrah, a piece of wisdom. Here Allāh is saying, “In their stories, indeed…” Laqad always means an emphasis. I have said this ten times, and I will say it again. The whole chapter of emphasis in Arabic is lost in English because we don’t have this chapter in English. When we say it, it sounds ridiculous. Indeed, surely, verily. It doesn’t sound modern, whereas in the Arabic language there is a whole chapter of tawqīd and emphasis. There are ways to emphasize. When you emphasize, it adds elegance and you pay attention. Laqad means indeed, for sure. But again in English it is not something we use. Notice here – this is the last verse of the sūrah – how beautifully the beginning and the end are linked together. What does Allāh ‘azza wa jall say in the very beginning of the sūrah? Naḥnu naquṣṣu ‘alayka aḥsan’l-qaṣaṣ. “We are going to narrate to you the best of all qaṣaṣ.” Then the ending is: laqad kāna fi qaṣaṣihim. “Indeed in their stories…” The [third āyah] has the present tense and here is the past tense because now the story has finished, so Allāh is saying, “In their stories there was…” Kana is like a type of past. In the beginning, Allāh is saying, “Pay attention! You are about to hear some good stories.” Then it is concluding. Allāh is saying, “In these stories you just heard.” This is beautiful. Human beings cannot construct such eloquence. This is a divine eloquence that only when you think about it you see it, otherwise if you tried to, you could not bring about such a beauty. Another beauty here – and wallāhi this is just amazing; think about this – in the beginning Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) says, “In the story of Yūsuf and his brothers, there are āyāt for those who ask.” Here we are being told “In their stories there is ‘ibrah for those of intelligence.” Now surely Allāh is doing this for a reason. Why is there āyātu li’l-sā’ilīn in the beginning and then ‘ibrah li’uli’l-bāb in the end. Which one is a higher level? Uli’lbāb. The one who thinks, the one who ponders. The one who is asking shows that he is interested and paying attention and has an open heart and open mind. If you have that attitude of wanting to benefit, you will find miracles, āyāt, points, but when you really think about the story, you will go beyond āyāt and will go to ‘ibrah – morals, wisdoms, lessons.

190 Notice in the beginning Allāh mentions the lower level because it is human nature that the first reading is a cursory reading. You are paying attention and want to know the story, the plot, and the ending. In the beginning, Allāh ‘azza wa jall says just be interested, sā’il, and you will get a lot of benefit. In the very last āyah, Allāh says, “Now you have read the story. If you really want to benefit, you have to ponder over it āyah by āyah, verse by verse, and you will discover ‘ibrah.” Beautiful. In the beginning, you will benefit if you just pay attention. In the end, now that the story is over (in the past tense) Allāh is saying laqad kāna, meaning there was indeed and now that you have done it you should go back. There is an incentive being given now. That is what I am trying to get at here. There is a strong incentive being given. Now that you have finished the story, now is the time to go back and try to do ‘ibrah if you truly are a person of contemplative intelligence. This is really the beauty of the ending here that it links up directly to he beginning and tells you, “You haven’t come to the end. This is just the beginning. You need to now go back.” Notice Allāh says qaṣaṣihim, which is plural, because there are lots of stories. It is not just one story. We call it the story of Yūsuf, but the fact of the matter is it is composed of multiple stories all put together. Allāh ‘azza wa jall is telling you, this is just the beginning, and now the real journey begins to go back and find these ‘ibrah and to derive these benefits and wisdoms. Therefore, inshā’Allāh ta‘āla, next week we will obey Allāh’s command and go back to the beginning, not āyah by āyah, but we will summarize perhaps fifty fawā’id, let’s say, overall holistically. I am not going to recite āyah by āyah – I have done that at a basic level. We will summarize as many as we can do, but it is going to be different from what we have done. So we will say “of the benefits of the sūrah is this,” and I will mention where we get the benefit from. This is what Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) commands us to do, and He concludes this by saying, “These stories are not fabricated fairy tales.” When we hear a fairy tale, we listen to it from a very different perspective. When we hear a real story, psychologically and subconsciously we listen and hear with a different mind. SubḥānAllāh we all understand. When we watch a Hollywood movie versus a documentary, what is our attitude? Hollywood movie: entertainment. Documentary: it affects you, and you are seeing real images and this is not acting. Sorry for being so crude, but we understand now. Allāh is saying this isn’t a Hollywood movie and isn’t a fairy tale. These are real stories. Look at it as you would the way you would look at a real story and a documentary. “These stories prove all that has come before and is a clarification for all you need to know. It is a guidance and mercy for those of īmān and faith.” May Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) make us amongst the people of īmān and faith. May He make us amongst those who follow the footsteps of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) as he calls people to the path of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. May He make us amongst those who contemplate this sūrah in particular and extract the wisdoms and benefits and finds the ‘ibrah and make us of the uli’l-bāb. May Allāh ‘azza wa jall make us benefit from the wisdom of Ya‘qūb and the patience of Yūsuf and the tawbah of the brothers of Yūsuf. May Allāh ‘azza wa jall make us of the people of the Qur’ān.

