Pearls From Surah Yusuf - Part 1 | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi

any flour [Music] in [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] i welcome you all to the first of a series of that we will have about the tafsir or the explanation of one of the most interesting one of the most powerful one of the most moving surahs in the entire quran and it is the surah yusuf the surah of yusuf alaihissalam this surah surah yusuf is a very very unique surah in the quran it is a one of a type of surah firstly it is the only place in the quran where the story of the prophet jesus of alayhi islam is mentioned there is no other surah that mentions the story of the prophet yusuf alaihissalam now if you compare this to let's say the story of the prophet musa the prophet musa alaihissalam his story is mentioned in over 25 different locations the story of our father adam the story of adam al-islam is mentioned in over half a dozen locations right the story of isa almost a dozen times but the story of the prophet yusuf alaihi islamid only exists in this surah in fact even the name of the prophet yusuf it only occurs once or twice in passing just in passing surah ana mentions the name of yusuf surah mentions just the name of yusuf but there's no story at all so the stories about what happened with yusuf alaihissalam it only occurs in this particular surah secondly it is the only surah in the quran that has a unified story as its theme from the beginning to the end the whole surah is nothing but a story and there is no other surah of length in the quran we are not talking about the small surahs at the end of just we're talking about any surah basically more than 10 ayat 15 ayat there is no surah in the whole quran that is a unified story from the beginning to the end and this is something we all know that read surah you will mention and find the stories of lots of people one paragraph one page sometimes even five pages but there is no place in the whole quran where an entire 15 pages is dedicated to one story so it's a chronological story from the beginning to the end and this is not just very rare it's unique there's no other place like it in the whole quran now this story this surah it was revealed we don't know the exact date but we know roughly around 10 or 11 uh not of the hijrah but of the years of the da'wah in other words the hijra of course we begin the medinan phase before the hijra what do we call it some scholars use the term bh before hijra right just like the christians have a d and and and bc uh so muslims have a h and b h right so if you look at b h so one 1bh means one year before the hijrah 2 bh 2 years before the hijra surah yusuf is revealed around 2 or 3 bh in other words right at the end of the makkan era the makkan message now the timing of revelation is very crucial here surah yusuf was revealed after the famous year called year the year of sorrow the year of regret the year of difficulty in this year three things happened one after the other which were the most painful for the prophet muhammad and there was no time in this era where the prophet salam was more demoralized if you like than this period and that is why the scholars of seerah call this era this period they call it the year of grief he was sorry and he was feeling grief throughout that year what happened and what makes it worse one after the other these three things happen the first of these three devastating things was the most personal and the most intimate and that was the death of khadijah salam was his supporter khadija alaihi if you like source of strength and as they say behind every great man there is a great woman this is exactly applying to the prophet that khadija was his source of comfort and support whenever anything happened even when the wahi came down and he was scared what did he do he went running back to hadith to be calmed down zambiluni zambiluni cover me up cover me up so khadijah was his source of comfort his source of support and when a man has that comfort inside the house when he has that love he is able to face a lot outside and when that is deprived of him then the problems outside become more difficult to bear so the death of khadijah was something that was very difficult for him within five six weeks a second death followed and that was the death of his uncle abu talib and abu talib was his support in society abu talib was the one who sacrificed his own reputation his own prestige in order to protect the prophet was the one when the quraysh came to bribe him the quraysh came to threaten him the quraish came to intimidate him and initially he was scared initially he he went to the process of do something stop doing this you all know the famous story the process said if they were to give me control of the sun and moon i wouldn't give up what i'm doing so abu tadib said o son of my brother o my nephew do as you please i'm never going to come to you again to tell you not to do this and he was a man of his word for 10 years not once did he approach the prophet after that after this incident of the sun and moon when he said if they were to give me this i would not give up not once did abu talib ever come and say why did you do this look what now what what do i have to face now you know look now i have to tell my my cousins my relatives what you have not once he was a man of his word and abu tadib did everything he could so much so that when the quraish boycotted the prophet and they said you must leave makkah and he went with the muslims and with bilal and with all of them to live in the valleys outside of makkah abu talib was not a subject of that boycott because he's a pagan he's a korashi he's a he's a mushrik abu tarib was not a part of the boycott but because he was a part of his nephew he loved him so much he voluntarily he was the only non-muslim to live with the muslims at the time of boycott the only non-muslim who voluntarily gave up his privileges his house in makkah he gave up everything and he suffered along with the muslims because he felt this is injustice and he felt i have to do this as the uncle as the protector and he did everything he could and as long as abu tada was alive they could not do anything else to harm the prophet sallallahu islam with his death that was when the persecution reached its max and that's why eventually he had to leave to medina because he couldn't live in makkah anymore so khadijah was his internal support in the house and abu talib was his external support in society the both of them one after the other they died and this was a very difficult time for our prophet salallahu to make matters worse he suffered the single most if you like depressing or most difficult day of his whole life after the deaths of khadija and abu talib as if there could be no law there was one law after that and that was the incident of ta'if the incident of said o messenger of allah was there any day that was more difficult for you to bear than the day of ud was there anything that was more difficult than he said yes was too young to know anything about makkah aisha doesn't remember makkah so she knows badr she knows uh she knows taboo she knows that so she knows the problems of medina so she knows the worst problem of adena was what was it so she asked was there any day that was more difficult to you than immediately without thinking without he knows what's his most difficult day he said yes the most difficult day for me was the day when i was rejected by the brothers of abdial meaning the