Story Of Prophet Yusuf ✔

4. PLOTTING AGAINST YUSUF [Surah Yusuf 12:8-9]

8. When they said, “Surely Yusuf and his brother are more beloved to our father than us while we are a strong group. Surely our father is in clear error”.

9. Kill Yusuf or cast him to some distant land so that it may make the face of your father be only for you and you will be after that a righteous people.

Yusuf and Binyamin were from one mother and they were younger than the other brothers. Binyamin was few years old and Yusuf was 7 to 10 years old. Allah blessed Yusuf (AS) with beauty and looks. The Prophet (PBUH) said, “Yusuf and his mother have been given half of all beauty.”  In another narration, he says, “Yusuf has been given half of all beauty.”  It means that all of the beauty of mankind was split into two, and half of it was divided by the billions of human beings and one-half of it was given just to Yusuf or just to Yusuf and his mother.  This tells us how handsome Yusuf was.

Yusuf was loved by his father more than his brothers. It doesn't mean that Yaqub AS preferred Yusuf over his other sons in material gifts and blessings. He was equal in that with all his sons however his love for Yusuf which is an emotion of the heart was not in his control.

They could not understand how their father could love Yusuf (AS) more when they saw themselves as a strong group. There were two diseases that haunted their hearts, and these were arrogance and pride. These brothers thought that they were the best and strong, they were the ones who were taking care of their father as he was old, so they were deserving of their father's love. Whereas Yusuf and his brother were kids and were themselves in need of care and attention and unable to help their father in any way.

LESSONS

1. Verse nine shows us how Shaitan works. Allah (swt) tells us his plan of attack so that we can watch out for it and so that we would not fall into it. Whenever Shaitan wants to make us commit some evil, he will almost always give us a reason for that evil. It may be the most foolish of reasons, but there will always be a reason. This reason is a justification. It is an excuse for the sin. You know that what you are doing is wrong, and so you are hoping that this reason would excuse you. But if you were to stop and reflect on your excuse. If you were to think if your excuse would be acceptable to Allah (swt) or not. Then, Insha Allah, you have a chance to save yourself from Shaitan.

2. Planning for repentance before committing a sin is another trick of Shaitan. This is just an excuse to entice people to carry out the sin to remove their guilt and their inhibitions. How can anyone be certain that his repentance will be accepted by Allah (swt) if they planned their repentance before they committed the sin? If you really feared Allah (swt) then why do you not be a righteous now and not commit the sin in the first place? As we see later, one sin leads to another sin. They thought that they would do one sin and that would be the end.  They didn’t realize that once they did one sin that then they need to lie and swear upon the lie and build upon the lie and do more things after that and cover it up.  They don’t realize that sins lead to more sins and evil leads to more evil. This is the tactic of the Shaytan, and Allah swt warns us about this through the story of Yusuf.

3. Jealousy is something that doesn't materialize suddenly. Rather it builds for years and years. This shows us how Shaitan is very patient. He will not immediately suggest to us that we commit a major sin. But rather he will build us up for a long time, years and years if necessary. So to save ourselves from Shaitan we have to stop him at the initial attack. If we feel any hatred or jealousy or arrogance in our hearts then we must strive to destroy those feelings immediately.

4. The fact that Allah (swt) brings our attention in this surah to the idea of “sibling rivalry” shows us that it is very dangerous. This jealousy between brothers and sisters can lead to actual hatred coming between them. It could even lead to them hurting each other. So you have to work to save yourself from this. Try your best not to compete with your brothers and sisters. Do not ask yourself who is better and do not think about who your parents love more. Know that what matters, in the end, is not the love of parents but the Love of Allah (swt). The Love of Allah (swt) is gained by striving to do the actions that are pleasing to Him (swt). As long as you try your best then you should know that Allah (swt) Knows what you have done. For one thing, we know that Allah (swt) does not like this disease of jealousy to be in our hearts. So we should strive to cleanse our hearts of it and we should always consider our striving to be part of our worship and servitude of Allah (swt).

5. The way that we save ourselves from jealousy is by reminding ourselves that we are not better than that person. We are all slaves of Allah (swt) and it is only He (swt) Who Knows which person is better than another. Perhaps this person with whom you are jealous is closer to Allah (swt) than you. Where then is the room for jealousy in your heart? So instead of hating that person, you should work on improving yourself. Supposing that person is not a better Muslim than you are, if that is the case, then you should still realize that he or she will still be questioned by Allah (swt) for all that they were given in this world. The more of this world that any of us has been given, the more that we have a responsibility to be grateful to Allah (swt) for it. So if that person has been given more of this world than you, then you should realize that this only means that he or she would be judged more severely on the Day of Judgment. Now when you realize this fact are you still envious of them?

6. If some strong people come together and form a group, it doesn't mean they cannot make mistakes or they are free from sins. A strong group against a weak person doesn't mean victory. The victory was given to Yusuf alone, and the group of ten strong men had to kneel down in front of Yusuf in the end. 

7. Islam teaches us that we must obey our parents and try our best to please them but what if our parents don't understand? Yes, I agree. Sometimes it feels like parents just don't understand, and this can often lead to fighting with our parents. Let's face it, talking about personal stuff can be embarrassing. Some of you might think if you share a problem, you'll make your parents worried or upset. Some of you may not bring up a problem because you just don't want to think about it — and hope it will just go away. Some of you talk to your friends about your problems instead of your parents. Talking to them and making them understand your point of view is very important. If the brothers of Yusuf had opened up with their father regarding their feelings if they had told him that they were feeling jealous of Yusuf. The father who even though sensed the jealousy would have made some efforts to bring the hearts together. Instead, they kept their feelings and problems to themselves and didn't share their biggest concern with their father, they didn't seek his advice and ended up committing a grave sin. So one of the lessons that can be learned from this story is to talk to your parents about whatever bothers you. Bottling up your emotions or hiding the problems can only make thing worse.