Surah Yusuf (12) - The Best Of Stories 10/15
"Nahnu naqussu 'alayka ahsan al-qasasi bimaaa awhainaaa ilayka haadha al-Qur'an."(12:3) - "We do relate unto thee [Muhammad] the most beautiful of stories, in that We reveal to thee this (portion of the) Qur'an".
A'udhu billahi, as-samee', al 'aleem, min al-shaytan al-la'een al-rajim. Bismillah, al-Rahman, al-Rahim. Al-hamdulillahi Rabb il-'alameen, wa salla Allahu 'alaa Sayyidina Muhammad, wa 'ala ahli baytihi at-tayyibeen at-tahireen. Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa aali Muhammad. Dear viewers, salamun 'alaykum jamee'an wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In this holy month of Ramadan, we have been speaking about the benefit of contemplating on the holy Qur'an, implementing its advice, learning from it, becoming a friend and a companion to the holy Qur'an, memorizing it, reciting it. These are all benefits that Allah has given to you and I, which are waiting for us to be, for us to take from this holy Book, if only we begin to open it and spend time with it, if only we study it, if only we contemplate on it, if only we read the tafasir.
Unfortunately, there is no in-depth tafsir, which is complete in the English language, but there are many abridged versions which are available. At the least, we can begin with this, not only can we read the Qur'an in Arabic, we can read its translation, we can also begin to read partially the tafsir of these, these verses. Why they were revealed? What took place? What event took place? What is the meaning? Are they connected to other verses? Have the Ahlul bayt 'alayhim-u-s-salaam said anything about these verses? Have they had a tafsir? Made a tafsir, given a tafsir, written a tafsir about these verses?
Something we need to be very careful of when we come to interpreting the Holy Qur'an, is not to interpret it with our own opinion. The Holy Prophet peace be upon him has a tradition in which he says, "Allah, The exalted has said, those who interpret My words with their own opinion do not believe in Me." Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has given us the Qur'an; some verses are clear and some verses are ambiguous, those ambiguous verses, as well as the clear verses, require us not to imprint our interpretation upon them. Otherwise, we will begin to extrapolate a religion for ourselves, a new religion, a religion that I desire, that when I desire something I will use verses of the Qur'an in order to affirm my desire and my want.
Rather, we need to go to those who know the Qur'an, the Ahlul Bayt 'alayhimu as-salam. We need to make sure our interpretation of the Qur'an does not contradict other verses of the Qur'an and that even the ahadith that we choose and we select and learn from, they too do not contradict the Holy Qur'an because many ahadith have been fabricated, so we need to ensure that we do not contradict the Qur'an.
It is for this reason that we go to books of tafasir or scholars who are well-versed in the sciences of our ahadith and Qur'an and Fiqh and understand logic. So that they can ensure that the tafsir that they give to us and they write down is not something that has been infused with their own understanding and interpretation, rather, it has come from our sources.
There are many ahadith like that and other hadith, the sixth holy Imam says, "Whoever interprets the Qur'an with his own opinion, if he is correct, will not be rewarded, and if he is wrong, he will bear the burden of the sin." So even if one does come about with the correct interpretation, he will not be rewarded because he did not go through the right channels; the ends does not justify the means, one has to go through the right method. Yes, he may have been correct in one interpretation of one particular verse, but if you exercise it, the same method in trying to find out the interpretation of another verse, he may be wrong.
In understanding the Surah of Yusuf that we have embarked upon in this holy month of Ramadan, we came across the verse where Zulaykha has now tried to seduce Yusuf. She prepared the grounds, she emptied the room, she closed the doors and then she summons Yusuf, but Yusuf does not come in the way that she wants, he does not come to her. So then she decides to pounce upon him she decides to try and take the first step to seduce him.
