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Tadabbur
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4. When Yusuf told his father, Dear Father! I saw eleven bright stars, and the sun and
moon as well. I saw them all to me prostrating
Many people ask what is the difference between Tafseer and Tadabbur? Tafseer is to uncover the meaning of
the miraculous words of the Quran - what do they mean exactly. And that is the job of the mufassir. However,
once the meaning becomes clear, what can we learn and derive from that?
Look at the table on the previous page. Let us take the example of this ayah to understand the difference
between tafseer and tadabbur.
The meaning of this ayah is quite clear. The English translation is enough of a tafseer of this ayah. On top of
that we know this is actually a dream. This is the meaning.
Tadabbur is to say what do we learn from this dream? What does this dream mean? How does it impact on
Yusuf ? On those that he tells about this dream Yaqoob ? What do we learn from that? Can
we take any benefit from this dream? Why did Allah choose to show him this dream this early on in his life? This
is trying to extract guidance from the understood meaning.
Tafseer is for an elite group of people who are qualified to do it. Tadabbur is for every single person.
Allah mentions in Surat Muhammad:
Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts? [47:24]
This is a question showing contempt and anger towards the munafiqoon. Dont you make tadabbur of the
Quran? Dont you read it and try to reflect and act upon it? Dont you do that?
Who is Allah addressing here? Munifiqoon! If the munafiqoon can make tadabbur or are being asked why dont
you, then of course, as for the believer, then so much more so, that he is supposed to make tadabbur. And
tadabbur is of different levels.
In ayah 3, Allah mentions that he alone relates the most beautiful stories in the Quran. Now we dive straight
into the story of Yusuf . It starts off with him telling his father about a dream.
In order to get as much benefit from this course as possible, you need to empty your mind of everything you
already know about his life. Everything you know about this story, just pretend you dont know any of it. Just
focus on what is being said. If you are hearing the story for the first time, all you hear is, a child says to his
father, I saw this amazing dream. Now you are thinking, who is this child? How old is he? Where exactly is this?
Those details are not mentioned. Which means that you dont really need to pay too much attention to that.
With that in mind, we dive into the story at a particular point in his life. This point is the beginning of the story.
What happened before doesnt really matter too much.
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Uzkur, so remember: the prophet is being told, remember when, or tell them to remember when
this story happened.
Remember how Allah just mentioned that he relates the best stories in the Quran? Well, one of those
stories is this one here.
Yusuf says to dad, oh father, indeed I have seen 11 stars/ planets. Kawakib can mean stars or planets.
We will get to which one perhaps is more accurate to be used here. I saw 11 of them, then I saw the sun and the
moon, I really did see them, dad, to me they were all prostrating. He tells his dad the dream.
Some linguistic points to look at here:
Kalimah tasgheer
First of all, how did Yusuf speak to his dad?
He is supposed to be a young boy here. How old was he?
Ibn Kathir
says in Al-Bidayah wa an-Nihayah that he was below the age of puberty. However, do you
remember what we said last week, that we are only going to rely on Quran to get the whole story? So here we
are referring to a book of history to get that answer. However, we can actually come to a possible assumption
of his age from the Quran itself, because after this scene, he is thrown into a well. Then the waarid (the well
drawer) comes and pulls him out of the well. What does he say?
This is a gulam. And in Arabic, you have a sabi (infant to 7 years old), and 7 to puberty is the age of a gulam. And
then puberty is a shab (teenager). So from Quran we got some detail as to how old he is. He was below the
age of puberty, so 8, 9 or 10. He is a young boy.
Now imagine an 8 year old or 10 year old that you know in your family. He sees something amazing. Maybe he
goes to school and sees something amazing at school. He is at home, dad comes home. Dad comes to the
door, and the young kid is there. When a kid sees something amazing and he sees his mum or his dad, does he
really say, ya abati, oh dear father, can I have a moment of your time, I want to tell you something I saw at
school? He doesnt, does he? He jumps straight in. Dad doesnt even come through the door yet, and hes
grabbed on to his leg and says, do you know what happened today? Let me tell you.
So here, one thing for sure, Yusuf has got a lot of respect for his dad. He says ya abati. And he doesnt
just say oh dad, he says ya abati. This is known as kalimah tasgheer. It is a more affectionate and endearing way
of saying o father, as in Urdu we would say abbajaan, oh my beloved father.
Do kids really speak like that? So Yusuf , already we are learning that he is very respectful because he
said ya abati, he actually addressed dad before telling him this amazing thing, he says can I have a moment of
your time. Secondly, the way he addresses him is very respectful.
