Among other examples, we have the Prophets, Peace Be Upon Them All.
But first, does anyone know when are the Prophets usually sent? When the Earth reaches the height of loss, the furthest point of degradation, and when the environmental, genetic and educational factors are collapsing.Then a Prophet comes at that point when we hit rock bottom, to change the world.By Allah’s Will, and then by the wills of the Prophet and his followers, the face of Earth changes.
We will then look at the companions of Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, and how they managed under these factors.
Let’s look at the genetic factor: how were the parents of the companions? Musa’b Ibn-Omair’s mother, for example, used to chain him to prevent him from embracing Islam. Al-Zubair Bin Al-Awaam’s uncle used to tie him, roll him into a straw mat, then suspend him in the air upside down, light a fire under him and let the smoke fill his chest!That’s why the Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him, permitted Al-Zubair to wear silk, because his chest suffered from the effect of that smoke, as a result of what his uncle did to him when he was young, to prevent him from embracing Islam!
As for the environmental factor:In Makkah, there were a few small houses with red flags hanging on them, to indicate that they were where prostitution houses. These houses no longer exist of course.The Prophet’s companions used to pass by those houses but they were never affected by them nor became weak. This resembles some of the factors at the present time, such as the porno space channels. There is no excuse for weakness. Temptation always exist in all ages and at all times.
Just as we are surrounded by strong factors, Allah also gave us the capacities to face them. Never say that you are incapable.
If we contemplated the situation of the Prophets, we will find that most of them were brought up away from their parents. This means that they were meant to be exposed to those factors, so we have no excuse.For example, Prophet Musa (Moses), Peace Be Upon Him, who raised Him? The Pharaoh, was it not? Have a look, and you will find that He was exposed to all the three factors (the genetic, the educational and the environmental). He was brought up at the house of the Pharaoh!
Our master Yusuf (Joseph), Peace Be Upon Him, who raised him? He was brought up at the house of Al-Aziz, whose wife used to seduce him, imagine with me, the state of that house, but still he resisted and stayed chaste.Our master Isma’il (Ishmael), Peace Be Upon Him, whom our master Ibrahim (Abraham), left alone in the desert, who raised Him?Our Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him, His father, mother, grandfather and uncle all died when He was young, who raised Him?As if this is meant to tell us, that no matter how hard the circumstances are, he who wants to succeed will succeed!
Let’s agree then, that anyone who dreams of something, lives for it and strives to achieve it is bound to achieve it! Whether he was a Muslim or not, because this does not change the goal.
The meaning of ‘living for that dream’ here, and please underline it with a thousand lines, is that whoever strives, thinks, exhorts all his efforts, learns, increases his expertise, and never wastes a second of his time, i.e. he lives in all seriousness to achieve his goal, and be patient, is sure to realize that dream! History proves this, everyone who lived for his dream, strived to achieve it with patience, has realized it! Ask yourself, why can’t you be like that too?
Let’s gather around a very amazing example, one who was exposed to very strong factors, for this world and for the hereafter, for his relation with Allah, and his success in life!We will count together all those factors, to see how huge they were, and then ask ourselves, how did he succeed? What potentials did he possess?The example we are about to talk about, was related in the Holy Qur’an. He succeeded in this world and in the hereafter.So anyone who tells himself that I will never succeed, and that I am incapable of being successful, look with me at this example!
Do you know who that person is?It’s Prophet Yusuf , Peace Be Upon Him. First we will talk about him in regard to this world, and then we’ll talk about his religion.
He was a small child who had 12 brothers, all of whom hated him. So how was the state of that home?He was 12 years old, and during those 12 years he was faced with deep hatred and envy at home.His environment was only the love of his father, and the hatred of his brothers for him.Imagine with me, can you live for 12 years under those circumstances? Have a look with me; this is the first factor he faced.
Therefore we must apologize to the psychologists and Freud, and tell them what you say is not true, because Yusuf, Peace Be Upon Him, succeeded in this world before becoming a Prophet. He managed to succeed without Prophethood, while he was just an ordinary person.Before going on any further, I want you to count the factors that you are facing and make a comparison.
So he was then facing the following factors:
12 years of hatred and envy from his own brothers.