chieftains of tafe and you all know the story and we'll talk about in a lot of detail insha'allah in our other lectures that will start about the seerah uh that the prophet was humiliated and he was publicly uh scorned and the children of uh went uh stoning him this day was the most difficult for him now these three incidents they occurred within six weeks of one another within two months one after the other as if things could not get any any any worse basically at this point in time allah revealed surah yusuf and when we understand this frame of revelation all of a sudden the significance of surah yusuf increases many times why surah yusuf is meant to uplift his spirits allah it's meant to console him it's meant to strengthen him at a time of such trial tribulation surah yusuf is going to be his light that will lead him out of this depression of this when i say depression obviously the process is not suffering from depression but we mean it's a depressing time it's a time of pain it's a time of anguish and this is hope for us when we are feeling down when we are suffering from problems of society this is the surah we can turn to to get an uplifting moment to get some solace and comfort that's why allah revealed it to our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam scholars also mentioned that a number of a number of incidents happened that also led to the revelation of this surah of these incidents is as the persecution of the muslims increased and the sahaba in makkah were feeling more and more overwhelmed by all of the pressures they came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and they said o messenger of allah why don't you tell us the stories of those before who also suffered why don't you tell us what happened uh give us some casas give us some stories of the people before and so when they wanted these stories allah again perfect timing when the persecution reaches its maximum and that is why the hijra occurs two years after the surah right two years after the surah the occurred because you cannot live in makkah anymore they were literally it reached as you know the night before the hijra they were going to kill him sallallahu they they put they sent out an assassination squad surrounded his house 50 people that's it end of story right had it been anything other than the prophet muhammad that is the end of islamic history but allah miraculously saved him so one of the direct causes of revelation was the fact that the sahaba wanted something to uplift their spirits as well another direct cause of revelation it is said that the quraish they wanted to try to outwit the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and wanted to show that he's not truly a prophet and so they sent a delegation to yathrib to the yahood of yathrib and they asked the yahood of yathrab yatrib of course is the name of madinah before it is madinah they asked the yahood of yathrib tell us a question that only a prophet would be able to answer give us a trick question that we can show once and for all that this man is not a prophet tell us a question you know the answer to but nobody else knows now even though the yahood were a different religion than the quraish the quraish felt that the yahood were superior because of their book the quraish did not have a holy book right the quran did not have a scripture the quran did not have a revelation and the hood had a revelation so the quraish felt this this sense of inferiority that you yahood are the people of the book and you know knowledge we don't know and you believe in prophets we don't we don't know any prophets amongst us so you tell us something so they went to the yahood and they hood said ask him about the story of yusuf and his brothers nobody knows this and by the way this is an interesting point we're going to come to this again in makkah there were no christians in jews in mecca there were only idol worshipers idolaters pagans there were no centers of christianity and judaism there were one or two private converts as we know uh the uh waraqa ibn nofa and others these are private converts secret they convert to christianity but they're not uh they're not inviting others to it they're not preaching christianity there's no libraries of of christian theology of jewish theology so nobody in mecca knew these stories the people in mecca have not heard of yusuf why yusuf is not their ancestor right the people of makkah are descendants of isma'il not of ishaq the tribes of israel of israel have nothing to do with the makkans the people of quraish they don't know these stories and so the the yahood knew this and they said go ask him if he truly is a prophet to tell you what happened with yusuf and his brothers because nobody knows this of your people this is something we know and they were far away they were in yatrim how would anybody in mecca know this so they went to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and they asked him tell us the story of yusuf and his brothers if you are truly a prophet and so allah subhanahu wa ta'ala answered that question and he revealed surah yusuf and right at the end of the surah one of the last verses in the surah allah says that they come in that we send down to you you didn't know this you and your people before you didn't know this so in surah yusuf allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is being is telling the prophet that we're we're giving you in you did not know the story before this surah came down to you this surah begins with the letters alif lam and i have recited the first five or six ayat of the surah alif lam we all know that there are a number of surahs in the quran that began with letters all of these they begin with letters these letters are called the broken letters that's what the scholars of tafsir call these letters why do they call them broken letters because they don't form words not so they don't form words so the scholars of tafsir call them broken letters put together and these scholars have wondered about their meanings since the very beginning of time since the time of the table um they began wondering what do these letters mean what is it mean in the beginning of the quran what is there are over 15 opinions about what these letters represent some of the opinions are that they represent names of allah so alif is for allah lam is for meme is for muhammad let's say so they have different opinions but this doesn't seem to have a strong basis of it one opinion is that we will never know what these what these uh what these mean now this is a valid opinion in so far as that yes we will never know for sure only allah knows for sure but we can try to think and try to come forth with some type of opinion why because why did allah reveal these these letters there must be a wisdom so we can try to think of wisdoms of why allah revealed these letters in the beginning of these surahs one thing that we notice which is very interesting almost all the time in the quran any time allah begins a surah with these letters the very next phrase has something to do with the quran think all of the surahs you know ya seen well quran right so if you look at almost every now there are some exceptions where it's not the second verse but it's the third or fourth verse but in every single time that allah within those few verses something to do with the quran is mentioned so it would make sense that the have something to do with this magnificent quran every time the quran is praised after so there's got to be or there