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Learning Lessons from the life of Joseph (Yusuf, alai-his-salam)

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 17 January 2025

“When Joseph said to his father: My father, I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon — I saw them making submission to me. He said: My son, do not relate your dream to your brothers, in case they devise a plan against you. The devil indeed is an open enemy to man. And thus will your Lord choose you and teach you the interpretation of sayings, and make His favour complete to you and to the Children of Jacob, as He made it complete before to your fathers, Abraham and Isaac. Surely your Lord is Knowing, Wise. Surely in Joseph and his brothers there are signs for the inquirers.”  — ch. 12, Yūsuf, v. 4–7

اِذۡ قَالَ یُوۡسُفُ لِاَبِیۡہِ یٰۤاَبَتِ اِنِّیۡ رَاَیۡتُ اَحَدَعَشَرَ کَوۡکَبًا وَّ الشَّمۡسَ وَ الۡقَمَرَ رَاَیۡتُہُمۡ لِیۡ سٰجِدِیۡنَ ﴿۴﴾ قَالَ یٰبُنَیَّ لَا تَقۡصُصۡ رُءۡیَاکَ عَلٰۤی اِخۡوَتِکَ فَیَکِیۡدُوۡا  لَکَ کَیۡدًا ؕ اِنَّ الشَّیۡطٰنَ لِلۡاِنۡسَانِ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِیۡنٌ ﴿۵﴾ وَ کَذٰلِکَ یَجۡتَبِیۡکَ رَبُّکَ وَ یُعَلِّمُکَ مِنۡ تَاۡوِیۡلِ الۡاَحَادِیۡثِ وَ یُتِمُّ نِعۡمَتَہٗ عَلَیۡکَ وَ عَلٰۤی اٰلِ یَعۡقُوۡبَ کَمَاۤ اَتَمَّہَا عَلٰۤی اَبَوَیۡکَ مِنۡ قَبۡلُ اِبۡرٰہِیۡمَ وَ اِسۡحٰقَ ؕ اِنَّ رَبَّکَ عَلِیۡمٌ حَکِیۡمٌ ٪﴿۶﴾ لَقَدۡ کَانَ فِیۡ یُوۡسُفَ وَ اِخۡوَتِہٖۤ اٰیٰتٌ لِّلسَّآئِلِیۡنَ ﴿۷﴾

I have recited four verses from the beginning of chapter 12 of the Holy Quran, whose title is Yūsuf or Joseph. It relates the story of this early prophet from his childhood to his attainment of a high position in both religious and worldly terms. The last verse I recited, which says that the story contains “signs for the inquirers”, shows that it is not being related as merely a tale of history but to answer our quest to find the right path. Joseph lived about 3800 years ago. His father was Jacob or Yaqūb, his grandfather was Isaac or Ishāq, and great-grandfather was Abraham, whom we call Hazrat Ibrahim. As a youth in his late teens, he saw the dream mentioned here. The making of submission, or prostrating of the eleven stars and the sun and the moon to Joseph, as seen by him in the dream, cannot be any literal prostration, like our sajdah in prayer, because they cannot perform such an act. It must have been indicated to him in a symbolic form that these bodies are prostrating to him.

If we look at modern developments in science and technology, we can see that these bodies do, in a sense, submit to humans in that we can use them for our benefit, even though of course we don’t control them. We obtain solar energy from the sun. There are plans to extract minerals from the moon and from some planets in the future. Stars can be said to submit to us when they yield knowledge to us about their history, how they work and how they die. Recently, you will have heard that a space probe sent from earth passed close to the sun to make observations about it. It had been designed and built so that the sun could not harm it as it passed close to it. In that sense, the sun submitted to that probe sent by human beings. Perhaps there is a prophecy in this verse that these bodies will submit to humanity in general.

As to submitting to Joseph, the dream is generally taken in the sense that by the sun and the moon are meant Joseph’s parents, and by the stars are meant his eleven brothers. He was going to rise to such a high position, chosen for him by God Himself, that they would be looking up to him and recognising his achievements. They would, in fact, become subject to his authority. However, soon after this dream and its interpretation by his father Jacob, a turn of events came which reduced Joseph to a very low and helpless position in society. Out of his eleven brothers, ten were older than Joseph, and were all from one mother. Then there was Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin, who were from another mother. His father knew that the ten older brothers were already jealous of Joseph, even without them knowing about this dream, and in fact they were also jealous of Benjamin to some extent. That is why he advised Joseph not to tell them his dream.

One day, they took Joseph with them on the pretext of playing somewhere away from home, and then under a plan which they had devised, they abandoned him at the bottom of a pit or well. They returned home to the father pretending to be crying that Joseph had been eaten by an animal while left alone. But Jacob knew from God that one day he would meet Joseph again.

Joseph was found by some travellers passing by, who picked him up and sold him in Egypt. Now he was a slave-boy, and his final, prophesied destiny was unimagi­nable. He was sold to a leading Egyptian official and became a domestic servant in his house. The Quran then says:

“And when he attained his maturity, We gave him wisdom and knowledge. And thus do We reward the doers of good” (12:22).