He was thrown into the well, where he stayed for three days. But even before he was thrown into the well, he was beaten and called names by his brothers.When they threw him into the well, he did not know how he will end up.Do you know that throwing him into the well was more difficult and harsher on him than imprisonment?
Allah’s SWT, tells us about that well using the Arabic word ‘gayabat’ (down the deepest pit of the well) which is derived from the word ‘algaib’ (the unseen).His brothers threw him into a pitch dark area! Contemplate the Qur’anic expression! The word ‘gayabat’ also comes from the word ‘geeba’ which means slander; you slander somebody only when he is not present. The grave also is called ‘algaib’ in Arabic.
Imagine yourself now in that situation or that you are in an endless desert. So he vanished from the surface of earth, while he was just 12 years old. The proof is in the Qur’anic verse which described Yusuf as ‘a boy’They said what can be translated as, “What good news! Here is a boy.” (TMQ, 12:19) (1).How old could a ‘boy’ be?Imagine with me if he were your son of 12 years old, or even yourself. Imagine you were thrown into a well, and stripped off your clothes.Allah says what can be translated as, “And they brought his shirt”. (TMQ, 12:18)Imagine that you don’t know when or how will you get out of this?
If you had noticed, Allah (SWT) used the Arabic word ‘jubb’ and not “bi’er” – meaning well, and there is a big difference between the two in Arabic, though the first one has no equivalent in English.A ‘jubb’ is a well filled with scorpions and snakes! Imagine if this happened to you or me.I would most certainly develop a psychological complex, and I will have a justification to do mischief on earth, and would respond to all who would blame me: “you just don’t know what happened to me when I was young”...
No, there are no excuses or justifications after knowing what Yusuf has been through! We should get out from the circle of pretexts, excuses and the previously mentioned factors.Unfortunately, we paid attention to the sayings of Freud, and the reasons he gave for not succeeding. We applied them to ourselves and his words influenced us as a justification for failure.Just like some of the talk we hear now, such as: the circumstances around me do not allow me to succeed, or because of the nature of the company I work for, they do not value the work of a striving individual. We go back again and ask, how did Yusuf then remain steadfast on his good behavior? And how did he forgive his brothers later? Allah says what can be translated as, “No reproach on you this day, may Allah forgive you,” (TMQ, 12:92)This proves that he who wants to succeed will succeed!
Look with me, when he got out of the well, what happened to him?
He became a slave for a period of 10 years! How can Yusuf, the noble and son of a noble, become a slave? And a low priced one for that?Allah says what can be translated as, “And they sold him for a low price, for a few Dirhams (i.e. for a few silver coins). And they were of those who regarded him insignificant.” (TMQ, 12:20)Imagine with me the tragedies he went through, one after the other. He did not have one single happy event. You’d marvel at the amount of darkness that could haunt the life of one person!
Hatred.
The well.
Slavery, he worked as a slave in the houseof Al-Aziz.
He went to prison, for several years, about 9 years.
And now, we ask ourselves, how old was Yusuf after all that?So he will start his life when he was nearly 40 years old!Let us think about it, 40 years of hatred, and a very important event in his life which could have made him live in fear all his life, i.e. the incident of the well or ‘gayabat al-jubb’, followed by slavery; a son of a Prophet working as a slave in the palace of Al-Aziz and his wife, about whom he did not know anything. Then prison for 9 years for an extraordinary accusation, one that got to do with his honor!What do you think now? Under such circumstances, ask yourself, will you succeed or fail?
Anybody who wants to succeed will succeed. But how can success be achieved with all these factors facing the Islamic nation?Can I succeed in my work? Yes, you can!Can happiness flourish among spouses? Yes, that is possible too. All this can be achieved with one condition: that you want it to happen.The best evidence is the story of Yusuf. We should learn from it. If we asked ourselves, did Yusuf get married before he was 40? The answer is no, Of course not. How can that happen under the circumstances we talked about?
But the result was that he became Al-Aziz of Egypt; he was even entrusted with the treasures of Egypt. He became the one to feed the whole of the Middle East; he was in control of the Middle East economy, by the will of Allah.All this happened without any miracles. It was done with his own potentials that he utilized in a sound way.
What were the potentials that Yusuf possessed?