should be one would say the logical to make some connection so what is this connection scholars have tried to think about this and they've compiled all of these and these they number exactly 14 letters exactly 14. if you compile all of the letters that are present in these roof right you put them all together you get exactly 14. how many letters are in the arabic alphabet 28 there are 28 letters in the arabic alphabet so 14 is obviously exactly half of 28 okay so some scholars have read in some type of symbolic meaning here that allah is showing us that the quran is composed of our letters the quran is composed of the language that we speak and yet mankind cannot produce something similar to it it is as if allah is taunting the rejecters of the quran by showing them these are your words these are your letters now produce a surah similar to it if you're able to do so produce a quran similar to it produce 10 surah similar to it you all know there are verses in the quran they are called the verses of challenge exactly there are five verses the challenge in one of these verses allah says bring the whole quran in another verse allah says bring 10 surahs in another verse allah says bring something in two verses allah says bring one surah one surah if you can so sorry no one one surah one so in these verses of challenge in these verses of challenging it is as if there is a linkage with the harufal qatar and these verses of challenge it is as if allah is saying here is half of the alphabet bring the other half and bring something similar to the quran so one of the wisdoms that scholars have tried to derive from the hill from is to show the miraculous nature of the quran that the quran is composed of words that we speak language that we know letters that we write and yet mankind is not able to produce something similar to this and allah knows best we will never know for sure what are the meaning of the quran but it does appear that there is some relationship with the beauty and the majesty and the miraculous nature of the quran and by the way for those of you who want to come regularly insha'allah all of you it will be good if you bring your must-haves as well and follow along because we're going to be doing a tafseer and when we do it i've seen what this means is we will look at every word every context and if you have your copy of the quran then you can follow along if you want to write some notes as well this will be also in is an arabic word which means these this these but there is a difference between tilka and hadi they both mean this means this or these but there's a difference we use it for something close here tilka we use it for something far away so allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is talking about the quran in the far away tense not it's not a tense but it's a a word and he does this not only here but also in surah baqarah alif is for far away kitab is masculine so we say valik right is feminine so feminine and masculine aside there is a difference between versus right so hatha kitab over here right you'll say had that kitab but to point to something far away you say tilka tilkel kitab over there far away not this one so allah azzawajal talks about the quran in the pronoun if you like that talks about something far away why does allah mention the far away pronoun when the quran is in our hands to show that the status of the quran is exalted to show that the quran is worthy of being something that is majestic even if you have it we should thank allah that we have it but its status is a high status it is a status that is a noble status so allah says these are the ayats these are the verses of the kitab mubin which is the clear book or the or the lucid book now ayat we all know what it means an ayah is a part of the surah an ayah is a section we call it in english a verse an ayah is a verse and this shows us that allah azzawajal himself has divided the quran into ayat where does this division come from from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala how about into surahs allah azzawajal also says when a surah comes down right hadith allah we reveal it so allah mentions the word surah and the word aya why do we care about this well because many other scriptures including many of the new testament scriptures if you look at them those divisions are man-made not just the divisions the texts are man-made right for us the quran is from allah and even the divisions within the quran by divisions i mean surah and ayat they come from allah surah and ayat come from allah so allah says these are the ayats of the clear book now ayah we all know an ayah means a verse but an ayah also means a sign an indication an ayah also means a miracle and a verse is a sign and a verse is a miracle so allah uses the term that is loaded with meaning what is aya mean allah calls the miracles of creation ayah allah says in your creation there is an ayah allah says in the sun and the moon there is an ayah and allah calls the verses of the quran an ayah it's not a coincidence allah knows what he is saying and no one is more eloquent than allah the meaning here every verse of the quran there is a message for you every verse of the quran there is an indication every verse of the quran there is a miracle these are the ayat of the clear book mubin is a description of the book now allah calls the quran many different names but there are two names that are the most common kitab and quran this is the verses of the clear book kitab and quran they occur both around 75 times to describe our book the quran is called quran and the quran is called kitab there is no other description that is more common than kitab and quran kitab and quran are complementary to each other kitab and quran put together tell us what this book is what does kitab mean something that is written down what does quran mean something that is recited so the quran is something that is written down and it is recited simultaneously no other book from allah has been preserved to this level the quran has been written down by the commandment of allah and the quran has also been recited by allah by jibril by the prophet salam and it is recited to this day and this is of the miracles of the quran that no other book has all the other books they were written down by men they were written down by by by the scribes by people after the times of the prophets but as for us the kitab and the quran are complementary what does al-mubin mean can have two meanings to it the first meaning is the book itself is a clear book as allah says in the beginning of there's no doubt in it there's no ambiguity in it the book is clear and what does it mean the book is clear it means anybody who approaches the quran will be able to get some message from it anybody who approaches the quran can find some level of benefit from it and what this means is that the quran is a book that is meant to be contemplated by every single muslim it's not something that only the elite have access to it's not something that only the scholar should read even the basic average muslim can benefit from the quran now no doubt the average muslim can only benefit a certain level and the more they grow in knowledge the more they can benefit this is a common misconception that alhamdulillah is getting more and more minimal these days but once upon a time it's very common to hear oh anybody can interpret the quran i can open up the quran and interpret it no interpretation requires knowledge but simple hidayah you can get it immediately