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Allah has already given you victory in many regions and [even] on the day of Hunayn, when your great number
pleased you, but it did not avail you at all, and the earth was confining for you with its vastness; then you turned
back, fleeing. [9:25]
They were marvelling over their numbers and thought no one was a match for them. Because of that they
were taught a lesson.
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9. Kill Yusuf or expel him to some land so that your father will look to you alone and
then you can be people who do right.
They are talking amongst themselves. They expressed envy and anger that dad loves Yusuf and his brother
more. Then they come up with a plan. Whats the plan? Someone says, lets kill Yusuf. Their own brother, their
of him. Tarh means to toss something to a side. And
younger brother! They think of killing him. Or to do
they dont say al-ardh, they say - , meaning, lets toss him to any land, another other land, just not
here.
So the first plan is to either kill him or toss him to another place.
Now they say something that gives us some insight about why they want to do this to Yusuf . They
want the fathers face to have ( khalwah = in private) for them. They want the fathers face to look at them
and them alone, to be exclusively for them alone.
The plan is quite bad, but after we do that, we will become righteous people. We will sort ourselves out after
that.
People do that sometimes. They plan to do a bad deed and intend to do tawbah and sort themselves out
afterwards. For example, they will get a license to sell alcohol and then intend to do hajj. We are all guilty of
this. We do this with ourselves all the time. This relationship is haram. Its okay, we are going to get married.
The justification is being presented.
Is it good to think like this or bad? Is it good to say that I will ask Allah to forgive me later?
Qurtubi says that it means they say they will ask Allah to forgive them. But the other tafseer is that what they
are saying is that well sort things out with dad afterwards. Meaning dad will be unhappy, but we will sort it out
and make him happy.
Ustadh Asim feels that it seems like the second view is stronger, that they are not speaking about it from a
religious perspective, but that they are speaking about it from a dunyawi perspective, meaning dads going to
be so upset when we get rid of Yusuf, but it is okay, after we do it, we will patch things up with dad. And Allah
knows best which is the stronger opinion. We need to consider both.
Lessons
Yaqoob was an amazing father to his children. Allah wanted us to focus and pay attention to how he
gave tarbiyah (upbringing) to his children. The question arises, the brothers envied Yusuf , they really
didnt like him, and they said that the reason we dont like him is our father loves him more. The question arises
that why was Yaqoob dealing with the children in this way that led them to become more envious of
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Yusuf ? Why was he showing favoritism to Yusuf when this is something that we shouldnt
be doing as parents? Looking at this ayah here, As-Sadi has something to say.
They say kill him or toss him to one side in order for dads face to be brought us into our attention exclusively.
This was interpreted by Sadi to mean that they desired the heart and mind of Yaqoob to be free from thinking
about Yusuf , and instead be thinking about them.
What is interesting about this particular wording is that they never said that they wanted Yaqoob to spend
more time with them. They never said this. They said they wanted his heart to become free of occupation from
Yusuf and instead be focussed on them.
So what is the difference between saying we want dad to spend more time with us and saying we want dad to
only think about us, or to think about us more and not to think about Yusuf ? What is the difference
between the two? It is established that they were envious, and they felt that dad loved him more than them.
However, on the other side, Yaqoob could be said to be blameworthy because dad spent more time
with the other two, dad bought the other two more things. However, we said that the tafseer of Sadi
was that they wanted dads heard to be less preoccupied with Yusuf and rather to be preoccupied
with them. Which is different to saying they wanted dad to spend more time with them. They are not saying
that they want dad to spend more time with them. Thats not the interpretation given by Sadi. Had the case
been that dad had been spending more time with another child over this child, then that would be unjust.
However, if dad thinks about this child more than that child, and loves this child more than that child, is that
injustice? Didnt the prophet love Aishah more than any other wife? He did. Is that unjust? No, of
course it is not.