He had the talent of interpreting dreams. You may now say that this is a miracle from Allah, SWT. I will tell you, no, pay attention, every one of us will have certain chances bestowed on him by Allah.We should be ready for these chances. This means that when Allah sends us an opportunity, we should hold on to it and not lose it, because if it’s gone, Allah may not send us another one.A student, for example, who insists on not studying because he depends on cheating and on using other means like a mobile phone to facilitate cheating. We will tell him, yes, you may succeed, but you will never be able to get hold of any opportunity, because you are not qualified to acquire any.
Each one of us has a talent. There is, for example, someone who is good in delivering information, another who has the art of public relations and so on of the various human talents.You are required to discover your talent. It is a pity if you have a talent you do not know about. Do you also know that some people discover their talents by coincidence? For example, the person who studied medicine for seven years, and after graduation he discovered that he had a wonderful style in writing novels. This came late of course, because his mind was preoccupied away from his talents.
Let us then, bring up our children in a way that would unleash their talents early. Never think that sound upbringing is only teaching your son how to walk, eat, drink and talk...etc. All this is obvious in raising children, but it is not the correct way of upbringing. Allah, SWT, did not deprive anyone from a talent in something. So never do anything unwillingly.
Yusuf, in addition to his talent for dream interpretation which he discovered when he was still young, and related his dream to his father, had other talents as well.Among them, he had knowledge in economy and management. But how did he learn that? He was brought up in a desert environment, in the middle of Bedouins, for 12 years! He was then thrown in the bottom of a well, and later went to prison for 9 years. You will tell yourself now; there must have been a miracle. And I would tell you, no, there was no miracle.
When Yusuf was a slave in the house of Al-Aziz (Minister of treasury), he did not waste his time, he learned from Al-Aziz how to run the country and established that in himself.Again, Surat Yusuf, guides us to the fact that anyone who wants to succeed, will succeed. That’s why, when later the king asked him about what he wanted to do. Our master Yusuf requested to be put in control of the warehouses, and promised that he will guard them with the knowledge and expertise he learnt in the house of Al-Aziz.
Among the talents of Yusuf is patience. So anyone who tells himself that he will achieve his dream tomorrow, yet discovers that it needs several years, must be patient. I’ll give you an example, I knew a person who was determined to work for a certain economic corporation in a certain country, and he never gave up or succumb to working anywhere else because, in his view, it was the best in the field he wanted.He applied for work at that corporation, but unfortunately got rejected because they did not see him suitable for the job. So he took to several training and educational courses, and then applied again, only to be rejected once more. But he was determined to work with them in any job even if only as a lift operator.So, he did actually work as a lift operator, but 10 years later he became a member in the board of directors of that same corporation! All this was achieved by the help of Allah, and then by this man’s determination to succeed using his own potentials. Allah says what can be translated as, “I shall not waste the reward of anyone who does his deeds in the most perfect manner” (TMQ, 18:30).Certainly, Allah will make you win and will make anything difficult, easy for you.
Let’s move now to the other aspect of success of Yusuf, this time as regards to religion. He went through the hardest ordeals any man or woman can go through. The most difficult affliction for men is women and vice versa. Yusuf was a young man and was so handsome that nobody resembled him. In addition, he was single and did not know when he would get married. This information is for those who have ready excuses on why they have committed adultery because, for example, they were thirty years old and weren’t married.We tell them, no, this is no excuse. Yusuf did not marry before the age of 40, and yet he still refrained from sins although he was so handsome.He was also a slave and a stranger in the town. All these circumstances delayed his marriage, and could have pushed him to disobey Allah, but he never did.
As for the wife of Al-Aziz, who seduced him,she was of high rank, and some men are influenced by the rank of women. There are, for example, some men who get impressed when they see a woman driving an expensive car, and wish to get to know her.The wife of Al-Aziz was also beautiful. If you ask me how I knew that, I would tell you that Al-aziz of Egypt could not have married but a beautiful woman.Imagine with me all those factors Yusuf was exposed to, and make a comparison with yourself, and tell me with utmost neutrality, which situation is more difficult?She seduced him, one time after another, and very slowly. The seduction then was not, as some would think, only once, or that she seduced him only one day, and when he rejected her, she left him alone.No, this is not what had happened, the seduction continued, not for one day, but for months, and maybe years!
We do not have any excuses.