from the quran you can even get it via a translation you can read the quran for personal benefit you can read the quran for personal guidance anybody can do so there are levels of meaning you understand it now if you want to go deep and dissect why did allah say why did allah say this and now you need you need you need knowledge but the average muslim can benefit from the quran so the quran is mubin another meaning of allah calling the kitab mubin allah saying this is a mubin book what does mubin mean by in clear another meaning of allah calling the book clear it means this book is a clear message from allah you don't have any doubt where it's from so the mubin doesn't refer to the language it refers to the origin and the source of the book the book has a clear-cut source everybody knows where this book is from this book is no ambiguity in it this book we know it's not a ambiguous book now this might surprise you but to this day nobody knows who wrote the new testament nobody knows matthew mark john luke nobody knows who they were to this day nobody knows the biographies of these people they were not the actual disciples of christ they're anonymous people living in the second or third century or the second third generation after jesus christ nobody knows to this day nobody knows who wrote the old testament completely shrouded in in mystery the jews believed that musa wrote it of course the orthodox jews but no other group believes this because the old testament it mentions the death of musa who buried musa it mentions everything after musa people don't know who wrote it allah is saying this is a mubeen book you know the origin you know the source everything is clear about it there's no question mark and i cannot stress for you muslims that we take this for granted we take it for granted as if it's something that is no big deal there is no other religious scripture on the face of this earth that is as unambiguous as clear as demarcated from fatihatunas in the origin of language exactly the same as the quran you look at the hindu scriptures you look at the buddhist scriptures you look at the christian you look at the jewish scriptures there is such a massive confusion in many religions you don't even know what the scripture is in almost all religions the language is not the language spoken by the prophets the original new testament was written in which language greek jesus christ didn't speak greek he spoke aramaic right and what i'm trying to stress to you we take these things for granted our quran there's no versions to this day the orthodox christians have one bible the protestants have another bible the catholics have another bible different books completely different editions and subtractions to this day they're different versions we you can belong to any sect of islam this is amazing you can differ in theology there are other groups in islam but their quran is exactly the same from fatih word for word letter for letter for right you purchase a quran in india you purchase it here you purchase it in timbuktu you have handwritten manuscripts alhamdulillah this is such a blessing from allah that we just take for granted that our holy book is clear and all of this proves as allah says in the quran in a surah before this one that we have revealed this scripture and we will protect it another also way to understand this is saying this surah in particular is something that is clear for you you need nothing else besides the surah so this is a indication of the importance of the surah and to emphasize this point allah says in the third verse in the second verse we have sent this quran down we have sent it down as an arabic quran so that you may understand in quran question that many muslims ask why does allah refer to himself in the plural in fact even many non-muslims ask why does why does god refer to himself in the plural in the quran what is the we there are two primary interpretations of this the first of them is that the we is a royal plural the plural of majesty the plural of isa and this is something that is allowed in the arabic language that a singular person one man will say we when he is worthy of it meaning like king or royalty and to this day even in the english language even in the english language uh the queen of england she never says i she always says we even in the english language the we here is the we of royalty she doesn't mean we meaning me and my family she means i but she says we to indicate that majesty and in arabic that this is also is called the royal plural and so this is a permissible interpretation iben tamiya has another interpretation ibn tamiya says that every time there is a plural in the quran this is a reference to allah along with the command of the angels allah tells the angels to do something and that is why and this is interesting ibn tamiya says never in the quran does allah say worship us he always says worship me but allah says we reveal the book because the book comes down via jibril allah says we send the rain because every single drop of rain has an angel taking it right to where allah said it's going to go allah says we are the ones who blow the winds because the angels are the one who take the winds right allah says we are the ones who take the souls because the angel of death comes and takes the souls right so this is an interesting interpretation which also seems to make sense that when allah says we he means i am doing this and i am telling the angels to execute this command because the quran comes down at the command of allah by the hands of jubari i feel like jabril is the one who brings it down so this is one interpretation as well and it has a good uh basis to it you all know what anzala means anzala means to descend nazara means to go down nezhala means to descend and this shows that the quran physically came down physically but we know that the quran did not come down onto a mountain and the book was there what does it mean there are a number of meanings here firstly that jibril came down with the recitation of the quran so literally the quran is coming down with juvederm in his memory and jibril is reciting it to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam secondly we learn from a hadith in uh in mustadaq that on laylatul allah azzawajal physically sent down a divine copy of the quran physic a book a part of the lohel mahfud that had the quran do you all know what luhl mahfud is allah says in the quran right so there is a copy of the quran in the lohil mafu and according to one hadith which is authentic and in one interpretation this low helmholtz portion of the quran was literally sent down to the lowest heavens on leila before the wahi began before the he began upon the prophet sallam allah sent down this copy of the quran to the lower heavens and jibril would take from there as well so there is a physical descent of a divine copy of the quran and so allah says anzala and there's also a metaphysical descent meaning within jibril jibril brings the quran down and this also shows us of the many evidences that allah is above some people say allah is everywhere but it doesn't make sense allah is not everywhere this is not what allah azzawajal is above us and that's why the quran is coming down if allah was not above us then the quran would not need to come down nor would the process and have to go up in israel to speak to him so the quran is coming down inna and we have sent down this quran now sometimes allah says we have anzala and sometimes he says we have nazela