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He tells him, indeed I saw 11 stars/ planets and the sun and the moon, I saw. He already said I saw. He says I
saw this, this, this, I really did see them. He is so sure about what he saw as being a true dream. He is so sure.
And he is also quite excited as well, he is repeating himself.
Rational
VS non-rational plural
VS
He doesnt say they were prostrating to me, he says to me they were prostrating. This is humbleness. If you
saw the stars and planets prostrating to you, you would start thinking that you are some big shot. But he is
saying, to me they are prostrating. He is shocked, and humble about how he relates the dream.
Within this ayah we come to know that although Yusuf is a young boy, he already knows the meaning
of the dream. How can we tell that he already knows the meaning of the dream? There is something about the
wording that tells us that he already knows what the dream means.
If you look at the meaning in Arabic, plurals can be made in the rational and non-rational form (living and nonliving plurals). Here, we see that Yusuf , though he saw the sun and moon which are non-living
entities, he never said raayatuhum, he said it with the rational plural, as if they are living things. So in that
wording, there is an indication that Yusuf knows what the moon and the sun and the planets
symbolize. Whom do they symbolize? Living beings.
The 11 stars/ planets symbolize the brothers.
What about the sun and the moon? Whom do the sun and the moon refer to? What living entity does it
symbolize? Mother and father, or father and mother?
There are some differences of opinion here. As for the 11 stars/ planets, there is an agreement that it refers to
the brothers. As for the sun and the moon, there is a difference of opinion. Some said the sun refers to the
father, others said the sun refers to the mother. Ibn Atiyyah
, in his tafseer, he made a good point. He
said, well, the fact is that religiously speaking, the mother holds a greater station in regard to the child than the
father. The prophet was asked who is most deserving of my good conduct and he said the mother (3
times), and then the father. So 3 times over, she is given a higher station than the father. That is one thing
religiously speaking, the mother is always given a higher station than the father.
Linguistically as well, shams is linguistically feminine, whereas qamar is linguistically masculine. So those two
points show that perhaps the stronger opinion is that the shams refers to the mother, and the father is
symbolized by the qamar.
Then he says that I saw them all prostrating to me.
So this is the verse explained.
Lessons
So what do we learn from this? What kind of lessons do we learn?
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Here we learn a lesson. From all the people, Yusuf told his dad. After this, his dad says dont tell the
brothers.
So here Sadi
says that one point that we learn here is that good dreams should only be related to
certain people, to people who want khair (good) for you. Those are the people you should tell about the
dream, not just anybody.
My Reflections
When Yusuf narrates the dream, he describes it as if he really saw it. He doesnt mention the word dream.
This could be an indication of his age, because he is so excited as he describes it, and is repetitive in his
description. It could also mean the dream was so vivid that he really feels he saw it, or again, because he is so
small, he isnt able to distinguish between a dream and something he saw in reality.
Interesting that Yusuf saw 11 planets. And all these years we had been taught about 9, and only
recently the count (according to science) has changed.
Many of the wives of the prophet before they married him would see a dream that the moon fell in their lap.
So the prophet was depicted as the moon in a dream. I wonder if any scholar gave this as a proof that the
moon was the father. (Seeing as this was also a dream)
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Activity
What purpose does this dream serve with respect to:
1.
2.
3.
Yusuf
Yaqoob
You?
Impact on Yusuf : Through this dream does Allah prepare Yusuf to become a prophet and a
person of authority.
How exactly? Because when Allah shows you that in the end you will be someone of high standing, where
other people will show you so much respect or honour, Allah is already preparing you for that.
As a young boy, Allah showed him the dream and through it, He is showing him that you are going to become
like that.
It is a form of tasliyah (consoling). Would he just become like that? No. He is going to go through tremendous
tests, trials and tribulations. The thing is, when he is thrown into the bottom of a well, a kid, thats staring
death in the face. Allah already gave him the dream before that happens. So when he is at the bottom of the
well, he is thinking, is this the end? It is not the end. It cant be the end. I had that dream. That dream showed
me not inside the well, it showed me on top of an arsh. So here, Sadi said Allah is preparing Yusuf for
prophecy and high standing later on.
For Yaqoob , we have to understand that Yaqoob loved Yusuf dearly. And when he
is taken away from him, and a kidnapping occurs, where he knows his son is not dead, but he doesnt know
where he is, like a kidnapping his own children kidnapped his son for many years, and that has a tremendous
impact on him. He becomes extremely sad, up to the end, where a double trauma happens, where the
youngest son Binyameen is also kidnapped, then his eyes turn white (he becomes blind), from extreme
sadness. Yaqoob is going to experience extreme sadness, yet at the beginning, he knows his son told
him that dream. So he knows it is not the end, and he is given something to place his hope in, that Allah has
something in store for my son. He continues to have hope in Allah, even telling his sons:
Dont give up on the mercy of Allah.