As she comes to seduce him, the Qur'an says, 'wa laqad hammat bihi'(12:24)-'she came to him', 'wa hamma biha'-'He would have come to her', lawla 'an ra'aa burhaana Rabbi'(12:24) - 'had he not seen the proof of his Lord.' What is this proof that he sees from Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala? In different 'tafaasir' we find different ahadith mention, some are clearly incorrect and fabricated and come from different sources. What we can understand from this 'burhaan' is that Yusuf now sees how Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala's hand is in everything, he sees how everything moves with the permission of God, he sees that the will of God is being exercised and unfolded in front of his eyes.
When somebody sees the handiwork of God all around them, they cannot go against this Master. It is impossible. As Allah says in the Qur'an: "sa nurihim aayaatinaa fil aafaaq wa fi anfusihim"(41:53), "We shall reveal unto them Our signs in the creation and in themselves, so that and until it is clear for them what the truth is."
Allah reveals these signs continuously, He is making the plants grow, He is moving the winds, if only you and I could see it. As the A'immah tell us had these sins not covered our hearts, we would have seen the 'malakut' of the 'samaa'- we would have seen the celestial kingdoms', but these sins are covering our hearts, we are not able to see with the eyes of our hearts, we simply see with these physical eyes that we have.
Yusuf does not go towards her because he sees Allah around him, it is not possible to disobey God when you see him. For example, if the 12th Holy Imam was standing next to us right now, would we sin? Would we go against his commands and the command of Allah? It is impossible because you see a greater authority, you would never dare go against that great authority when you love him or love her.
In the same way Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has manifested Himself to His beloved creatures to Allah. He has manifested himself to Yusuf, to the Prophet, and to the awliyaa of Allah. It is possible for you and I to reach this stage as well but we need to cleanse this heart.
Now that Yusuf sees God around him, sees the handiwork of God, he can not move towards such a sin, it does not cross his heart, it does not even come to his mind. And Allah says, interestingly, 'kadhaalika li nasrifa 'anhu al-su'a wa-l-fahshaa' -'and such do We remove move away from him evil and indecency', - 'innahu min 'ibaadina-l- mukhlasin'. (12:24)
This is where it proves to us that Yusuf has been given 'Ismah, that evil that comes towards him is deflected away from him, not because he does not have a desire for evil, but because his control over himself is so great that evil can not touch him anymore. As evil tries to come close to him, it redirects away from him because he is too strong to allow any evil to be whispered towards him.
And then Allah says, ' innahu min 'ibaadun-al-mukhlasin'(12:24) - 'Surely he is from our purified servants.' Interestingly, the word, the word Mukhlas is different to the word Mukhlis. Mukhlis is one who is a doer- a faa'il, one who tries to cleanse themselves, you and I would be individuals who try and purify ourselves and inshAllah, one day we will reach this stage, we will be purified. Mukhlas is one who has purified himself to a state where now Allah completes his purification. Allah has purified, he becomes the object here of purification.
Allah has purified Yusuf to the extent now, that evil and indecency does not even come to him. That does not mean he is a robot, that does not mean he is angelic, that he does not have these desires, he still has them but because of his determination and strong control over them, nothing is able to come onto his path.
Now Yusuf, sees that Zulaykha is running towards him, so naturally he does that act that will free him from her trickery and that is that he runs towards the door. 'Wastabaqa-l-baab' (12:25)-'He runs towards the door', but she goes and as he is running, she is trying to pull him back into the room, so she holds onto his shirt and the shirt rips. As the shirt rips, the door opens and when the door opens, the most embarrassing situation now occurs for Zulaykha. She finds that her master or as we understand, her husband is standing at the door. Her husband is standing at the door with some people from her family, one of them being a young child. Straight away, she tries to profess her innocence by saying that he is the one who tried to seduce me, he tried to run to me, he tried to attack me. (12:25).
In this situation, you and I realize how Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala looks after his beloved servants. If a wife is telling the husband that this individual has tried to attack me, most likely in every situation, the husband would listen to the wife. He trusts his wife, his spouse, he does not trust this individual who is working in the house as much as he trusts his wife, he would have accepted what the wife said. Yusuf, yes, he says and professes his innocence, but Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala causes a miracle to occur. Allah looks after his servant, Allah looks after Yusuf because of his purity.
Allah says that, 'If you come towards Me one step, I will come towards you ten, ten fold, you come towards Me a hand-span, I will come towards you an arm's length.' You just have to take the first step. 'an taqumu li-Llah- 'just stand up for the sake of Allah', take some sort of action for the sake of Allah, He will come running to you.
So Allah inspires a young child from the family of Zulaykha to call out, and the young child says that if the shirt is torn from the back, then he is innocent because he was running away and if the shirt is torn from the front, then she is innocent and he was attacking her and she was trying to defend herself. (12:26-27) It becomes clear here to the king, to the, to the Aziz that it is his wife who is at fault, (12:28) so he tells Yusuf, 'Yusuf, a'rid 'an haadhaa'-Yusuf please forget this, put this aside, 'wa-stagfhfiri li dhanbik'- and then he tells his wife, 'now, seek forgiveness for your sins'(12:29).
Yusuf could have taunted her here, Yusuf could have made mention and made a great fuss about this, Yusuf could have kept on recalling this event, Yusuf could have brought about punishment on this woman, Yusuf could have gone out to the world and told them what is happening and what happened to the wife of the Aziz. But look at how magnanimous he was, that she has made a mistake, she has committed a sin, if she repents, then he will forgive her. And it seems that she may have repented in that moment because the king was there and the Aziz was there and he has asked her to repent, was probably she repented, so Yusuf does not bring this up again.
Of course, what is about to unfold is proof that it has still remained in her heart, she did not get what she wanted, so she was willing to try again.
This is a principle that I would like to touch upon before we conclude. That this nafs- this 'nafs al-ammaarah'-this nafs, this most basic level of our soul that desires ease, laziness and evil, it does not stop. When it wants something, it will keep going at it, it will keep try trying to knock every door. It will try what it can until it achieves that design, that ill that it wants.
In the same way Zulaykha wanted Yusuf, she tried it in one fashion, it did not occur and it did not happen, so now she is going to try it in another fashion. Here, the word gets out, the word gets out to the chief women within the society, that the wife of the Aziz has been infatuated by her male servant - ' qad shagafaha hubba' (12:30)- 'that she is infatuated with his love.' They are all laughing at her, they can not believe that such a woman with such a status has fallen in love with a servant, despite the fact that she is already married (12:30).
So now Zulaykha wants to bring about an environment where she can prove to these women of the town why she did what she did and why she is in love with Yusuf in the physical manner in which she is in love with him.
When we speak about this type of love between an individual, infatuated with another, it should remind us of the love that we should have for Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. 'Hubb Ullahi naarun, la yamurru 'alaa shay'in illaa ihtaraq '- 'The love of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is such that it does not pass anything but that it annihilates it, it perishes it, that it burns it up.' That is how the love of Allah should be in our hearts, as soon as Allah enters our hearts, nothing else will ever enter it.
Imam Husayn says,' One who has found You, what has he lost? And one who has lost You, what has he found? As soon as one tastes the love of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala nothing else tastes so sweet to them again, nothing else can take this heart off Allah.
Allah says, 'qalbu-l-mu'min haram Ullah' - that 'The heart of a mu'min, of a believer is a sanctuary of Allah' so do not allow anything to take its place apart from Allah. Do not allow anything to sit in this heart apart from Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, this is the love that we desire, this is the love that we should work towards, this is the love that we should pray for.
That O Allah, we beseech You and we ask You to inspire us, in our hearts with Your love, a love that shall never be extinguished.
In this holy month of Ramadan, as we fast Allah will listen to our du'a, Allah will accept our 'istighfaar'. Let us not waste our time, let us spend every moment that we can in remembering Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, seeking forgiveness for our sins, as well as the sins of our family members and friends, and continuously pray to Him.
Pray to Him, to ensure that He keeps you steadfast and that whenever two options are placed in front of you, He makes clear what is right and what is wrong so that you never take a path that will take you away from His love.
Wa sall-Allahu 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala ahli baytihi, at-tayyibeen, at-tahireen.