In terms of behaviour and spending time, this is behaviour. This is where there needs to be an element of
justice. As for what the heart feels and the mind thinks of, that is not the same thing. Sometimes, you cant
help that you love one child over the other. Here, many scholars of tafseer like Ibn Ati said that the
reason why Yaqoob loved the other two more is because they were younger, and feel for them more.
And also they said that the mother of these two passed away when they were young 3. However, we could also
say that there is a third thing, the way that Yusuf spoke to his dad, he said ya abati, he spoke in such a
nice, kind, respectful, affectionate way, and he was humble as well and smart, all of these things would also
cause a parent to feel about them in a particular way. But it is about how he felt, not how he behaved. If you
understand it like this, then there is no questioning Yaqoob .
The Prophet said, in a hadith in reported in Bukhari and Muslim, fear Allah and be just amongst your
children.
Now, to say the opposite is to say that Yaqoob wasnt doing this, and we cant say this. So this is the
way that we understand this.
Once a man came to the Prophet and said, I got a gift for one of my children. Can you bear witness to
that/ approve of that? The prophet , in one narration, he said, did you get it for every one of your children?
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Q. How is it possible that the mother of these two passed away when she was either the sun or moon, and
therefore when the dream was realized she would also be with Yusuf and the rest of the family that day?
A. It is a strange point but it is there. See if you can research more on this.
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My Reflections
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10. One of them said, Do not take Yusufs life but throw him to the bottom of the
well, so that some travellers may discover him, if this is something that you have to
do.
How many brothers are there? Ten. One says lets kill him or toss him to another place. Another says no, lets
not kill him, lets throw him at the bottom of a well.
vs.
Bir is a more common word for well than jubb. Sharawi mentioned in his tafseer that the difference is
that the jubb is like a flat type of well. It has no brick work going around it. It is a flat type of well, like a ditch.
As for bir, it has the brick work around it. So what does that show us? It shows us that they had in their minds
the idea to throw him into a well which is like a ditch, which you cant even see that there is a well over there. It
shows how evil their intentions were.
Ghayaab from ghayb means unseen. They wanted to throw him inside a place in that ditch where no one could
even see had they come across that ditch-like well.
Laqt is to pick up off the floor. So some caravans travelling through that area will come across, perhaps, this
jubb, find him inside, a boy, and take him as a slave. So dont kill him, throw him in a well, put him into slavery,
maybe some travellers will come and take him away.
So we can reach the same objective by doing lesser evil. This lesser evil will still achieve the same objective
which is to get rid of Yusuf out of our lives. Do this one instead. Dont do that one.
My Reflections
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11. They said, Our father! What is wrong with you that you refuse to trust us with
Yusuf when in truth we only wish him well?
Plan B has been accepted. Theyve all accepted it. Now they go to execute the plan. What do they do? They go
to dad. Imagine the father is sitting there minding his own business, and the ten brothers come along. They
say, oh father, why dont you trust us with Yusuf? All of a sudden they come and ask this. We are well-wishers.
We only want whats best for little old Yusuf, especially when it comes to Yusuf. All of a sudden all the ten sons
come and say this. It is quite strange and weird that they would talk like that.
Now they butter up dad and then come with the attack.
My Reflections
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12. Why dont you send him out with us tomorrow so he can enjoy himself and play
about? All of us will make sure that he is safe.
They say let us take him somewhere tomorrow in order that is from the root , and it is a strange
word to be used here because it refers to cattle when they graze. So they are saying send him with us
tomorrow, we will make him feast. We will feed him so well, and we will play loads of games. And when it
comes to him did, indeed, to him exclusively, we are protecting and preserving him.
That kind of talk is crazy. Coming to dad, why dont you trust us. Dad is going to be suspicious and one expects
him to refuse. But he says i dont want you to take him but eventually they take him.
How come Yaqoob allows them to take him when they are clearly talking in a crazy, sinister way? This
is important because later on something strange happens, Binyameen is asked for again and again dad lets
them. Both times, how come he lets them? In the second instance it is a different reason, at that point he sees
that in fact the brothers now arent as evil as they were some 40 years ago. But today, when they speak to him,
why doesnt he say no, you cant take him?
He knows the dream and knows Yusuf will ultimately prosper, but at the same time, you wouldnt want to put
your son in a difficult position or harms way, would you? So thats not the reason. He already told Yusuf that
he doesnt trust them and he shouldnt either, so it is not because he wants to trust them. He doesnt want to
lose his son, so it isnt that he doesnt want them to suspect he doesnt trust them.
It is a difficult question, but a reasonable one. From the wording it is clear that the brothers are not just acting
suspicious, but they are acting psychotic. They are acting crazy. When someone is acting crazy, it doesnt
matter what you say to that person. If the person is hell bent on killing someone, and the way they are acting is
crazy, what you are going to say to them is not going to stop them. When someone acts crazy, saying they
want to kill him, they have reached a level of crazy. Dad can see this when they come and say oh we will take
care of him. He knows they will do whatever they want anyway. It seems like this is the reason why.
My Reflections
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Activity
They sought to make tawbah before the crime, to make doing it easier on them, and yet Allah- as Qurtubi said , / Sinners
Allah did accept their Tawbah...? What does that teach us about Tawbah / Allah
They said this and Allah did not condemn or censor them for saying it even though what they said was wrong.
The story just continues on.
In the Quran, when someone does or says something wrong or evil, then whatever follows or the context
shows that Allah disapproves of what they said. However, here there is no indicator whether it was right or
wrong for them to say that.
Is it better for a person to say before he sins that I want Allah to forgive me, or I will ask Allah to forgive me, or
is it better if he doesnt even intend to seek forgiveness? The first one. Even though that is wrong, it is better
than not having an inclination or intention to make tawbah.
Tawbah is very powerful, even when it comes from a corrupt intention.
Allah is Most Merciful.
Allah looks into the hearts of the people. If the person, even though when doing evil wants to eventually
change, inwardly, desiring it, Allah will help him change. Even though they were planning evil, they also
mentioned a desire to ask Allah to forgive them. And Allah saw that. We see Allah did not censor what they
said. From one perspective it is wrong, and from another perspective, it is far better to be like this than to say I
am going to do evil, I would be a hypocrite if I ask Allah to forgive me.
My Reflections
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Tajweed point
There is one unique tajweed point that you dont find anywhere else in the Quran. It is called Ishmam. Qurtubi
mentioned this in his tafseer. This ayah here (11), where the brothers say
The tajweed rule in fact doesnt impact on the pronunciation or the way you would hear the recitor say it.
However, it is reported from the Prophet that when he would recite the word he made a particular
expression with his lips. It doesnt make a difference to the pronunciation. However, the prophet did this,
and tajweed is to recite Quran as the prophet recited it, and so it became a tajweed rule that the qurra
know and still continue to practice.
Quran, all of it, is preserved, the way it was revealed to the prophet . And the way it was recited, up to
and including this subtle point is preserved until now.
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Trying to take out a rival. They perceived Yusuf to be a rival to them, and what they tried to
do is rob the rival of the blessing. They thought, Yusuf is beloved to dad, lets rob that love of
him by getting rid of him.
2.
On top of that, this eliminating a rival was mixed with hasad. The evil of envy.
3.
On top of that, it was going against the command of Allah to look after your younger sibling.
All these 3 things come together and become an ibrah, they show us what bad character looks like and what
behaviour is included in it, for example, looking at others through the lens of rivalry, and then wanting to act
on that and take out the rival, and then envy, and then also going against the command to look after them. It
was very evil the way they spoke about Yusuf , and to think he was a brother.
They were trying to justify the sin to themselves, by saying its okay if we do it, because we are going
to do tawbah afterwards.
2.