Yaqoob is telling his sons, because one of the things is the dream of Yusuf.
The way it impacts us is that we have to appreciate that before Allah puts Yusuf through these tests,
He gives him the strength to bear the tests. And Allah deals with us in a similar way. Allah mentions in Surat alBaqarah, Allah doesnt burden anyone beyond their scope. Meaning, whatever tests come our way, Allah has
given us the strength to bear them. He has given us what we need to overcome them. Yusuf was
given many things, and one of them was the dream. He was given this dream, and the dream became a source
of strength for him to overcome and stay firm in the well, stay strong in the house of Aziz, stay strong again in
prison and keep his cool when he becomes the state treasurer of Egypt.
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One more major lesson mentioned by al-Alusi in Rooh al-Maaani, he was a recent scholar and passed away in
1342. He said all of the people in the story, or the main characters, are portrayed as light; the mother, father,
even the brothers. Who has the strongest light? The sun, then the moon, and then the stars. But stars
nevertheless have light. So he said, just based on the dream itself and telling us about the ending, it teaches us
that librah bil khawateem the judgment placed on a person is based on how he ends his life. That is one
symbolic lesson that we can learn from this dream.
So with that in mind, what do we say about the brothers of Yusuf who were incredibly cruel towards
him they dump him in a well and leave him to die? And later on as well, they even accuse him of stealing?
What can we say about them? How do we talk about them? This dream, as well as what we see later on in the
surah, teaches us that in the end, they became righteous people. That is something Ibn Kathir mentions. In the
end they became righteous people. And how you end your life, whether that is today or in 40 years time - that
is what really matters. And the prophet said this in a clear hadith, that innamal amalu bil khawateem, that
indeed the actions are based on their endings. Ending of your life, ending of your week, ending of your
Ramadan. This dream ties in to that.
One opinion is that the sons of Yaqoob did eventually become prophets.
The second opinion is that the offspring of Yaqoob, children that came afterwards became prophets
and they were al-Asbat.
Ibn Taymiyyah
says the first view is a weak view, and he mentioned many reasons. The second view
that those offspring are al-Asbat. As for these children of Yaqoob , in the end they made tawbah and
ask Allah to forgive them and Yusuf also pardons them.
My Reflections
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5. He said, My dear son, dont tell your brothers your dream lest they devise some
scheme to injure you, Shaytan is a clear-cut enemy to man.
Kalimah tasgheer
So you saw that Yusuf told his dad first of all. And the way he told his dad was using affectionate
words. He said ya abati instead of saying ya abi. Dad answers in the same way. Instead of saying son, he says ya
bunayya, which is kalimah tasgheer again, it is an affectionate way of addressing your child. It is like saying,
dear son. It is an affectionate way.
Yaqoob gives him a piece of advice based on what he said. Yaqoob actually listened to his
son in order to give him advice.
Imagine you as a father and your young kid comes and tells you, dad today I was at school and I was in the
playground, and I saw all the trees, they were doing sajdah to me. You would say, you watch too many movies,
or, go talk to your mum.
Yaqoob gave him the time of day. And secondly, the way he spoke to him, my dear son. Let me give
you a piece of advice. Dont tell your brothers about the ruya. He mentioned the word ruya. Ruya means
dream. Yusuf never used the word dream. He just said, I saw. Yaqoob understands, not just
that he had a dream, but he understands the interpretation of the dream. Thats why he says, dont tell your
brothers about the dream. Why? Because the brothers are very envious of you. Thats why I am telling you.
However, he even elaborates why he is telling him this.
Fa of sababiyah (reasoning), because they will plot and scheme against you, a real plotting. Then at the end he
says, indeed shaytan is a clear cut enemy to man.
There are so many lessons just from this one statement of Yaqoob .
(From Lesson 3: What is the evidence that Yusuf and Binyameen were brothers from another mother)
We said one of the features of this course will be that we will take only from Quran and no books of history or
other resources. From the Quran is there any proof that they are two brothers from another mother as
opposed to the other 10? There seems to be proof in the Quran later in the surah where the brothers are in
Egypt talking to Yusuf unknowingly perceiving him to be the state treasurer of Egypt and not
Sirat Initiative | Activity
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recognizing him as Yusuf. When they bring Binyameen, and Binyameen is taken away from them against their
will, Yusuf asks, what do you say about this, we found the kings cup on your brother. They say, if he stole, then
his brother stole before. The fact that they said his brother and not our brother, then it seems to be evidence
in the Quran that they identified as being brothers from different mothers.
Lessons
Affection > impact it has > reflects type of relationship you have with child
Parenting skills
Affection given by the father and the impact that it has. You need to really appreciate this point. It seems like a
small thing that Yaqoob said ya bunayya. But when you give advice and it is said with affection, it has
much more impact.
And one brilliant way that we can understand this is by looking at what Allah said to Moosa and
Haroon when He sent them to Firawn. The last person you speak nicely to is Firawn. He is the worst person. He
said he was god. Allah told them:
And speak to him with gentle speech that perhaps he may be reminded or fear [Allah]." [20:44]
Firwan, Allah is telling them to address him in a gentle way. A gentle way is more effective in communicating
your message. You have to differentiate between a strong message and gentle wording. He did not tell them
to give him a watered down version of Islam. The message is going to be strong. But the way he says the
message will be nice, kind, gentle words.
The prophet said, inna Allah Rafiqun, yuhibbul rifq Allah is gentle and He loves gentleness. And He
places in gentle actions that which He doesnt place in harsh actions. So the impact of using gentle words is
something that we learn just from Yaqoob here.
What is not classed as
Now he says a few things which seem a bit problematic. Problematic in the sense that nothing has actually
happened yet. The brothers havent done anything to Yusuf . And we are supposed to have ,
good assumptions about other people. And we are supposed to stay well away from . Allah mentions
in Surat al-Hujurat:
O you who have believed, avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin. [49:12]
Here, Yaqoob tells his son, dont tell anyone your dream, because they will plot against you. Have they
plotted against him yet? No. So it is an assumption that they may well plot against you.
So how do we reconcile between having good assumptions about people, yet Yaqoob is saying that
they may plot against you? Imam Sadi said there is no really here, or that the is based on
other factors, evidences. So Shaykh as-Sadi is saying sometimes you are allowed to have evil assumptions
about other people, when it is based on evidence. In that case, it isnt based on assumption.
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Sometimes its WAAJIB to cover up your blessings > protect yourself from hasad
Ibn Arabi mentioned another lesson. Yaqoob told him dont tell your bothers. He said sometimes it is waajib for
a person not to relate their blessings to others. Why? Because when you tell those others, you end up putting
yourself in harms way.
Once he tells them about the dream, he will expose himself to harm, so he wont tell them.
Many people become jealous when you tell them about a blessing.
Shaytan incites the evil in our nafs > wiswaas > impact on Yusuf
The nafs wants to be evil sometimes. Nafs ammarah bis-su. Shaytan calls the person to evil.
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The evil inside the brothers was hasad. They festered hasad in their hearts. Shaytan does wiswas and incites
them to get rid of him. He incites because he sees evil in your nafs. Had you dealt with your nafs properly
shaytan would have no authority over you at all.
We are responsible for evil because it originates from us, and then we are led on by shaytan.
This has an impact on Yusuf . Later on in Yusuf s life we see the advice of his father lived
with him for more than 40 years and helped him to deal with what happened when he was just a young boy
with his brothers. When he is summarizing his life and he has become the state treasurer of Egypt, and his
family have reunited with him, he says:
Allah has done good to me. He saved me from prison, and he brought all of you, my family from living as
Bedouins living in the arid desert after Shaytan caused enmity between me and my brothers.
He remembers what his father told him all those years ago. Shaytan is part of the picture and was the reason
my brothers were incited to create enmity. And that allowed him to show compassion to them. He says, no
blame on you today. How did he find it in his heart to show compassion to them? It was his fathers advice. He
said, they do evil, but shaytan is also there.
And shortly we will see his father also tells him about Allah, and going to ayah 100, right at the end, after going
through all the tribulations in his life, he says innahu huwa al-Aleem al-Hakeem, Allah is all knowing and Wise.
My Reflections
We saw in the introduction, that this surah was revealed to comfort the prophet. And we see many
correlations between the lives of the 2 prophets, for example, Rasoolullah was soon to do hijrah as well. We
know Rasoolullah also saw true dreams 6 months before his prophethood. So I wonder if this is also one of
the ways for Rasoolullah to relate to Yusuf as the surah is revealed.
Related to this point, as Rasoolullah said true dreams are 1/46th of prophethood, I wonder if this is how
Yaqoob interprets the dream to mean he will become a prophet (Allah will complete his favour)?
As a father, Yaqoob had a good read about each of his kids. Many parents are unable to see their
childrens flaws, and are often in denial. But here, we see he is aware.
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