An Epic Journey part 7

Assalamualaikum w.b.t...

Sesungguhnya istiqamah itu banyak cabaran, ternyata saya belum cukup kuat menepis gangguan yang banyak membantutkan niat untuk terus berkongsi di sini. After a very long delay, hopefully with the coming Ramadhan, I am able to discipline myself to continue sharing this, insyaAllah...

We stopped at ayah 5 in the last chapter. 

Ayah 6

"And thus will your Lord choose you and teach you the interpretation of narratives and complete His favor upon you and upon the family of Ya'qub, as He completed it upon your fathers before, Ibrahim and Ishaq. Indeed, your Lord is Knowing and Wise."

This ayah establishes the fact that nubuwwah (prophethood) is a status  and honour only Allah (SWT) grant. He alone bestows it as He wils. 19. This ayah refutes the philosophers and the extreme Sufis who argue that prophethood or  its anologues can be attained by having a strong desire and exerting oneself to achieve them. They assert that prophethood is “knowledge and action”, this ayah disapprove their view, establishing that prophethood is a blessing from Allah and that He bestows this blessing upon whomsoever He wishes. According to some scholars the words of Allah SWT above refer to the prophethood of Yusuf AS.
	There is difference of opinion among the scholars regarding the meaning of these words : Interpretation of narratives Knowledge of Allah’s book Knowledge of the way of the prophet
	Blessing of Yusuf AS becoming a prophet Blessing of Yusuf AS of interpreting a dream.
	This term means “your two fathers”. However, as the ayah continues it mentions Ibrahim and Ishaq as his “two fathers”, not Ishaq and Ya’qub. Why? In Arabic grammar, it’s fine to address the grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great grandfather as AB
	Allah is all knowing and all wise in His choice of making Yusuf  a prophet.

20. Significantly this ayah teaches us the value and essential nature of having a strong sense of identity.

Ayah 7

Certainly were there in Yusuf and his brothers signs for those who ask,

21. Verily in Yusuf and his brethren there are ayat (proof, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, indications, clues, hints) for those who ask. (in other ayah, we are only asked to ponder, not ask). Showing that Surah Yusuf is a complete and clear revelation, and its only left to be queried by us to understand.

Ibn al-Qayyim:

In his book Al-Jawwab al-Kahfi he writes that they are more than a thousand benefits in Surat of Yusuf.

Ayat 8

When they said, "Yusuf and his brother are more beloved to our father than we, while we are a clan. Indeed, our father is in clear error."

	It is reported that the brother of Yusuf referred to in this ayah was Binyamin
	Refer to a group that has  3-10 people in the group (by Quraisy’s definition) A group that has 10-15 people Group of 10-40
	Dhala – misguided , not in terms of religion but how he distribute his love among his children
It can observed from this ayah: That loving the young and the weak is part of an individual’s nature disposition. The brothers of Yusuf exaggerated in their explanation of the situation. As the story proceeds, we will observe this phenomenon several more times. This teaches us the deceptive nature of exaggeration. Exaggeration and embellishment of the truth are some of the evils in communication, and are classified as lying. “The Prophet said: I urge you to be truthful, for the truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man will continue to be truthful and seek to speak the truth until he is recorded with Allah as the speaker of the truth (siddiq). And beware of lying , for lying leads to immorality, and immorality leads to Hell; a man will continue to tell lies until he is recorded with Allah as a liar.” [al-Sahihayn]
Why the exaggeration	Communication experts have documented some of the main reasons why people feel the need to exaggerate: They want to sound more interesting; They want more sympathy from the listener; They want to embellish their point and make it more convincing They want to use the power of numbers to get the point across, even if it means lying about the numbers.
Forms of exaggeration	Obvious exaggeration When it is just meant to express the situation, not meaning to lie, if the norm teaches us the speaker is being expressive.
	Absolute exaggeration All, everybody, everyone (generalising the masses) may lead things like “everybody is upset” to be a form of lying (whereas in fact not everybody is upset). Be precise on the statement, try to avoid those words.
	Indirect exaggeration Try to sway the other person’s thinking
Being just and fair between one’s children	The brother felt that Yusuf AS was more loved and more favoured by their father. Fueled by these emotions, they went so far as to plot to kill him. This highlights the importance of the principle of Islam teaches of treating our offspring justly and fairly. Al- Nu’man b. Bashir once addressed the people from the pulpit and told them about what took place between the Prophet and his father, saying: “My father gave me a gift. Then my mother, Amrah binti Rawhah, said: I will not be satisfied until Allah’s Messenger is a witness to it.’ So my father went to the Allah’s Messenger and said: ‘I gave a gift to my son from Amrah binti Rawhah, and she told me to have you be a witness to it, O Messenger of Allah.’ The Prophet asked: ‘Did you give your other children something similar?’ He replied that he had not. So the Prophet said: ‘Fear Allah, and be just between your children.’ [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Is it blameworthy to love one child more than the other?

No. its normal for human to have different feelings to different children, and children are no exception, the important thing is to treat them justly.

Scholars have also extracted the following three points of benefits from this ayah:

22. We learn from this verse the stipulation of authenticating before acting, acting on unconfirmed knowledge must be avoided at all times:

‘O ye who believe! If a rebellious person comes to you with a news, verify it, lest you harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful to what you have done’

23. A group of people can agree on misguidance.

24. Blind loyalty and allegiance on an individual can have negative consequences – tie haq and batil to Al-Quran, not to the people.

Till we meet in the next installment, pray to Allah that I can continue to complete this :)