They are trying to take the edge off the sin. Killing someone, murder, is a terrible thing to even plan, to
think about doing. In terms of psychology, in order to bring yourself to do something, you need to do
something to encourage yourself. And one of the ways to encourage yourself is to say, its not really
that bad a thing if you look at it from this perspective or that perspective. Those people that caused
the London riots, went to the sports stores and stole, and then they said they were from socially
deprived areas, thats why they did what they did.
3.
To build consensus. They are ten of them. Ten different minds, all planning. And the planning is so evil.
And one of the ways you get everyone to agree to the plan is you encourage them. One of the ways of
getting themselves to agree is to say, its okay, we will sort ourselves out afterwards. We will sort
things out with dad, we will sort things out with Allah, no problem.
), a person plans on
This is from the trap of shaytan and he does this with every one of us. When (
sinning, then they come up with justifications, or at least things to make it easy on their own nafs which is
telling them that this is wrong, dont do this. In order to make that voice go quiet you come up with your other
justifications. An-nafs an ammarah bis su is coming, the other part of the nafs which entices us to do evil.
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Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, that you not worship Satan - [for] indeed, he is to you a
clear enemy [36:60]
Here, at-Tabari said, Allah is saying, what is the matter with you, how can you worship shaytan who refused to
bow down to your very father Aadam out of hasad. So hasad is the root of many evils. Kufr here, and
also qatl.
Position/
Fame
Envy
Makar
(Plotting)
Wealth
So he said there are 2 precursors to hasad. First of all, how do we define hasad? The generally agreed upon
definition is that a person wishes that the blessing of another is removed. This is the definition. A worse type of
hasad is that a blessing is removed and I am given it instead. Some said an even worse type is that a blessing is
removed, I am given it and they are given something even worse instead. Levels.
How did that even reach that point? How did the person start thinking and feeling like that? One of two things
came before.
1.
Position or fame. They called themselves usbah, a gang, a strong group of individuals. They pride
themselves that they are a sizeable force, they are like a gang. Now that is a position, a rank. So they
said because of our position, dad should love us more. If he doesnt love us more than whom does he
love instead of us? He will now be the subject of our hasad.
For example, in a workplace, people are in pursuit of a promotion. And the guy who can give the
promotion, the boss/ supervisor/ manager, everyone wants to suck up to that person. The position is
actually going to make you look at everybody else who is going for that position in a different way. the
person who is going to get that position above you, you feel envious of them. So what came before
hasad? The pursuit of the position.
2.
Pursuit of money, wealth, property. One of the reason why people suffer from envy is because they
are so wrapped up in dunya, they cant understand how come that person managed to get that car,
that dress or something. It is not the person first, it was the hubb ad-dunya first.
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Then he said, the consequence of envy is makar (plotting). The hasad is one thing, but then the plot is the evil
fruit of the hasad, and the hasad was a consequence of the pursuit of position or title or fame.
Going back to what Yaqoob said to his son, dont tell your brothers about this dream. The dream represents a
blessing. Yaqqob is saying dont show your blessing to people out there. People are really not going to like it.
And that really teaches us a lesson in our times where we live in a culture of selfies. And not just any selfies selfies of what they are eating, wearing, where they are going, everything is on facebook where he has been,
the nice things hes eaten, things he buys, even the way he looks, make up. You are airing out to the public all
your blessings. All your blessings, money, wealth, good looks, all of it, you are airing out. The person doing the
opposite of what Yaqoob advised his son to do, which is, if you are blessed, dont go about telling
other people about your blessings, especially those that you think will not like it. So we should really take a
lesson from this part of the story. A person should be careful about his blessing. Forget about the arrogance
factor that comes with promoting yourself and sharing thing you do, look at it as preserving yourself from
hasad. If you tell people, someone is going to hate on you. And if someone hates on you and as a result you
suffer, you have no one to blame but yourself.
My Reflections
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