One day, when the official’s wife and Joseph were alone in a room, she bolted the door and attempted to seduce him. But he was a person of high moral calibre and he rejected her advances, telling her that this was wrong. The Quran adds that it was Allah Who turned his heart away from committing evil. There is a great lesson to be learnt from this. Those persons who are our models, possessing wisdom and knowledge, and doers of good, do not exploit any opportunity that presents itself in front of them to do wrong. Joseph didn’t even need to go anywhere for this or create this situation himself. This is completely the opposite of the grooming scandals that have been in the news recently, in which unfortunately many Muslims of Pakistani origin are implicated. These criminals create the situation them­selves for exploiting vulnerable females. Even to mention the name of Joseph in contrast with them is inappropriate and unjust. But it must be said that he literally ran away from an exploitative situation, while these grooming gangs seek to create such situations and draw their victims into them.

The Quran then relates:

“And they raced with one another to the door, and she tore his shirt from behind, and they met her husband at the door. She said: What is the penalty for one who intends evil to your wife, except imprisonment or a painful punish­ment? He said: She sought to seduce me. And a witness of her own family bore wit­ness: If his shirt is torn in front, she speaks the truth and he is a liar. And if his shirt is torn from behind, she tells a lie and he is truthful. So when he (the husband) saw his shirt torn from behind, he said: Surely it is an intrigue of you women. Your intrigue is indeed great! Joseph, turn aside from this. And (my wife), ask forgive­ness for your sin. Surely you are one of the sinful” (12: 25–29).

This brings us to another aspect of the matter. When such a situation occurs, anywhere in the world, among Muslims or non-Muslims, the husband and the rela­tives, especially the woman’s relatives, would fall into a rage, beat up the man she accuses, or possibly kill him before asking any questions. Joseph could have been subjected to this treatment because he was, after all, no more than a domestic servant in the household of an important official of the state. But here it was a relative of the woman who suggested that they should look for independent evidence instead of accepting the unconfirmed allegation made by the woman. The independent evidence was provided not by a person but by the condition of Joseph’s shirt. When evidence indicated that she was in the wrong, the husband declared the wife as sinful and told her to repent. He also asked Joseph to overlook this matter, as he was now cleared of the charge.

Let us remember that these Egyptians were worshippers of several gods. It was Joseph only who was a believer in the One God and devoted to God. So the Quran here conveys to us that even worshippers of idols, the sun and the stars, can have high standards of justice. Clearly, here is another great lesson for us: that we must judge a matter by means of independent evidence and by the use of our rational thinking, rather than just believing what a close one or relative tells us and react emotionally because of our attachment to them. 

But justice for Joseph only went that far. The woman, to take revenge on Joseph, conspired against him with the help of some other women friends belonging to the upper classes, and he was sent to prison anyway. The Quran says that Joseph said to Allah:

“My Lord, the prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me” (12:33).

He preferred to be in prison than to be outside where his morality was at risk of being compromised. Joseph’s position was now worse than ever. The fulfilment of the dream he had, and the prophecy that the sun and the moon and eleven stars would be sub­mitting to him, now looked completely impossible.

In prison, Joseph met two other prisoners. Both of them related to him their dreams about their future and asked him to interpret them. Joseph interpreted their dreams and told them of their meaning. But before telling them the meaning, he preached to them, saying:

“Surely I have given up the religion of a people who do not believe in Allah, and are deniers of the Hereafter. And I follow the religion of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It does not befit us to set up any partner with Allah. … My two fellow-prisoners, are various lords better or Allah the One, the Supreme? What you serve besides Him are only names which you have named, you and your fathers — Allah has sent down no authority for them. Judgment is only Allah’s. He has commanded that you serve none but Him. This is the right religion, but most people do not know” (12:37–39).

That was his mission, to preach that God is one. He puts fulfilling his mission above demonstrating to them his talent in interpreting dreams. There are people among certain Muslim sects who believe that they receive true dreams from Allah. They claim that this proves their nearness to Allah and acceptance of their religious beliefs by Him. Here the Quran teaches us two lessons. Firstly, anyone can have a true dream about their future. It doesn’t mean that their religious beliefs are correct or that Allah is setting the seal of His approval over their deeds. This pheno­menon exists in order to make people witness that Allah communicates news of the future to individuals. So when a prophet or a saint in Islam claims to have received some news from God, it is an experience that the ordinary people at least have some inkling of, and is not something completely strange and novel to them. Secondly, the primary duty of a true leader of religion is to teach belief in God and inform people about His oneness and greatness, and not to impress them with his own powers and accomplish­ments.

What their dreams were and what happened later on, I will inshallah cover in the next Khutba.

So may Allah enable us to learn practical lessons from the hard experiences of the prophets as related in the Quran, instead of merely reading them as stories of wonder and amazement — ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk