Chosen for a Test, Not a Title | Ep. 3 | From Trial to Triumph

Chosen for a Test, Not a Title | Ep. 3 | From Trial to Triumph

I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِينَ، سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ النَّبِيِّ الْعَالَمِينَ.

Alhamdulillah, we've gotten through five verses of this beautiful story — the beautiful Surah of Yusuf عليه السلام. Until this point we've discussed how he has spoken to his father and the details of the dream that he saw and experienced, and also the response of the father. We ended off with the father saying to the son:

That the most prominent enemy that we all have, that we share, is Shaytan — and that Shaytan is a clear enemy. The clear enemy is at times the scariest enemy. Sometimes we're afraid of people who are aiming to harm us without knowing us, but sometimes the most apparent enemy is the one that you have to protect yourself from the most. And in the case of this verse it's Shaytan, but it may be someone in our life that is playing that role for us.

One aspect is speaking bad about someone behind their back — it's gheeba — but it's equally, if not more, harmful to be that person in front of their face. That's عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ — that's a very clear enemy, that's a very clear form of betrayal. So Allah — Ya'qub عليه السلام says to his son Yusuf: I'm not worried about your brothers as much; I'm more worried about the impact that Shaytan can have on your brothers.

But dear friends, if this is the impact that Shaytan can have on those who you share blood with, imagine the impact Shaytan can have on those who you don't share blood with. Shaytan's impact is — he can take Qabil and make him the killer of Habil over the smallest of differences. Imagine the impact it can have on people who already have certain types of envy or jealousy for one another. It just grows. It doesn't matter if you're brothers, siblings, friends, or spouses — Shaytan doesn't look at any of that. He looks at his ultimate goal, which is to create some form of disagreement that can just grow and continue cultivating this hatred in people's hearts.

So إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لِلْإِنسَانِ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ — Shaytan is your ultimate enemy, and Shaytan comes in the form of ins and jinn. شَيَاطِينَ مِنَ الْإِنسِ وَالْجِنِّ. We recite Surah al-Nas all the time — some of us may recite it a lot more than we probably should, you know, five times a day in every salat. It's not Surah al-Kawthar, it's not Surah al-Nas, but we recite it every day:

The one who whispers in the chests of people — مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ — this person is from the jinn and they're also from human beings. It's also an algorithm. عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ for us is something like a phone, something like a screen. It's such an apparent enemy, but we still fall — we're entrapped by it at times — and all of that is a manifestation of how Shaytan works. Algorithms know us well because Shaytan knows us well. No one knows better than this world — after Allah — than Shaytan. He took a tour of our body the moment Adam عليه السلام was brought to this world. He knows everything that can trick us, that can catch us.

So Ya'qub tells him: look, Shaytan is the apparent enemy, and just be wary of him. Today it's your brothers that he's trying to impact; tomorrow it may be you. The same person who was a recipient of a bad relationship — the moment they're in that situation where they have the upper hand, how did they respond? And this is why Yusuf عليه السلام's story is so beautiful — because you notice that this person didn't change as his state changed. He was responding with kindness when he was the victim, but when he became the treasurer of the greatest country of that time, he was still reciprocating kindness and love to people, gave their money back when they came to take goods from him, forgave them at the end of the story.

Shaytan can be impacting your friend today, but tomorrow it could be you. But at the end of the day, as worried as I am about other people having hasad on me and my family, I should be equally, if not more, concerned about me having that effect on other people. Everyone is so worried about reading Ayatul Kursi for themselves, but if I just control my eyes in regards to what I am looking at in people's lives, then we would need to be less worried about ourselves. Because this world is reciprocal — that's the system that Allah has created.

It's why the Prophet ﷺ said that if someone looks into your house in an area in which they were not supposed to look — of course this is figuratively — you are allowed to poke their eyes out, because that's what creates an eye that extends its glances, and it's what cultivates in their heart a certain level of hasad. Whereas people start looking at things which they are not supposed to look at.

Being Chosen by Allah

Allah continues this beautiful story and He says: And this is how your Lord chose you, O Yusuf. People in this world literally live their entire youth and young adult age to be chosen by someone. In the moment we are chosen and selected, it's as if we now matter to the world. And if we are not chosen, it's as if every quality, every goodness, every great merit that we possess doesn't matter.

Have you ever seen people — and I'm not saying it's a negative thing, but this is just the reality of how we are — seen people when they get selected into their medical school program on match day? The level of excitement that the family experiences. And it's not a negative thing — we should be happy, we put effort into it. And we see people who don't get matched and what they experience, because they didn't get chosen. The entire world is just hoping to be chosen.

As kids it was about being selected in sports. As you grow up, it's about being selected by people who bring value to your life. As you grow even older, it's about being chosen to a school or a program. Then you grow older, it's about your job. Your entire life is about a selection process. Anyone that watches sports knows there's this concept called draft day. SubhanAllah, when you look at draft day, you look at these people who worked for 22 years in their life — blood, sweat, and tears — their family's savings have gone into this kid to potentially be accepted into whatever sport they're playing. And they wait there, and they get chosen, they get selected by a team, and everyone's crying tears of joy because: I got chosen.

My dear friends, Allah is saying يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ — Allah chose you. Allah chose you, O Yusuf. Allah says to Musa عليه السلام:

Allah chose you, O Musa. And similarly the same word that is used for Yusuf عليه السلام in this Surah — which is اجتبى — to choose someone because of the potential that they possess and the goodness that they have and the responsibility that they're supposed to upkeep.

Can you get chosen to a school and not show up, and it's all good? Absolutely not. Can you get drafted by a team and then just drop a dud, not show up and play well, and expect that you'll keep your contract? Absolutely not. Every time you're chosen it creates liability. Even if it's something as simple and as significant as marriage — you choose your spouse and your spouse chooses you. In the moment you choose each other the responsibility increases. There's no such thing as being selected without liability.

And this is why the Prophets had the greatest amount of pressure. Think of a CEO of this world and square that by a hundred — that's the level of responsibility, stress, and liability the Prophets had. To the point that Allah says to the Prophet ﷺ:

O Prophet of Allah, it is very near that you will lose your life over how much you stress about these people — stress about if they die without Iman, stress about why Abu Jahl is not becoming Muslim. We know how that works in other aspects of our life — maybe business or school. But imagine that level: my parents have kids and they feel such a level of responsibility and liability and stress if their kids don't pray Salat. Imagine the level the Prophet ﷺ has for the Ummah.

So when we're chosen, being chosen is synonymous to knowing that I am now more liable than I was before.

The Three Words for "Choosing" in the Qur'an

There are three words in the Qur'an that are used for "to choose." The first is اصطفى. Allah says:

This is a very beautiful word — this is why one of the Prophet's ﷺ names is Mustafa ﷺ. This word is only used for Prophets and one more person, and that is Maryam عليها السلام. Allah used the same word that He would use for Prophets for Maryam عليها السلام — she is unique in that sense.

The second word is اختار. اختار means to choose because there is khayr in this person. This is why we call it استخارة — the root letters are khayr. We're seeking goodness. When اخترتك is used, for example, Allah says to Musa عليه السلام: I chose you because of the khayr in you.

The third word is اجتبى, and this is the word that Allah is using here — يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ. And on top of that, Allah is not saying يُجتَبى passively — He is saying يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ: your Lord chose you. The moment you see someone who is honorable calling your name out, believing in you — that in itself is motivation. That you belong somewhere. That validates the person more than any type of motivational speech.

This is why — if we increase our value in the eyes of Allah and in the eyes of people — we use it for the sake of growing people, not for the sake of propping ourselves up so people can say: wow, this person made it in life. The purpose of a father becoming a good father is so that his words have impact on his son and daughter. The purpose of being a high-value person — as that term is used in Western culture — is not so that people can look at you and say "oh my God, this guy is special." No. It's for the sake of this person using it and making other people feel special.

There was no person in the world that had more high-value potential and presence than the Prophet ﷺ, and he used it upon people — impacted people and made them feel special. How do you take, for the sake of example, a person like Bilal رضي الله عنه — who was enslaved for all these years — and make him feel comfortable walking the streets of Mecca like a leader? It's because you gave him something. And you have to give something that you yourself have. As the statement in Arabic goes:

A person who does not possess something cannot give it.

If I don't possess a level of — a "I was chosen" level of — security, a level of confidence in what Allah has given me, how can I give it to people?

So يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ — Allah chose you. And this has been told to Yusuf. The same word is used for this Ummah, which is so powerful. Allah says:

I said اجتبى has within it the meaning of burden and liability. Allah says هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ — this is why the Prophet's ﷺ name is also Mujtaba. Allah is saying He chose you and me to be a part of this Ummah. We were selected — we were drafted by Allah. At the end of the day, if you make it to the NBA, no one really cares if you're a 7th round pick or a 5th round pick. I'm pretty sure the Sahaba are 1st rounders, but we got picked somewhere along the line — هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ. He chose you.

And then Allah says right next — attached to the word that He chose you, because that comes with a level of burden — وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ: He has not placed any difficulty in your Deen. Meaning: whatever He chose you for, He has also given you the capacity to fulfill it.

If Allah chose me to be an older brother, He has given me the ability to be an older brother because He chose me for it. A father will not choose one of his kids to do something that they can't do, because he knows that they can't do it. He knows what the capacity of his kids is. But if a father and a mother choose a kid for something — that means I can do something. If Allah chose us, that means He expects us to fulfill that responsibility.

هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ — وَكَذَٰلِكَ يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ — the same word is used for a Prophet that Allah uses for us. A person that goes around searching for validation from people will never find it, because people's goalposts will continue changing. Today they'll use wealth as their reference point; tomorrow they'll use fame; the day after they'll use your intellect. They'll keep changing. But if I can find myself being selected by Allah and finding a level of security in that — not that Allah loves me the way I am because of my sins or good deeds; no, Allah loves me the way I am because He chose me for this — and if He chose me for this, that means He knows what I'm capable of.

The Skill Set Allah Grants the Chosen

So Allah says وَكَذَٰلِكَ يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ, and when you're chosen you need a skill set. Allah says:

He taught you the interpretation of dreams — يُعَلِّمُكَ. He taught it to you. Similarly for all of us, whatever skill set that I have — and this يُعَلِّمُكَ comes up later on in the Surah. It comes up when Yusuf عليه السلام went to prison and he had his two inmates with him. When they entered the prison, they asked him about the dream of holding bread on their head while birds were eating it, and the other saw that he was squeezing wine. They asked for the interpretation of the dream.

Yusuf عليه السلام responded — the first thing he said was:

This is from the blessings of that which my Lord has taught me.

A human being is useless without knowledge, and knowledge comes from Allah. Everyone talks about اقرأ; everyone begins their discussions about knowledge by saying yes, the most important fundamental source of strength and presence in our Ummah is to have knowledge. But move on a few verses later, we learn where the knowledge comes from. Because if it was only اقرأ, then people already had it before us and people have it better than us today. If it was only the ability to collect information, other people also have that. For us it's not اقرأ alone — it's also: where do I get it from?

The doer in this is Allah. So Yusuf عليه السلام is told: وَيُعَلِّمُكَ مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ — Allah gave you that skill of being able to interpret dreams, and in this ayah it also refers to your dream that you interpreted becoming truth, that Allah allowed that to happen.

You and I might have a different يُعَلِّمُكَ — something different. For one it may be the ability to be good at engineering, be good with cars, be good with books, be good with people — all of that is يُعَلِّمُكَ. Qarun and Sulaiman are both considered to be the wealthiest of humans that have ever lived. One's wealth became a cause of his destruction — in Qarun — and the other's wealth became the source of his salvation — in Sulaiman. They both had the same product. The product didn't change.

It's not like one person made it further in life because he spoke better or knew how to write better. The product doesn't change. Sulaiman and Qarun had the same product. It was the mindset attached to it that made it very different for them. Qarun would say: I have what I have because of who I am. You know this concept we find nowadays in America — "self-made." It's so destructive. That's literally what Shaytan said — خَلَقْتَنِي — self-made. How can anyone in this world be self-made without Allah, without their support systems around them? So Qarun was the first person to say "I'm a self-made believer," because that's what he said.

Sulaiman said: no, no — everything I have is because Allah taught it to me, everything I have is because Allah gave it to me. And now that changes the way you use it. If Allah is the one that gave me the ability to, for example, speak or connect with people, let me not use that skill set towards that which brings Allah's disobedience. Allah taught you, O Yusuf, the interpretation of dreams — don't use it wrong. Don't use it to make money, don't use it to destroy people, don't use it to harm people, don't use it to sway people, don't use it to deter people away from the truth. Because that's what happens when you have a skill set and you're good at it — normally it's always used for some benefit for yourself, propping yourself up.

وَيُعَلِّمُكَ مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ — yes, of course we make effort, but if Allah did not give me a memory to retain with, how could I memorize? If Allah did not give me the ability to write, how would I write my exam? يُعَلِّمُكَ مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ — as a believer, we recognize that all of this comes from Allah giving us the power and ability.

The Completion of Allah's Blessing — يُتِمُّ نِعْمَتَهُ

And Allah has completed — يُتِمُّ in Arabic comes from إتمام, it means to complete. Allah has completed His نِعْمَة upon you. So two words here — let's talk about both for a second. يُتِمُّ means to complete. نِعْمَة means blessing.

We may have a blessing in our life, but it's never complete without Allah being a part of it. For example, a person may have wealth in their life but wealth will never be a complete blessing until Allah is a part of it. This is why the Prophet ﷺ taught us:

Every affair that doesn't begin with the name of Allah is cut off (incomplete). (Reported in Sahih al-Bukhari)

Every affair that doesn't begin with the name of Allah — it will always be incomplete. How will it be incomplete? How will my food be incomplete if I don't say the du'a before? Physically it might be complete, it might be fulfilling, but there will still be something lacking in it. You know sometimes you meet someone and everything seems good but something is missing, and you can feel that — because you have intuition. A person who has spiritual intuition can feel a lack of completeness when Allah is absent in that gathering.

This is why the Prophet ﷺ said that at the end of every gathering, end it off with the du'a of سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدِكَ because it becomes an expiation of the entire gathering. Every affair, every matter that doesn't begin with the name of Allah — it is incomplete. So a blessing may be present in my life but it might not give me the outcome that I'm hoping for, because I have not added Allah as a part of that equation. In the moment Allah is a part of that equation — يُتِمُّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكَ — the only person that can complete a blessing is Allah.

The people that were trying to throw Ibrahim عليه السلام into a fire — they were able to light the fire, they were able to make the fire such as the world had never seen, but they weren't able to put the power of burning in the fire. The power of burning belongs to Allah. Fir'awn was able to corner Musa عليه السلام in front of the Red Sea — the entire community of Bani Israel is there, stuck — but he cannot create the power of drowning in water. The power of completion is in the hands of Allah.

We are the ones that distribute our blessings upon people. So the first word here is يُتِمُّ — Allah completes the blessing in our life, Allah allows that blessing to have that impact in our life that we were hoping for it to have. Every time we're searching for a new thing in life and we're hoping that we get it and we finally get it — "man, I wish it was better than this." And the Prophet ﷺ says a person that doesn't read Bismillah before eating will always require eating much more to be full. In one narration he says a believer eats in half a portion of a disbeliever — in one narration, one seventh of the portion of a disbeliever — simply because they say Bismillah before they eat. So يُتِمُّ — that completion is in the hands of Allah.

Understanding the Word نِعْمَة (Ni'mah)

The second word in this part of the ayah is نِعْمَتَهُ — His blessing. He's the one that gives that نِعْمَة, then He completes it for us. So what does نِعْمَة mean? نِعْمَة by definition comes from the root letters of نُعُومَة — نُعُومَة means softness, gentleness.

I want you to remember two things about this word. The first connection to this word is that normally a blessing — a نِعْمَة — is called a نِعْمَة because it makes your life easier. Anything which makes your life easier is called a نِعْمَة. It's نُعُومَة — it brings ease, compassion, comfort to your life. And every نِعْمَة is permissible except for those that Allah made haram. Everything is permissible to the process of that which Allah has made halal for us. We can eat whatever we want, we can do whatever we want, but to the process that Allah has set for us.

That's the first meaning of نِعْمَة. The first one I think the majority of us will be able to relate to and connect with. What's a نِعْمَة? Anything which brings ease to my life. Can that be relative? Yes. Something can be a نِعْمَة for you and not for me. It's very possible that someone gives you something and it's not a نِعْمَة because I don't know what to do with it. I love books — if someone gives me a book, it will be a نِعْمَة for me. But if someone gives me a book and I don't want it: "I don't have space in my shelf for more books." Everyone's نِعْمَة is different, and potentially even wealth is like that. All of these are relative نِعَم.

The only نِعَم that are conclusive are the ones mentioned in Surah ar-Rahman. Those are blessings for everyone — that's why it's called آلاء. آلاء means a blessing for everyone. No one can deny it.

The second meaning of the word نِعْمَة — does anyone know what أَنْعَام means? أَنْعَام is cattle. They're called أَنْعَام because they walk gently on the earth. They don't make too much noise. Even though they're so heavy, even though they're so big, they are so gentle upon the earth — upon the blessings around them. The earth is their blessing that they benefit from, and they use the earth with such gentleness. They don't stomp on the earth, they don't harm the earth.

So the second unique connection to the word نُعُومَة in نِعْمَة is that a نِعْمَة is supposed to make the person who is on the receiving end of it more gentle, more kind, more giving, softer in their nature. And at times the adverse effect takes place — that a person who didn't have a نِعْمَة in their life was kind until they had a نِعْمَة. But نِعْمَة is supposed to have the opposite effect — like the cattle, that they benefit from the earth around them but they treat it with such gentleness. This blessing of mine is supposed to make me more compassionate to other people. It's supposed to make me more kind to other people. That's why I call it نِعْمَة. Or else it's not a نِعْمَة for me — it's a نِقْمَة. نِقْمَة means a burden upon you.

It's not a نِعْمَة for me because I'll be asked about how I use that نِعْمَة:

I'll be asked about how I used that نِعْمَة to benefit people. نِعْمَة makes you softer. What happens to a person when — for example — they didn't have a job, now they get their first job and start getting money? Even the way we speak to our parents changes. And that makes no sense. Why should I speak to my parents differently because of the situation I'm in? I'm more confident, but how does that change the etiquette owed to your parents? Your parents — that hasn't changed. If I only spoke to them gently and kindly because I was in need of them, then I'm the biggest loser. I speak to them gently and kindly because that is the only way to interact with them.

Forget how you speak to your friends or siblings — I've even seen parents complain to us about how their children speak to them after they finally make it to where they wanted to make it. And wallahi they would not have made it if their parents didn't make du'a for it. It's like — your parents were the ones that were crying for you all night to make it to medical school, and now you made it, and now you're changing the way you speak to them because you have some accolades in your life that you want to boast about? نِعْمَة? It's supposed to make you softer.

How do you know — why does my salam change even with my friend circle? Why does my interaction with people who are close to me become a little bit more formal? Formality is what kills the love amongst each other. This is what the Prophet ﷺ says — he taught us:

Give salam to those whom you know and those whom you do not know. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6236; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 39)

Because there's no formality in saying salam — that's for everyone. And when you make it higher in the corporate world, the corporate ladder, the less people can meet you — that's how it works. Their access is limited. But in salam, the more ni'mah you have, your access should be the same if not more, so people can see what a blessing looks like in your life. A person will rarely have jealousy and hasad for you in your blessings if they're benefiting from it too. Like, why would they have hasad for what Allah has given you, if you're not propping it up against them, but rather you're using it for the community as well, or using it to serve to whatever capacity you can?

So نِعْمَة means two things: it makes your life easy — so anything that makes your life easy is a نِعْمَة, some of them you recognize and some of them you might not. Like, for example, a نِعْمَة is my ability to hold something with my hand. Imagine if I couldn't hold something with my hand. People have surgeries on their knee or ACL — how difficult does life become? Then you realize: every tendon in my leg was a نِعْمَة. Being able to eat and digest the food is a نِعْمَة. Anyone that goes through issues with digestion — oh my God, what a نِعْمَة to even just use the restroom properly. Anything that makes life easier — this is why after using the restroom we have a du'a:

All glory to You, Allah — all praises to You, the One who removed a difficulty from me.

Because it's a نِعْمَة. People struggle to recognize that they're blessed because they're always looking at the definition of blessings through other people's lives, other people's eyes, other people's shoes. So now a person struggles to know that they're blessed because that other person's blessings they don't have. You're not supposed to have their blessings — that's their نِعْمَة. That's why the brothers of Yusuf made a mistake: "Why don't we have the ability to interpret dreams? Why don't we have that blessing as well?" Hasad never enters into a space because of what you lack or what I lack — it enters into a space because of what the other person has.

So يُتِمُّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكَ — Allah says: I fulfilled the نِعْمَة upon you. And in this ayah specifically it's referring to the fact that Allah is telling Yusuf عليه السلام: your dream will come true and you will become the one whom all your siblings will be bowing down to.

And the blessing upon the family of Ya'qub. Which blessing was fulfilled upon the family of Ya'qub? His children — and that family is literally Bani Israel. آلِ يَعْقُوبَ means Bani Israel. And they were blessed because they had the most Prophets, and they were given miracles from the heavens.

Like Allah fulfilled before — whenever He is expressing a level of favor upon a person, He sometimes reminds us about the blessings He gave us. For example, when the Prophet ﷺ is struggling after the loss of Qasim, Allah says:

I've given you al-Kawthar. When the Prophet ﷺ is struggling after the first period in which there was a فَتْرَة — a period of no Wahi — Allah reminds him about his blessings:

He is reminding him: look, don't forget about what I've done for you till this point. I've done a lot for you. And in the story of Musa عليه السلام, when he asked Allah for رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي and asked for all the support that he needed to fulfill his message, Allah says:

مَنَّ in Arabic means blessings — I have given you many blessings before this as well. And then the next entire page of Surah Taha, if you read it on your own — the next entire page — are the blessings that Allah gave Musa عليه السلام: I saved you from here, I gave you this, I gave you that — but no worries, I'll give you this too.

So Yusuf عليه السلام is being reminded: look, I blessed your father's family, then I blessed your forefathers as well. مِن قَبْلُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْحَاقَ — from before: Ibrahim and Ishaq. Allah mentions Ibrahim before He mentions Ishaq because, though Ibrahim is further in the lineage, he is the elder, so his name is mentioned first.

Now quickly — Allah used the same word يُتِمُّ نِعْمَةً for all of them. Was the blessing the same for all of them? No. For each Prophet in that lineage, the blessing being referenced here was different. For Yusuf it was his beauty and interpretation of dreams. For Ishaq, it was either — in some opinions — that he was the one being slaughtered, or that Allah gave him to his father at such an old age. يُتِمُّ نِعْمَةً — and for Ibrahim, his يُتِمُّ نِعْمَةً is that Allah saved him from the fire.

Everyone's blessings will look different, but that which brings ease to you in your life — is that what brings ease to you in your life? Someone may have a product, something very expensive and useful, but they don't know how to use it — it won't be a نِعْمَة for them. Similarly, Allah might give me a lot of money but that's not what brings ease to my life. I need, for example, more knowledge. I need family, children. I need skills other than that. So everyone's نِعْمَة is what is catered to their needs in life. That's why Allah is saying each نِعْمَة looks different because it brings comfort to your life.

And it's possible that I thought it would bring comfort to my life, and I do think it brings comfort to my life, but Allah is:

SubhanAllah. He ends off the verse by saying what we would have thought: "Oh Allah, why don't I have this نِعْمَة?" Allah knows — إِنَّ رَبَّكَ عَلِيمٌ. Allah is the most knowledgeable about what you have and what you don't have. "Okay, why don't I have it? That's a difficult one for you to understand." حَكِيمٌ — Allah is the most wise in that regard.

This ayah begins with Allah telling Yusuf — and all of us — that Allah has chosen us, and that in itself is enough to validate us. People are literally in states of depression because they weren't chosen by others. Why would I allow anyone else to control the real state of my mind — who themselves are flawed and needy and reliant upon Allah? The worst thing that I can do — and perhaps the most immature thing — is to allow something to control me that I can't control. How can I let something control me that I have no control over? People's moods change based upon the weather. But I can't control the weather.

This is what the Prophet ﷺ said: don't curse the time, don't curse the weather — you can't control it, don't let it control you. Some people's mind and mood shifts based upon how the stock market opens in the morning — but you can't control it. What you can control is whatever you have with Allah and within your relationship. You can control your emotions, you can control how you react to people. And this is why people who are emotionally intelligent feel most — they are most affected by how they speak to other people. A person who is mature and emotionally intelligent, if they get mad and angry, it kind of sticks with them the entire day: "Oh man, I shouldn't have said that to my brother, I shouldn't have spoken to my friend like that." It actually sticks with them, because they could have controlled themselves.

So يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ — Allah has chosen us. And wherever we are, we were chosen for that moment. And then He says: because He chose you, He also gave you the skill set to succeed. وَيُعَلِّمُكَ مِن تَأْوِيلِ الْأَحَادِيثِ — He gave you the skill set. Now I have to work on making sure that I use it in a manner which brings Allah's pleasure, which increases the skill set. Imam Ghazali says: the greatest way to increase a نِعْمَة is to use it in a manner which Allah is pleased with. This is why we're taught that when we give charity, Allah doubles it — because it's being used in a way that Allah is pleased with.

وَيُتِمُّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكَ — then He says: I completed My نِعْمَة. So Allah completes the نِعْمَة. People can attempt to show the نِعْمَة, but Allah puts the power of completion. نِعْمَة creates softness in us, نِعْمَة makes us kind, نِعْمَة brings ease to us, and it changes per person — everyone's نِعْمَة will be different.

Signs for Those Who Seek — آيَاتٌ لِّلسَّائِلِينَ

I'll do one more verse and then we'll break for class, insha'Allah. Allah in the next verse says:

Verily in the story of Yusuf عليه السلام and his brothers are ayat — signs — if you all recall from session one, we spoke about the definition of an ayah. What was an ayah for Musa عليه السلام? The staff. Allah says:

An ayah for Musa was a staff; for Isa عليه السلام it was such-and-such. Allah gave an ayah. In the same way for us in the Qur'an, an ayah is something which has the power to shift the minds of people, and for us that's the Qur'an. We spoke about this in session one — that every ayah in the Qur'an is as powerful as the staff of Musa عليه السلام, because it's an ayah for us. And the potential impact that it will have will be based upon our relationship with it and our reliance upon it. This is why the Prophet ﷺ said:

Call upon Allah while being certain of being answered. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3479)

The more you rely upon them, the higher the potential of acceptance that they have.

لَقَدْ كَانَ فِي يُوسُفَ وَإِخْوَتِهِ — there are signs, clear signs — لِّلسَّائِلِينَ — for those who are asking, for those who are inquisitive, for those that are pursuing these signs. A person can recite the entire Surah and not gain anything from it because they're not looking for anything. You know when you're driving down the road and you're looking for a gas station — you notice it right away. Versus you're driving and you're not looking for it — it might pass you three times but you don't notice it. And the moment you start looking for it, you find it.

So Allah is saying: for every person who is a seeker, a mind that is inquisitive about how do I respond to my situation — because again, the Surah was revealed to respond to an emotional plea of the Prophet ﷺ, that his heart was broken — so Allah says: for every heart that is broken, and for every situation in which people are struggling, there is an ayah in this Surah for us to be relieved through and brought ease through. And hence it was given to us. Again the whole idea of how Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه used to say that no one would read Surah Yusuf except that their heart would feel relief from the difficulty that they were experiencing.

The Qur'an is not a book that we simply read — it's a relationship that we have. This is why when Aisha رضي الله عنها was asked by her nephew Urwah ibn Zubayr:

What was the Prophet's ﷺ character like? And no one knew the Prophet more intimately than his wife Aisha رضي الله عنها. She responds by saying:

His character was the Qur'an. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 746)

He was a walking manifestation of the Qur'an. Whatever he asked, whatever he needed, the answer came to him from the Qur'an. آيَاتٌ لِّلسَّائِلِينَ — people are pursuing answers in every other space or avenue in life. Allah reminds us that yes, you can use those as well, we should use those as well, but let's not make the Qur'an a place of barakah alone. It's not just a book of barakah. If I use it as a book of barakah and nothing else, that's all it's going to give me. When a person interacts with it as if it is that which solved your problem — it will solve your problems. It will give you more than what the normal person gets from it.

Everyone has some relationship with the Qur'an that they benefit from, but the stronger they learn the Qur'an and the stronger they build their relationship with it, the more you and I are able to take from it. آيَاتٌ لِّلسَّائِلِينَ — for us.

Introduction to Verse 8 — The Brothers' Complaint

I'll introduce this verse today, insha'Allah — we'll finish it next week. When the brothers of Yusuf said: إِذْ قَالُوا لَيُوسُفُ وَأَخُوهُ — when they said Yusuf and his brother are more beloved to our father than us — وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ — when we are عُصْبَة. عُصْبَة means — in a simple word — very skillful people. We're very talented. عُصْبَة refers to a group of men between the age of — they would say — 13 and 33, that prime age of physical and emotional maturity. We're so able — that's what it means. Verily our father is in clear error.

Let's walk through it. The first part of this ayah mentions Yusuf and his brother, so they always brought them together. They always reflected their emotions towards both of them. So you can imagine how they treated Ibn Yamin after Yusuf left, because they put them both in the same category. They were in the same group. And the reason for this is that Yusuf and his brother Ibn Yamin — their mother Rahil was different from the mother of the other brothers, Liya. So Rahil and Liya — there are two mothers of these children. Some say that they are both cousins, but regardless, their mothers were different. And the younger brothers — Ibn Yamin and Yusuf — lost their mother. They say that Yusuf's mother passed away at the birth of Ibn Yamin.

So they're referring to them — they already don't have a mother. If you understand this, you also recognize why Ya'qub was more expressive with his love for them — because you already don't have your mother around. So I'm going to give you — I have to play both roles. And the others have their mother around. He didn't have to play both roles for the other nine siblings. He had to play both roles for Yusuf and Ibn Yamin.

Around these verses, there's a discussion in tafsir books about whether Yusuf and Ibn Yamin were more beloved to Ya'qub, and whether Ya'qub preferred them or gave them better treatment because of who they were. I want to answer this in a very rational sense: the answer is no. Prophets don't err and they don't sin in these things. But if a person has five kids — the first son or daughter is born, they're the only one, so everyone shows them love. It's very simple. Second one is born — that's why the second and first sibling always have this weird relationship. Third, fourth, fifth — and the last one receives love from everyone, that's like the baby of the family, more spoiled. It would be very immature and foolish of the eldest to say: "Ah, why don't I receive that love?" Because you already did. This is his turn, this is her turn. You've already got that. Similarly, Ya'qub has these 11 or 12 children, so obviously you were the eldest — you received it already. Now it's their turn to receive this love.

Number two — are you allowed to have more love for one child over another? If you don't know the answer, that means you're probably not the most loved one. Myself included — it's all good, I'm a middle child. But are you allowed to? And the answer is: you can't control what's in your heart — what's in your heart is what's in your heart. But you have to treat them fairly. So whatever you give one, you must give the other. Your treatment of them cannot be affected by your love for them.

And this is what the Prophet ﷺ said about his wife Aisha. He said: O Allah, You commanded me to be just to all my spouses. I have fulfilled the level of justice that I was commanded. But I can't control what is in my heart — I love her more. And therefore, even at the end of his life, he could have told his wives: send me to the house of Aisha. But he didn't, because it was their right. So he would simply ask: "When is it Aisha's turn?" And he would keep asking, and the wives understood that he wants to go to the house of Aisha. So he wasn't unjust — he didn't express less love from one over the other.

This is normal in any family that has multiple children — the love goes from one to the next, and the other's needs change. The kid that is 15 doesn't need just love — now they need more attention, they need تربية. So when they say Yusuf and Ibn Yamin are more beloved to our father — that is in the sense of fairness, not the father being unfair.

And then obviously I'll speak about this a little more next week — but they say: everyone that misses out on something, like "how did they choose them though? I am smarter." "How did Allah choose him or her to get accepted there when I have better grades?" In this world it's an unjust world, and selections are made not based upon merit alone — they're made based upon connections. We understand that. But Allah is very just. So this concept of "why were they given whilst I am this" — this is impermissible for me to say. That is not something which is allowed for a believer: "Why did Allah give that person this and not me, even though I am praying five times a day?" — and it comes to our minds. "Why was my friend given this? I pray five times a day, I believe in Allah, I go to the masjid, I pray — why didn't I get it?"

Don't use the tawfiq Allah gave us to worship Him against Him. Allah gave that tawfiq — Allah can take it from you and me as well. Don't use it against Allah. "I pray five times a day" — but Allah may allow me to pray five times a day. How can I use that blessing against Allah? "I pray five times a day but you didn't give me that — you gave me the ability to pray five times a day, not that other person." That in itself is my blessing.

A victim does this — they always try to look at what they have, because of which they should have been given that blessing. "I have this, I have that." And again, in the worldly world you can do whatever you want, but not in the relationship with Allah.

And at the end — these children supposedly love their father so much, but they end up saying: "Oh man, our dad is lost — our father is in clear error." And this is something that also happens as we grow older — these types of sentiments start creeping up in older children when our parents start gaining age. We start saying things like: "They don't know what's going on. They don't understand the culture. They're a little old." These are words that — regardless of what the reason is — we should be careful with saying, because it's still disrespectful and it's still something which we should avoid. And it becomes very common and easy for us to say but it has its own harms as well. This is what the brothers of Yusuf said.

Insha'Allah we'll continue from here next week — from the seventh verse, insha'Allah. Allah bless you all for coming through, Allah reward you all. Hopefully you all found some benefit. Insha'Allah we'll see you all next week.