The word ‘seduce’ was used in the Holy Qur’an, because it has a stronger meaning. It means that she used very strong tricks, that she knew how to trick a man and that she tried with him several times but he rejected.And this was at her home! This means that the place to commit the sin was not far from her or him; it was in her own turf. She even closed the doors, which means it was totally safe, so that she is protected from any scandal.Have a look with me; the conditions are all set perfectly to commit sin.Then she said what can be translated as, “Come on, O you” (TMQ, 12:28), and underline these words with a thousand lines, because they include all the meanings of seduction, from attire to perfume…etc. Don’t forget that this continued for months or maybe years.But he said what can be translated as, “I seek refuge in Allah”, can I do such a thing? “Truly, he (your husband) is my master! He made my stay agreeable! (So I will never betray him). Verily, (the wrong and evil doers) will never be successful”. (TMQ, 12:23)Later, the wife of Al-Aziz said that he “refused”. But she threatened him with scandal and prison.
This could have been an excuse for Yusuf to commit sin; for he was threatened with scandal and prison! But he said what can be translated as, “Prison is more to my liking”! (TMQ, 12:33)Can you imagine saying that prison is more to your liking than to live in this world, as long as it takes you away from sin? How can that be?Imagine with me now, how there are people who are incapable of lowering their gaze when they see women, because it is difficult, and because sin is easier to them than obedience!In addition to that, Yusuf was confronted by the seduction of the women of the city as well! They said when they saw him what can be translated as, “No man is this!”, (TMQ, 12:31)but he said I will go to prison, my Lord, and I will be content and happy with that, as long as it does not make me disobey You, my Lord!
Did you see? Anybody who wants to succeed will succeed, anybody who wants to wake up to pray Fajr, will be wake up. Anybody who wants to eat halal, will eat halal. Any woman, who wants to wear hijab, will wear it. Anybody who wants to obey Allah, can and will obey Him. There is no excuse for committing any sin, or for failure.We must remove any impeding factors or pretexts from our minds. We should forget about them. Can we mention them on the Day of Judgment? Can we say, I sinned because of the factors and circumstances? Can that be possible?
No, because you were the one who was weak in this world and in the hereafter, you were the one who did not refrain from sin. You were the one who did not wear hijab. Who, in this world, lives without obstacles? Allah says what can be translated as, “Alif-Lam-Mim (2). Do people think that they will be left alone because they say ‘We believe’ and will not be tested.” (TMQ, 29:1-2) The verse is very clear, will you live without being tested or exposed to influential factors?
Again, we have no excuse. Tell yourself that you will resist whatever the factors may be. Did anyone of us live under circumstances like those endured by Yusuf for months or years?Confronted by a high ranking beautiful woman?Yusuf succeeded in keeping his religion as he succeeded in this world.
I ask you again, who makes our lives? Is it us or the circumstances?
The Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him says, the wise man is he who makes himself, and works under the most difficult circumstances, and the weak is he who accepts humility for himself.This is the one who is a slave to his desires and is powerless. In addition, he would wish Allah would answer his prayers, asking HIM to help him to do wrong, without knowing that he is wrong. Like a husband who asks Allah to make his wife accept his marrying other women, telling himself that after that he will become very pious.He continues his wishful thinking, as if to say: I will remain disobedient till you answer me, my Lord. Then I will change to the better, and change the circumstances surrounding me. This is what is meant by ‘hoping Allah would answer their wishes’.
The account on the Day of Judgment would be as follows: You say: Oh, Allah, such and such happened to me, and my circumstances were so and so.But Allah, swt, will answer yousaying: did I not give you potentials? Did I not give you numerous bounties?
Do you understand what I mean?
And now, at the end of this talk, and after all we knew about the story of Yusuf, do you intend to succeed, will you succeed?Yes, say that you will succeed in this world and in the hereafter, and that you will not succumb to the circumstances surrounding you.Just imagine with me, what development and prosperity can be achieved for this nation, say after 10 years from now!Just imagine the change that can happen in our homes and with our children.
So, this was all about our lives and how we can make them with our own hands!
(1)TMQ=Translation of the Meaning of the Qur'an. This translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (Surah:Ayah) of the Qur'an. Reading the translated meaning of the Qur'an can never replace reading it in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed.
(2)Miraculous letters of the Arabic alphabet.No one knows their meaning or their implication but Allah.