191 Everything I have said that is correct and authentic of the interpretation of this sūrah is all from the blessings of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Anything I have said that was incorrect, a mistake, an incorrect judgment, all of this is from my whisperings and the whisperings of Shayṭān. Allāh and His Messenger have nothing to do with those mistakes. PART 15 CONCLUSION Alḥamdulillāh, we thank Allāh ‘azza wa jall who has allowed us the opportunity to study this entire sūrah beginning to end in 15 sessions. As I promised you in our last lesson, in one of the last verses of the sūrah, it is as if Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) is saying, “Now you have read it once and benefitted from it at a basic level.” I just recited for you “āyātu li’lsā’ilīn.” You have lessons for those who are curious and want to ask. In the end, Allāh says, “In this sūrah, there is ‘ibrah li’uli’l-bāb.” There are profound wisdoms to learn for those of intellect and contemplation. It is as if at the beginning Allāh is saying, “Read this sūrah at a cursory level. Understand it at a basic level.” Once we get to the end, Allāh is saying, “Now think about it. Ponder over it and you will find much wisdom to learn and benefit from.” We will obey the commandment of Allāh ‘azza wa jall and take a swift relook at the entire sūrah in a holistic manner. We will try to derive some of the overall benefits. I am not going to quote you verse by verse. We have already done that. We are just going to quickly go over, and I have compiled around 50 to 60 of such benefits from the beginning of the sūrah until the end. We are going to go over them one by one. Of the benefits of the sūrah is that the believer is concerned for his or her family and his or her children. The believer looks out for the welfare of one’s children and offspring and tries one’s best to protect them at a physical and at a spiritual level. When Yūsuf told his dream to his father Ya‘qūb, immediately Ya‘qūb wants to protect Yūsuf. Instead of jumping for joy, and instead of saying, “what a proud father you have made me,” he is protecting him. He wants the best for his dīn and his dunya. A sign of īmān (faith) is to want the best and to want a nurturing environment for your family. Of the blessings and wisdoms of this sūrah is that dreams are a constant motif of this entire sūrah. The sūrah begins with a dream and that is the dream of Yūsuf. The sūrah has a dream in the middle and that is the dream of the two prisoners who saw themselves being killed and saw the birds eating from his head and the dream of the king. Dreams are a constant theme in this sūrah. Of the blessings we derive is that true dreams are from Allāh. True dreams are a blessing that Allāh gives. The interpretation of dreams is a science that only Allāh can teach you. We learned this from this sūrah and went over it many, many times. Of the wisdoms of this sūrah is that the wise and intelligent person does not flaunt his or her blessings. The wise and intelligent person does not show off worldly or spiritual blessings because showing off is not only egotistical and a lack of humility, but also it causes dangers and harms and problems. That is why when Yūsuf had the dream, his father said, “Don’t tell your brothers. Don’t show off. They might get jealous of you.” The wise person does not boast of his blessings, rather he hides them to the greatest extent possible. These

192 blessings are both religious and worldly blessings. You don’t flaunt the good that Allāh has given you, or else you will suffer the consequences in this world and perhaps even in the next. Of the wisdoms we derive from this sūrah is that Shayṭān is every eager to cause problems between believers, especially between family members. This was a successful plot of Shayṭān that he caused the brothers of Yūsuf to hate Yūsuf so much that they even intended at one point in time to kill him. Of the benefits we learn is that Shayṭān is ever eager to cause problems. He always wants to cause disunity amongst the ummah, especially amongst family members. SubḥānAllāh, it is so true that every single family has its own issues and problems even though they are blood and even though they are family. Every single family has problems either with the siblings, uncles, or aunts. It is human nature, but Shayṭān makes it worse. This story shows us this. Of the wisdoms of this sūrah is that a good household produces good offspring. Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) mentions at the beginning of the sūrah: “This is how He will perfect His favors upon you as He perfected it upon your forefathers before you, Ibrāhīm and Isḥāq.” I.e. because there was Ibrāhīm there was Ishaq and because there was Isḥāq there was Ya‘qūb and because of Ya‘qūb there was Yūsuf. A house of piety will produce children of piety. When one parent and one generation strives to be righteous, then the general rule is that the piety is transferred down to the next generation. This is shown by the verse in the Qurʾān where Allāh says, “This is how We will perfect your favors as We perfected the favors upon your forefathers before you.” Of the wisdoms of this sūrah that we learn is the importance of being fair, equitable, and just to all people. In this particular case, Ya‘qūb with his children. We are told in our religion that we are not allowed to prefer one child over another and we cannot give a gift to a child and leave another. We cannot show any outward favoritism. Ya‘qūb tried his best to be fair, but he couldn’t control one thing and that is his emotions. His children sensed his emotions, but his children could not complain that he spends more time with Yūsuf or that he gave Yūsuf a present that he hasn’t given to them. All they could say was that he loves Yūsuf, and love is an emotion of the heart, and you are not held accountable for emotions of the heart. We learn to be equitable and just to people from this issue here. Of the wisdoms we learn from this sūrah is that jealousy drives a person insane. Jealousy is one of the most destructive emotions known to man. Jealousy makes a person who is otherwise rational become irrational. People will do things out of jealousy that you will not believe they could have done. Here we have young adults plotting and planning to murder their brother who is only 7-8 years old. Jealousy has caused such enragement and such anger. Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) warned us, “I warn you from jealousy. I caution you from being jealous because jealousy destroys your good deeds like a fire eats up wood.” Jealousy is destructive in any form. That is why we should seek refuge in Allāh from jealousy and try to solve jealousy as soon as it exists. We also seek Allāh’s refuge from the effects of jealousy: min sharri ḥāsidin idha ḥasad. This is of the blessings we learn from this sūrah. Of the wisdoms we learn from this sūrah is repentance before committing the sin is not a true repentance. If you commit a sin and say, “Oh, I know I’m guilty. May Allāh forgive me,” that is not a true repentance. Before they committed a crime, the brothers of Yūsuf said, “We’ll do the crime and then God will forgive. We are going to make up for it. We are

193 going to be righteous after it.” Their repentance was not accepted at that point in time. It was accepted at the end of the sūrah when they genuinely come and say, “Oh our father, forgive us. We were sinners.” Inna kunna khāṭi’īn. In the beginning of the sūrah, Allāh glosses over it. This is not repentance; this is a joke. You are going to murder your brother and then say, “May God forgive us, we are going to be good after that.” A true repentance has to have the intention not to return to the sin. If you have the intention that you are going to commit the sin, then this is not a true repentance. A true repentance has to have the niyyah (intention) that this is the last time you are committing the sin. As we mentioned before, if it so happens that you do return to the sin, it doesn’t nullify your repentance. The point is that you should have a sincere attempt to not return to the sin. If you do return, you do another repentance. And if you return again, then you repent again. The point is that Allāh does not look at the quantity of sins. Allāh looks at the quality of repentance. It is not the number of times you have committed the sin but the quality of the repentance every single time you commit the sin. Of the benefits we learn from the sūrah is that giving an excuse to someone whom you don’t trust may backfire on you. In other words, handing over excuses to somebody who has some evil or some disposition to harm you might actually come back to haunt you. Ya‘qūb was the one who gave them the excuse they needed to cover up their capture of Yūsuf and abduction of Yūsuf. Ya‘qūb was the one who said, “I am worried that wolf will eat him.” He said this to try to get away from the real issue, which is: “I don’t want to send my son with you.” He used a secondary tactic, and what happened? It backfired because they used that very tactic. When they came back in the evening, they said, “A wolf ate your son.” These are kids, and they wouldn’t have been able to think of an excuse. They are young men, maybe 18 or 19, and they would not have been able to think of a legitimate excuse of what happened to their brother. Ya‘qūb unknowingly and unwittingly gave it to them. This shows us that one needs to think a little bit more before speaking in this regard. We learn from this mistake that Ya‘qūb fell into. Of the wisdoms of this sūrah is that the believer’s firāsa is true. Firāsa means intuition and a gut instinct. We believe that a gut instinct is something Allāh sometimes blesses you with. It is not something you can use in a court of law. You cannot consider someone guilty in a court of law because you feel that way. The more righteous you are, the more your moral compass and gut instinct will be rightly guided. This instinct in Arabic is called firāsa. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Beware of the firāsa of the believer because the firāsa of the believer is always true.” Where is the benefit here? When the children came back to Ya‘qūb and said, “Oh, sorry, your son has been eaten by the wolf,” Ya‘qūb knew something was wrong. There was no solid evidence, but his heart is telling him, “My kids are up to no good, and something is wrong. Yūsuf is alive, and they’ve done something wrong.” He doesn’t have any evidence, but he still charges them with a crime. “I don’t know what you’ve done, but you have done something wrong.” The firāsa or inner instinct of the believer is true. When can you use this? You cannot use this to charge anybody with a crime and cannot use it in a court of law. If somebody comes and wants to have a business transaction with you and outwardly he looks like a trustworthy person, but inside you feel that something doesn’t feel right, you are not obligated to engage in a business transaction or in a marriage proposal. If somebody comes and proposes for your son or daughter and you don’t feel about it, it is not a court of law that you have to explain why. If something doesn’t feel right and if this is from Allāh ‘azza wa jall, then there is a reality to it. As we said, the closer you are to Allāh, the more true your intuition is going to be. This is a blessing of being close to Allāh that your intuition will then be rightly guided.

194 Of the wisdoms and blessings of this sūrah is the permissibility of using secondary evidence. We mentioned this on more than one occasion. The first time this comes up is when Ya‘qūb is being told that his son has been killed by a wolf, but he sees the shirt untorn. He sees the shirt that has been bloodied but with no tear in it. This is a secondary evidence. In our Sharī‘ah, you are allowed to use secondary evidence and are allowed to take into account external factors even if there are no two witnesses and no direct evidence. We use our common sense and compile the facts and look at the evidences and then place a verdict. Of the wisdoms of this sūrah is that no matter how evil the crime, you should always advise the criminal to fear Allāh first. Before you get to your own concerns with him, the first thing you should do is advise him to fear Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) and to remind him of the gravity of the sin. The first thing that Ya‘qūb does is say, “You have committed an offense. Your souls have misguided you. Qāla bal sawwalat lakum anfusukum amra. Your souls have led you to destruction. Before we get to what you have done to me, let me remind you that you have a God who is watching you. Let me remind you that there is something between you and Allāh ‘azza wa jall.” Unfortunately a lot of times we jump this step and if somebody does you wrong, you immediately defend your rights and say, “How could you have done that to me?” The reality is that you begin with the rights of Allāh. Don’t you realize that you have done a sin and are accountable to Allāh? And then you are also accountable to having taken my money or backbitten or whatever the crime is that has been done. Begin by reminding them of Allāh ‘azza wa jall. Of the benefits that we learn from this sūrah is that patience is of different types. In the lecture that we gave, we clarified that Islamically patience can be of three types. The first type is patience during a calamity. This means that we don’t say things that should not be said. We don’t say, “O Allāh, why are you doing this to me? O Allāh, I don’t deserve this; I haven’t done anything wrong.” We don’t accuse Allāh of being unjust. We withhold and restrain our tongues and say only that which is right. We are patient in times of a calamity. The second type of patience is patience in restraining yourself from committing sins. We don’t commit sins. We have the capacity to commit sins but withhold ourselves from committing sins. The third type is to persevere in the worship of Allāh. To pray regularly. To remember Allāh regularly. When it comes to the lowest category of patience in an adversity or patience in a calamity, even this is of levels and types. The best type of patience is ṣabrun jamīl because Allāh praises Ya‘qūb for having ṣabrun jamīl. What is ṣabrun jamīl? Ṣabrun jamīl is the beautiful patience. What is the beautiful patience? What is the pinnacle of patience when you are suffering? What can you do? We learn it from Ya‘qūb. You don’t seek the pity and the sympathy from the rest of humanity. You seek Allāh’s blessings only. You don’t go and want people’s shoulders to cry on. There is nothing wrong with that and there is nothing wrong with feeling human, but the perfection of faith and the perfection of trust in Allāh means that you turn only to Allāh and you don’t complain to the people. You don’t say, “Woe is me! Why is this happening to me?” You expect your reward from Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) and you don’t try to get the sympathy from other people because at the end of the day, their sympathy is not going to lift your calamity. Their pity will only bring about a type of humiliation in your own personal life. Do you really want people to pity you? Does that make you feel like a better person? No! It should not make you feel like a better person. You do not want the people to pity you. You want Allāh’s Mercy to shower upon you.