anzala and nazela what's the difference between these minor difference but it's also very profound and deep anzala means to send down at once nasa means to send down bit by bit and the quran is referenced with anzala and with nazela the quran sometimes allah says anzala and sometimes he says what is the difference again anzala means it comes down it comes down like this means i cannot break this up but we break it up into bits one bit another bit another bit element that's nazella right now the quran is sometimes anzal and sometimes nazal how is this because both occurred the quran came down in its entirety only this is anzala and then for the next 23 years what happened jibril brought it 5 10 15 20 ayat at a time this is what is this and so allah azzawajal speaks the exact truth and both of these things are valid we have revealed this as an arabic quran quran now this is a very very interesting verse there are 11 verses in the quran exactly 11 verses that characterize the quran as being arabic allah says in 11 verses that this is an arabic quran we have revealed an arabic quran this isn't this is in clear arabic language and from this there is unanimous consensus amongst all the scholars of islam that the quran can only be in arabic because of this because of a verse just like this verse so allah describes the quran as being an arabic quran and what this means when we read a translation we are not reading the quran we all know this but this is the evidence what this means when we stand up in salah we cannot say all praise be to allah lord of the worlds if we do so our salah is null and void we have to say alhamdulillah if we were to recite it in a non-arabic language that is not quran it is a translation it is not the actual quran and what this shows us as well is that the quran the quran is what it shows us as well is that the quran has been revealed in the language that allah azzawajal spoke it now this is a deep theological point i don't want to go too deep here but i believe something which other groups deny you've all heard this right we call the quran allah other groups they deny this other groups they said it's not kalam allah for allah we believe the quran is the kalam allah what does it mean it's it means that literally allah azzawajal spoke the quran he recited the quran that's why we call it allah and it means that jibril heard this recitation and jubilee brought this recitation down to the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam and the process and recited it after he heard it from jibreel and from jibril to the prophet saw from the process into the sahaba up until this day we have a continuous chain non-stop and it is from allah azzawajal the recitation begins it's from allah azzawajal and what this means when allah says we have revealed in arabic quran that that recitation was done in arabic as well because that's why it is an arabic quran and you know getting into forget the theology when we recite the quran what we feel is something that is divine even if you're not arab when you recite the quran you feel something this is an amazing speech it is a it's a divine speech why where did this come from well when you understand sunni theology understand why where this came from we believe that this recitation it was recited by allah azzawajal and therefore when we recite it there is something of divinity not my recitation is not divine but there's something divine about the quran and that is why the quran it must be respected you cannot put it on the floor show disrespect to it you it's it's sunnah to respect the quran you should put it on a high place in the room you should have wudu when you touch it right you're not you're not allowed to touch the quran without wudu so many aspects of respect why because the quran is not just any book the quran is kalam allah and when it is a certain status that no other book has so allah says we have revealed it in an arabic quran now a question also arises here does this mean that all of the words in the quran are arabic when allah says this is an arabic quran does this mean every single word in the quran is arabic there are clearly words in the quran that come from from persian from greek from even roman there are clearly words in the quran that are not words that are pure arabic these are roman persian words sometimes there's even sanskrit words there's even words from greek from sorry from latin and those latin words have also worked their way into english by the way it's an interesting point here so there are some words that we we are native speakers of english right and english of course is based in latin and latin is a very ancient language and some words from latin made their way to the arabs as well can anybody think of any word that is quranic and english at the same time there's more than one that's a good attempt it's a good attempt but it's not in the quran no we're talking about english and latin and uh and and and quran uh story story arabs is not a pure arabic word it's a latin word right and the english word story is from the very latin that made its way to the arabs and we find in the quran these are these are the stories of all when you read yusuf and any translation how do they translate assatl story it's the same word there's other words as well uh that have slightly been changed uh the word justice what is the arabic for justice how is it the same we're trying to find the same word another word for justice christos right symbol it's from the same root as the latin root so from english it entered and became justice from arabic it became and there are two or three other words like this just as a side point something for your benefit that there are some now the question arises now allah says this is an arabic quran so the sahaba tabernacle they read the quran and they say hold on a sec not every single word is arabic what do we do and so some of the early scholars and the most famous amongst them is imam shafiri imam anybody who says that there's a single word of non-arabic in the quran he's a jahil he doesn't know what he doesn't know what he's talking about how can there be a non-arabic word in the quran when allah says so imam shafir his love for the quran was so much he said i don't care i'm not going to listen to any argument allah says quran and arabia end the story every single word has to be arabic ya imam shafir what do we do with these words that are found in other languages they took them from the arabs now with all respect i love you mama chef he's a great scholar but it doesn't it doesn't quite work right i mean it doesn't work that way so later scholars said no no no there's lots of non-arabic words in the quran lots of non-arabic words not a problem and some of them imam swithi wrote a book and over 250 words in this book are basically uh claimed to be of non-arabic that these are non-arabic words he said this is a farsi word this is a sundes is a farci word there's a word in sanskrit as well it will come to me soon um uh basically ancient urdu hindi is the word that's also in the quran so he brings all of these there's words from aramaic uh words from uh from uh uh ethiopia is uh these words from the ethiopic language they're not arabic words so how do we reconcile this a great scholar by the name of abu ubaidah qasim even sallam who died 230 or so hijrah abu abid al-qasim in he said both groups are right how can both groups be right imam shafi is right and his opponents are right how can both groups you write this is what you call a