195 Again, I clarify, there is nothing wrong with getting the pity of people, but there is no question that this is not the pinnacle of faith in Allāh. The pinnacle of faith is bearing every calamity with a type of fortitude and a type of patience – ṣabrun jamīl. This is the height of patience that you don’t complain to other people. You only address your grievances directly to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). Of the blessings that we learn from this sūrah and of the morals that we learn from this sūrah is that we learn that if you protect your faith and chastity in your youth and young life, Allāh will protect you in your old life. This means that the young man or woman who has a strong relationship with Allāh rarely does such a person lose that faith later on in life. When you protect Allāh in your youth, Allāh will protect you in your elder age. When you protect the commandments of Allāh as a young man, Allāh will protect you as an older person. We see this in the story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) always having that connection with Allāh. We learn it in the ḥadīth of the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) when he says that one of the seven people whom Allāh will shelter on the Day of Judgment is a young person (man or woman) who grew up immersed in the worship of Allāh. If you can worship Allāh in your childhood, and by childhood we mean teens and twenties. Shāb means young – child is not the correct word. In your teens and your twenties, and some scholars have said even up until your early thirties you are still a shāb. When you are religious in this phase of your life, and we know from personal experience that if you are religious when you are in your twenties, you hardly ever come across a person who leaves religion when they are 50 or 60. We come across this in the story of Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) as well. Of the lessons and morals that we learn from this sūrah is the dangers of interacting with the opposite gender when there is temptation. The owner of Yūsuf was attracted to Yūsuf, and they are alone for long periods of time, and this is fueling her desire more. That is why our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said that a man and a woman should not be alone when nobody else can see them unless they are relatives or married. They should not be alone and should not be in an area where these things can happen because it is human nature. Men and women are naturally attracted to this feeling, and our religion teaches us to channel it to that which is permissible. Of the lessons that we learn is that Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) saves the righteous when they most need him. No matter how difficult the situation will be, if you turn to Allāh, Allāh ‘azza wa jall will help you. We learn this from the situation of Yūsuf being the young man and being the slave and being tempted by a woman of beauty and being tempted by his own owner, not just a stranger. She has power over him and no one can see them. We told you all of the stories of how she locked the door and prepared herself and did everything. Typically, it would be almost impossible – dare I say without faith in Allāh it would be impossible – for any other man to have said no, but Yūsuf turned to Allāh. Yūsuf invoked Allāh and said, “O Allāh, I need You to divert their plot away from me. Wa illa taṣrif ‘anni kaydahunn. Unless You help me, I will be of those who commit a sin.” This blessing here is that Allāh saves the righteous when they most need Him. No matter how difficult the situation is, Allāh ‘azza wa jall will save you. Of the blessings here is that without Allāh saving you, you are not going to be saved. These are two blessings that go hand in hand. In other words, the only factor that can possibly help you overcome many of the passions of the soul, many of the passions of the body, many of the diseases of the heart and soul is to turn to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla)

196 because Allāh says in the Qurʾān: “kadhālika linaṣrif ‘anhu’l-sū’ wa’l-faḥshā’. This is how We averted evil and lewdness from him.” How? Yūsuf turned to Allāh. Yūsuf turns to Allāh, and Allāh says, “Because he turned to Me, I turned to him.” What this shows, brothers and sisters, is that there is no disease that you have and no passion that you might have and no lust or desire that might plague your heart except that if you are sincere in leaving that lust and desire for the sake of Allāh, Allāh will give you protection against it. The problem is not in Allāh giving you the protection. The problem is in your sincerity and my sincerity. Are you really sincere in your desire to give up this sin? If you are, you will turn to Allāh sincerely. If you turn to Allāh sincerely, Allāh says, “I will turn to you and I will protect you.” This is what Yūsuf did. In a situation the likes of which, as I said, it is humanly impossible to imagine otherwise, yet Allāh saved him in the middle of this fortress and in the middle of these locked doors. Allāh ‘azza wa jall answered his plea and call and saved him. Why? Because he made du‘ā’ to Allāh: “O Allāh, I need You now. Unless You protect me, no one will protect me.” When he begged and pleaded with Allāh from the heart, Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) responded back and said, “This is how We averted evil from him.” Any time you are afflicted with a habitual sin, realize that if you truly want to give that sin up, nothing can stop you because Allāh is going to be on your side. The question is, do you really want to give it up? That is where the problem comes and we talked about that when we discussed those verses. Of the morals and benefits that we learn from this sūrah are the evils of gossip, slander, and backbiting. We mentioned that the believer does not talk about issues that are of no concern to him. People are gossiping about so-and-so and this is human society, but the believer rises above this, and the believer does not allow his tongue to mention that which is of no concern to them. The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Of the perfection of one’s faith is that he leaves that which does not concern him.” We see what happens when the women of the town begin gossiping about Yūsuf. We see how the situation becomes complicated when the wife of ‘Aziz feels so much pain because of her ego. Of the wisdoms is that we learn the dangers of the ego and the dangers of the self and the dangers of caring so much about what other people know and view you to be. The true believer is only concerned about how Allāh views him. If Allāh ‘azza wa jall views him in a positive manner, then who cares how the rest of the world views you. Conversely, if the whole world views you in a positive light but you have not established your credentials in front of Allāh, of what use will their positive attitude be towards you? That is why the true believer understands that praise and criticism from people will not affect him. It is the pleasure of Allāh that will affect him unlike the wife of ‘Aziz whose whole concern was her reputation and ego. Because of that, she did an even more dastardly deed and a deed that really showed she lacked complete hayā’ and modesty. She lacks it because he is openly boasting about what she has done and is enticing Yūsuf in front of the other ladies. This shows us the evils of gossip and the evils of being concerned with one’s ego and one’s prestige. Of the wisdoms we learn from Sūrah Yūsuf is that we should appreciate the blessings that have been deprived from us just as we appreciate the blessings that we have been given. What do I mean by this? Realize that for many of us, certain blessings will become curses because we don’t know how to handle them. Certain blessings will become trials and tribulations because we are too weak. If we truly believe that Allāh loves us, then we will have faith that Allāh will give us that which is beneficial for us. Imagine if one of us had even a fraction of the beauty of Yūsuf. Could we have withstood even a fraction of what he withstood? Imagine if one of us was blessed with a fraction of the wealth of Qārūn or of

197 the ‘izzah of Abu Lahab in his town of Makkah and the Quraysh. Imagine if we had that which many of us are jealous of others when they have it, and we are greedy about it and we are salivating and want that power and money. Calm down and think. If Allāh had given it to you, perhaps it would lead you to your destruction. That is exactly what the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said. He said, “Sometimes I give money to people even though I see others are needy of it because I am worried that if I give him that money, it will lead him to the fire of hell. It will be too much for him, and he will do things that he should not do.” The believer puts his trust and faith in Allāh. O Allāh, you know me best, and You know what I should have deserved and gotten and what I shouldn’t have. I know that whatever I don’t have, there is a wisdom that You know why I don’t have it, and I put my trust in You. We learn this from the story of Yūsuf. Imagine if you had this beauty. Who amongst us could have withstood those temptations. Of the simple theological wisdoms we learn, and this is a wisdom that all of humanity knows, is that angels are beautiful creatures. That is why when the women saw Yūsuf (‘alayhi’lsalām), they thought he is an angel. That is why every society considers angels to be beautiful. In the Western society, they consider them to be innocent babies. We of course don’t imagine angels and cannot imagine them, but angels are created in the most beautiful fashion. Any religion that believes in angels ascribes beauty to the angels. Of the blessings and wisdoms we learn from this sūrah is that inner beauty also plays a role along with outer beauty. Inner beauty is good virtues, good manners, chastity, living a good and wholesome life. When Yūsuf refused the seduction of the wife of ‘Aziz and then she invited the other ladies and said that he is not doing it and he is still refusing, they became even more eager for him. Why? Because his inner beauty of piety appealed to them despite the fact that they lacked piety. Allāh created human nature to admire perfection and beauty. Deep down inside no matter how people live their lifestyles, they know certain things are wrong and immoral. It is engrained inside of us. Living a chaste and virtuous life is something that everybody knows is a good life. These women want to commit a crime, but when they see that Yūsuf does not want to commit the crime, it makes Yūsuf even more attractive. Why? Because it is inner beauty of holiness, of chastity. This shows us that even in a society that doesn’t believe in God – remember that the people of Egypt were pagans and not worshippers of the true God – but they know what is right and wrong. They know that casual intimacy and sex is not something that is encouraged and permissible, so when Yūsuf says, “No, I don’t want to do that,” automatically it adds more beauty to his outer beauty. This shows us Allāh has created humanity. They didn’t have a book and they didn’t have a Sharī‘ah, but they still knew what is right and wrong. How and why? Morality is engrained in human beings. Certain things are engrained in us, and this is one of them. Of the benefits that we learn from this sūrah is that a believer must call out to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) to help and overcome any sin. Once again, Yūsuf is saying, “Unless You help me overcome it and fortify me against the seduction, I will never be able to withstand this temptation.” When you are in a state of temptation and attracted to a sin, we learn from the story of Yūsuf that when you are thinking of the sin, you should start thinking of Allāh. A lot of people have this concept that if they are thinking of evil, then they will do the evil and not think of Allāh because they think it is not the right time to think of Allāh. Allāh says, “She desired him and he desired her.” We explained that there is nothing strange about this. He is a normal man and a young man and has come of age. Just like every man, he has the same thing on his mind. He desired her, and during this state of desire,

198 what did he do? He made du‘ā’ to Allāh. There is a clash going on inside Yūsuf between the forces of good and the forces of evil. It is an excellent clash to happen because you don’t want to ignore the forces of good and let the forces of evil win over and not think of Allāh right now. No – he is battling his desire for this temptation, and during this battle, he turns to Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla). You must turn to Allāh when thoughts of evil come to you. It is the only way to protect yourself. You must turn to Allāh when you are flirting with evil. There is no other way to protect you. Of the benefits we learn from this sūrah is that actions precede words when it comes to calling people to Islam. This is one of the fundamental mistakes we make here in America. We think that all we have to do is preach to the people and tell them about our religion. The fact of the matter is that we have not established our social credentials and have not shown them who we are. We haven’t explained to them about charity and taking care of the poor and the status of the orphan. We haven’t demonstrated that we are morally responsible for the weak and the elderly and for the dispossessed. This is our religion. Look at Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) and what he does in jail and throughout the entire story. He always establishes his moral character, mercy, tenderness, iḥsān. What did the criminals say in the prison? Inna narāka min al-muḥsinīn. He hasn’t even opened his mouth to preach, but within a few days, the prison is abuzz that this is a good guy. Once that is established, then the opportunity presents itself and then Yūsuf starts preaching the message. A lot of times we do the exact opposite and begin preaching when we haven’t shown the mercy and tenderness of our religion. Of the wisdoms we learn from this sūrah is that you need to speak to people at a time and place they are comfortable with. When the two prisoners come to Yūsuf for the question, what does Yūsuf say? The first thing he says is, “Okay, I have heard your question, and I will respond before food is delivered.” They must have had a time when the food comes and they know that time. Yūsuf is saying, “Before the food comes, I will answer your question. Listen to me for a bit.” He prepares them mentally for listening to the da‘wah. This is another issue where I think a lot of us fall into errors. Personally, I don’t believe in knocking door to door to preach about Islam. I’m not saying that should never be done. Perhaps in some scenarios it is good, but would you like people to come to your door? Prepare the environment properly. This is what Yūsuf did. They come to him with the question of interpreting the dream, and Yūsuf understands, “Now I have your attention for a few minutes, so let me use this opportunity. Give me five minutes.” He then preaches Islam to them. This shows us that if you do want to tell people about your religion, make sure that the time and the place is appropriate. Don’t try to shove the religion down their throats. Don’t try to be in your face. This is a very beautiful point that we learn from Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām). Of the wisdoms that we learn from the story is that when we do call to Islam, we should call to tawḥīd and monotheism. This is the gist of our religion: la ilāha illa Allāh. The entire two paragraphs that Yūsuf is talking about with the prisoners is all about: who is my Lord? What do I do? We spent a whole lecture on the one paragraph where he explained Islam and how beautiful that paragraph was. It combined the three types of tawḥīd and combined the three pillars of our religion. I say over and over again, brothers and sisters, what sets our religion apart from other religions is our simplistic creed in our Lord. It is so simple: there is one perfect God; worship Him alone. This is our religion, and we need to keep on hammering this point instead of going on to different tangents. What really makes our religion so precious to us? The shahādah. la ilāha illa

199 Allāh Muḥammadan rasūlullāh. This is what Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) preached to the people, and that is what you continue to tell to the people who do not know your faith. It is a very simple religion. There is One, All-Perfect God and you continue to worship Him as long as you live. Of the benefits that we get from this sūrah is the necessity to use the means to get to the goals. What does this mean? Yūsuf wanted to be free. Yūsuf wanted to get out of jail. He didn’t just sit down and say, “Allāh will free me when He desires.” He did what he could. What could he do? A person was going to be freed and next to the king, so Yūsuf tells him, “Mention my case to your lord.” There is nothing wrong with that at all. He wants to be freed, and he realized that in order to be free, there has to be a court case and hearing and judge looking into it. He goes through the process. Why do I say this? Because, once again, a lot of Muslims have this weird concept of trusting Allāh which for them means that you sit back and do nothing. That is not trusting Allāh but that is acting foolishly. Trusting Allāh means he realizes that Allāh can free him, but he has to walk through the path and get to the means. In our case, it would be fighting in the courts and hiring a lawyer. In our case, it would be if you are sick then go to the doctor and go to the hospital and get your treatment done. Tawakkul doesn’t just mean that you sit at home and expect Allāh to take care of you. It means that your heart is attached to Allāh, but you walk the path to get to the goal. The point is that Allāh created the goal, and let’s that it is to be freed. Allāh also created the path to get to the goal, and that is fighting in the court and going to the lawyers, etc. You realize that both the path and the goal will come from Allāh, and you need to walk the path to reach the goal while your heart is attached to Allāh. Of the benefits of the sūrah is that hastiness does not bring about good. Patience brings about that which is best. The fruits of patience are always going to be sweet. The messenger comes to Yūsuf, and he has been in jail at least seven years in conditions that only Allāh knows. At least in our times the jails are much more humane and clean and there are no rats running around. Can you imagine the jails of those time? How filthy and how despicable. This is a prophet of Allāh, a noble man. He has been put in a place where we would not even want our worst enemy to be put in. No doubt that back then these are inhumane conditions. This is a prophet of Allāh subjugated to such filth and lack of ‘izzah. Now somebody comes knocking on the door and says, “The king wants you.” What did the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) say? “May Allāh have mercy on Yūsuf. Had I been in that jail as long as he had been, I would have rushed to the door. I would have demanded that the king release me before I interpret the dream.” Even our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is saying, “Wow, māshā’Allāh.” Yūsuf acted patiently and resisted hastiness. Our Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Hastiness is from the devil. Patience and to act with contemplation is from Allāh.” By doing things in a long-term manner patiently, he sends the messenger back. Realize that it is going to take a few days now. “Go back to your lord and tell him to find out the story of those women. I didn’t do anything, and I want my name cleared.” What happens? Had he not done this, the king would have given him money and let him go, but by proving his innocence, the king says, “I trust you, O Yūsuf, what can I do for you?” He makes him a minister instantaneously. He takes him from the filth of the jail and makes him the most powerful person in the entire country, which is the minister of finance. Why? Because he acted longterm and without haste and putting his trust in Allāh and acting patiently. Of the wisdoms of the sūrah is that you will not succeed until you have failed, and you will not rise until you have been debased and humiliated. You don’t expect life to be a bed of