little bit of thinking calm down look at both sides both groups are right how so he said yes allah says this is one of their main evidences this verse right that's what we're going into this tangent for those of you who have never attended any of my lecture i am guilty of going into lots of tangents unfortunately my mind cannot think straight so i'm trying to go here but it goes here and there some of my students like this stuff so alhamdulillah and some of them get irritated uh will it actually i get more irritated than my students but this is not a tangent this is related to this verse so excuse me this this is not a tangent why because this is the main evidence innanza there is no contradiction both of you guys are right how can both of you guys be right he said and this is as i said intelligence he said every language interacts with other languages and it incorporates words from the other language into its own and substitutes the letters of those language with the letters of its own and changes the word to suit its own grammar so story becomes asatri right story becomes as-saltir justice becomes kastas they make it arabic and the word becomes a fluent arabic word so much so that when an arab uses the word nobody thinks of its greek origin nobody thinks of its latin origin nobody thinks of its aramaic origin it is an arabic word even if it came 100 years ago 200 years ago from another language and you know this is the way languages work anybody who studied even the basics of language you you bring in words from other cultures and then they become a part of your language and so they are arabic words even if they were taken from non-arabic languages now they are arabic words so allah has spoken the truth in arabic has said the truth that every word is arabic even though his interpretation was a little bit incorrect but he is true every single word is an arabic word so that you may understand you may understand what allah doesn't say you might understand what so that you may understand dot dot dot blank you may understand what it's not finished the sentence is not complete why because when you leave the sentence blank you encompass all meanings you don't need to if you finish the sentence you limit it when you leave it blank so that you may understand everything everything nothing it doesn't need to be limited and this also shows us that there is a reason why allah chose the language of the arabs and that is because his prophet is an arab prophet and it is because the people of this prophet his immediate people are an arab people and this tells us very frankly that the arabic language is the most eloquent language and we as muslims and i say this as a non-arab of ethnicity and i have no problem saying this and i would go even farther to say and this is the opinion and imam imitation many scholars they said this very clearly that and many of these scholars were also non-arabs they said the arabic language is the best language even as non-arabs we must acknowledge this now the arabic of today is not that language so the arabs amongst you with all respect we're talking about we're talking about quranic arabic right that language as for modern arabic it is a different language altogether right it's not the language of uh of of that uh era we're talking about that language that language is the most eloquent language we must believe this as a part of he said this is our some of the scholars are very strict imam malik if anybody spoke pharisee now in those days there was only one more language that the muslims spoke it was pharisee there's only one language it's classical farsi if anybody spoke pharisee in front of him you would have them kicked out of the prophet's masjid salam because he was the imam anybody spoke far as it goes get out of here this is this is a place where we speak arabic okay now if we were to i'm speaking in english now imam shafi or imam ali were here they'd be angry at me but yeah those were different times and there's nothing wrong with uh speaking another language but they wanted to preserve uh the language of the prophet sallallahu alaihi and i say this as a non-arab yes we should learn arabic it's not wajib to learn arabic to understand it but subhanallah this is our religion the quran is our religion the sunnah is our religion and learning arabic is a big part of our religion you cannot become a true student of the quran until you learn arabic it's a simple fact you cannot become a student of the quran until you learn arabic and it it really irritates me sometimes when i hear somebody say i have read 10 different translations of this verse as if he's become now a great mufassir when he's read 10 different english translations reading a translation is meaningless you haven't wallahi you have not read the verse yet much less the tafseer of the verse you have not read the verse if you have to read the translation in order to understand uh in order to understand the quran so allah says i have revealed this kitab in mubin in an arabic language so that you can understand it now if somebody were to say it's not fair that the non-arabs therefore don't understand the quran allah is saying i have revealed the quran in arabic in order that you understand what do we do as a non-arab and what are non-arabs supposed to do with the guidance in the arabic language the response to this is one language had to have been chosen logically and even if allah chose another language then people of other languages would have said the same thing so this is not a solid response to criticize its revelation in arabic number one number two we say that arabic is the most eloquent of all languages and by the way if you look at it all of the languages that we know of that allah reveal books in are semitic languages he revealed books in hebrew and he revealed books in aramaic and he probably revealed books in syria the language of islam we don't know but all of the languages that the books came down in are semitic languages semetic is a family of languages right hebrew aramaic syriac arabic these are semitic and then you have the indo-aryan languages and this is latin and from latin we get latin and sanskrit are actually cousins and then from latin we get all of these romance languages it's a different family completely has nothing to do with our branch of arabic and if you study the differences between those two branches you find a world of a difference and those of you who are arabs and have studied back in your grade two and three right once upon a time uh naho and sarf is a blessing i know you guys used to hate it believe me i didn't love it as well but it's a blessing why because it shows you the structure of a language the structure the precision of na from going into tangier but you don't find it in english grammar you don't find it in latin grammar especially the science of self where you take a three letter verb a three letter word and you add an alif or wow or a noon you add a meme and the structure is set from one word you can derive 250 words once you learn one word in the arabic language one word all you have to learn is one three-letter verb one three-letter root instantaneously you can derive 250 at least if you know solve properly and this is an amazing amazing language it doesn't exist in english it doesn't exist in any other language so allah is saying i revealed it in arabic so that you may so that you may understand it and the third point we'll say with this if a non-arab says this we say even if you don't understand its full beauty in arabic a translation will give you a portion of that beauty it'll give you a glimpse of it and so non-muslims we give them the translation of the quran there's no problem whatsoever some more strict muslims say we should not give them translations of the quran the prophet saw them wrote to the emperor of rome and in that letter he wrote a verse of the quran and when the emperor received the verse it was translated in front of him and this is the first time in history that the quran was translated into latin in the lifetime of the prophet sallallahu alaihi how can anybody say this is not allowed in the lifetime of the prophet sallam and he knows is going to be translated the emperor of rome did not speak arabic and the process and wrote him in arabic and so it is our duty to translate the quran into other languages the prophet sasha had no problem doing it it's not the quran anymore but the glimpse of beauty will remain and therefore the quran will remain but the other languages are permissible allah says after this that we have sent this quran down in quran one of the reasons why allah is beginning the surah yes why is allah beginning to surah by mentioning we have revealed this quran to you one of the reasons why allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is mentioning this is to remind the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam of the favors that he has upon him the favors that allah has given him and this is a standard motif of the quran your lord has not left you nor has he abandoned you what is didn't we find you as an orphan and we took care of you allah is reminding the favors that he has done to the prophet sallallahu alaihi and why does he do this to this is human nature that when you're down what what do you need you need somebody to cheer you up right when you're spiritually down when you're going through a depression mode or something that's depressing what happened somebody's got what happens when your loved ones come it's all right you know this that they cheer you up they tell you something positive so allah azzawajal is telling the greatest positive thing that we have revealed this quran to you and one person we have revealed this quran to you thank allah for this this is the greatest blessing you can have so we have revealed it in arabic so that you may understand it the last verse that we'll do and then we'll open the floor for question answering we have already mentioned that the plural occurs because of allah and the angels we recite to you the stories what stories the best of all stories now what is a krista krista actually the word comes from tasa and kasa means to follow the footsteps in the stan in the sand when you the better ones when they when they found somebody's footsteps they would follow them in order to catch up to that person in order to get to that person and that's why allah says in the quran about about musa there's no story involved here here means what musa and yusha they followed their own kasasa they followed their own footsteps back right goslass here means to follow the footsteps till you meet the person so why is the story come from following the footsteps pretty obvious why somebody hmm something handed down good attempt close not quite you didn't quite get the prize stories are handed down that's close but even closer the linkage of it you will some no i'm talking about why is that called the krista not for not pro i'm talking why is a story called it's a linguistic question beginning and ending someone has to say it told again again similar stuff but we're not getting to it chronological what is you are walking in their footsteps like what is kassa mean i said to walk in somebody's footsteps to follow them when i tell you the krista what happens to you what happens to you any questions right you're living it exactly that's what i was exactly looking for you're living it right you're you're you are there why why does everybody love a story a story is mesmerizing a person never grows too old to listen to a story right no matter how old you are you love to listen to a story what do we do to children to put them to sleep we tell them a story what are we doing my kids come to me i want a story i want a story right this is what children love well all of us are children in this regard we will love stories and allah is saying we're going to give you the best of stories because we are walking the walk when we hear the story it is as if we're following their footsteps so allah is saying we will give you the best of stories and stories by the way subhanallah if you read any book of how to speak how to give an effective talk there's always a chapter dedicated to the story in fact in one of the latest books i read it said always begin a lecture with a personal anecdote always you begin with a personal story why because it grabs the attention of the audience right so it's human nature that stories are attractive stories are something you like to listen to number one number two stories those lessons in them are manifested now for example if i open up and i tell you the benefits of patience masha'allah good but now i get to the story of the mother of anas right and how she reacted when her son died right now those a hadith they are brought home it's not the same as just saying whoever is patience masha'allah is good iman okay good but when i show you a story those stories they remain with you those stories you are affected by the more human nature and so allah azzawajal is telling us stories another benefit of a story a story is in action theology in action it's one thing to say we believe in allah it's one thing that we put my trust in allah when we hear the story of ibrahim and he's going to be thrown into the fire and he puts his trust in allah what is this theology shown in action right so akita is manifested another benefit of the story is it's the reality of what has happened in the past it's a real thing it's not theory anymore we know this happened to the previous prophets and so we sense it more and yet another benefit is that stories they teach us that allah is repetitive what has happened in the past will happen again what is the purpose of a fable a story that we tell our children why do we tell it there's always a moral to the story right there's always a lesson to be learned and the lessons of allah these these rules of allah are permanent and when we hear these stories we are reinforced these rules are reinforced so we're going to come to this one of the fundamental rules of the story of yusuf is righteousness will win out in the end evil can never succeed in the long run this is one of the main themes of surah yusuf we're going to come to this now when we read the story we see this manifested we see it in real life and therefore this maxim this rule is then implanted in us that righteousness will win out in the end and that is why allah says in the quran that we are going to send you down stories to strengthen your resolve it's not childish to find motivation in stories it is imanik it's part of our iman and that is why reading the stories of the prophets reading the seerah of the prophet salam is one of the greatest ways to increase iman reading this the the stories of the sahaba brings about a sense of taqwa and iman of of courage in us so stories are a part of the quran and sunnah they're part of human nature and this whole surah is a story we will be narrating to you the best of all stories this has two meanings to it number one every single quranic story is the best of its kind every story in the quran is the best and this is for many many reasons number one because they're all true the quran is not legends and fables right and the true story is always better than an imaginary story number two that they have the best morals no other story will give you those types of morals number three the eloquent manners of presenting these stories there is no story that can be more eloquent than the quranic one number four that every story that a man writes will have details and information that is not needed and it distracts from the story details that are distracting from the moral allah azzawajal will tell you exactly what you need to know and not more and not less so the point is given and this is one of the biggest differences between the story of yusuf in the quran versus the story of yusuf in the old testament the old testament gives you so many details you get lost whereas the story of use of even a 10 year old can read it cover to cover understand everything because the details are not there that will get you to cause to cause you to become lost so we were so i said the first meaning every story in the quran is the best a second meaning that has been derived the fact that allah mentions this verse in surah yusuf is an indication that surah yusuf is what the best of all stories so there's two meanings we derive number one quranic stories are better than all non-quranic stories that's pretty obvious and the quran re-emphasizes this number two the story of yusuf is the best of all of these stories that's an indication that's why allah begins this surah with ah we are the one who will tell you the best of all bhima means like basically uh because or because we have or through this revelation that we have given to you ha the quran so in other words because we are revealing the quran to you it is our duty to tell you the best of all stories ha the quran this quran even though before the quran came down you were from the rafileen what does rafil mean rafil means you didn't have knowledge rafa means to not have knowledge and sometimes that rafla is intentional and sometimes it is unintentional and in this case it is unintentional the prophet sasson did not have access to knowledge so allah calls our prophet because he didn't have the knowledge not because he didn't study but because he could not have studied so allah is saying that because we have revealed this quran to you it is our right to give you the best of all stories because we have revealed the quran it is our duty to give you the best of all stories pause here allah calls the book quran one verse ago he called it what kitab what do we say kitab and quran are complementary the kitab is written the quran is recited and the two put together form the reality of our book kitab and quran and allah mentions both in the beginning of this surah so we have revealed to you the best of all stories because of our relation to the quran even though before the quran came down you were from the refining now this shows us a number of points and with this inshallah we will conclude and open the floor for q and a number one the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam despite being the greatest human being before the came down he did not know these details now what does that show this is a very profound point for modern philosophers scientists and whatnot especially for philosophers the quran is the ultimate source of all of our guidance we will never know ultimate truth from falsehood good from evil without the quran a lot of people as the modern philosophy is based on this think that if you sit in a cave and meditate i'm being a bit sarcastic here but if you just use your intellect you will be able to derive all the wisdoms you need to know you'll be able to figure out what's right and wrong what's the best way to govern what's the best way to judge what's the best ruling was this and that the quran tells us no even before the quran came down you despite being the best of all human beings were laughing if our rasool allah could not know all of these truths before the quran came down do you think that me or you or tom or dick or harry or this philosopher or that doctor or this engineer or that philosoph will ever know the realities will they be more than our prophet salallahu allah says in the quran iman you didn't used to know what was iman what was the book you didn't used to know allah says the meaning of allah here is not misguided the process was never misguided allah means you weren't on the path so you could be misguided or you just don't have a path in the case of the process and he did not have that path yet so if this was the state of our rasool allah before the wahi came down before the revelation came down what then is the state of other than the rasool without there is no guidance without the quran this is a fundamental belief of all muslims and that's why the quran is a hidayah and that's why the quran is and that's why the quran is kitab in mubin hakeem you will never be able to achieve ultimate truths without the quran so allah says even though before this before the coming of the revelation you were from the uh and one last point that we benefit from here is that allah is saying you didn't know these surahs before i revealed them to you were rafil about them so how did you know about them and we mentioned this before how did you living in mecca without access to any library without any older new testament without access to jews and christians how did you know about the story of yusuf there's only one source and that is allah subhanahu wa allah and this is of the greatest miracles that we as muslims many times neglect and don't appreciate our prophet salallahu sallam is living in an environment of complete illiteracy complete ignorance there are no libraries there's no universities there's no scholars the people in mecca were bedouins imagine in our times imagine in our times now with the internet and cell phones this is difficult to imagine right for those of you who are older than 15 20 you remember a time when there was no internet and cell phone right imagine in that era you come across a tribe in brazil or the jungles of africa completely cut off from civilization and they have amongst them a man who's talking about the histories of rome and persia he's talking about the stories of the older new testament he's complete in the middle of the jungle the people can't even read and write they're literally backward tribesmen let's say but they have a man amongst them who knows all of these things isn't this something we cannot imagine it's a miracle of miracles right this was the case of our prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam in mecca he's coming forth with stories issues statements people had no access to the only access could have been from allah and this is one of the clear signs that the quran is indeed from allah foreign

Channel: Yasir Qadhi

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Keywords: yasir, qadhi, official, islamic, scholar, Islam, Quran, Sunnah, Hadith, hadith, Bukhari, muslim, Tirmidhi, tirmidhi, Stories From The Quran, Surah Yusuf, Pearls From Surah Yusuf, Lessons From Surahs, shaykh dr. yasir qadhi, quran, Quranic Lessons, Prophetic Lessons, Manners in Islam, Brotherhood in Islam, Sisterhood in Islam, The Beauty of The Muslim Community, Mercy of Allah

Id: zXytSWHuFcg

Length: 72min 16sec (4336 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 21 2020