 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. My name is Dawood Yassin. Alhamdulillah Ramadan Mubarak. We thank Allah for allowing us to make it to the last 10 nights of this blessed month and we ask Allah to open up and shower us with all of His blessings, unique blessings that are part of the last 10 days of Ramadan. Alhamdulillah we are in a blessed time of the year. Alhamdulillah we thank Allah for His generosity with all of us. That generosity extends to the organizers from MCC and allowing us to gather in this way and facilitating for us to gather in this way. I'd like to talk about this week, you know, in our time together. When I first became Muslim that first year I made Hajj. I was able to, I was in Medina and I bought a CD of Quran. You know, obviously at that time I couldn't understand Arabic but it just the Quran had a profound impact on me, you know, before I could even understand what was happening. And maybe you've heard me talk about that before but it was one of the things that actually drew me to Islam. But anyway, I bought this CD of a young boy. His name was Muhammad Barak, I believe his name was. He was about 13 years old. He was leading Taraweeh and this CD was just incredible, just melodious recitation, something that I've just never been exposed to and never heard before. And it just, you know, his recitation was just something that just spoke to my soul. And I think from there that led me into Surah Yusuf being one of my favorite surahs of Quran because what I take from the surah is that it's a law explaining to us the realities of a family dynamic. You have Yaqub, a prophet and his sons and then the dynamic that transpires between his sons. Many of us are familiar with that story but, you know, one of the things I think is an incredible takeaway There are many takeaways from the story. One is just the Tedbir, the planning of a law of how Yusuf is sent through this very difficult trial but then ends up at the end in a position that he could have never imagined or thought of and just what he endures through that and his trust in the law throughout that. However, what I want to mention though is, you know, when we think about ourselves and our relationship to Allah and our inclination to do wrong and our doing wrong, we should not beat ourselves up, so to say, about that. We're not angelic in our nature and this is something that is obvious. Now, why do I say that? I say that because if you have the children of a prophet, Yaqub, alaihi salam and this type of plotting and planning is happening at that level, then what can we expect from ourselves, right? Who are not the children of a prophet, alaihi salam Yaqub, alaihi salam. So, again, when I think about this story, I think about this in that context that we have to be merciful with ourselves when we wrong ourselves or we wrong others because that propensity exists inside of all of us. How we respond to it, how we stop, that's a totally different conversation and that's something that we need to also take from this story as well too. But let's look at this story here just for a minute. So right from the beginning and verses four and five, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sets for us the reality of the Sura. Where Allah says in the Sura, it's on the tongue of Yusuf, alaihi salam, where Yusuf, alaihi salam says to his father, excuse me, where Yusuf, alaihi salam says to his father, If Qala Yusuf wa li'abihi ya'abati, Inni r'aitu ahada'ashira koukaban wa shamsa wa l-qamara, r'aitu hum li'sajideen. O my father, I have seen eleven stars, the sun and the moon. I have seen them prostrating to me. Yaqub, alaihi salam, responds, Qala ya'abuni la taqsus ru'yaka li'ihwatika fiyakiduna laka qaida, Inna shayqana li'insani adubum mubeen. Do not convey, do not reveal, do not tell this dream to your brothers, because they will plot against you, they will plot against you. And what's interesting here is I feel that when Allah swt then transfers this for yaqiduna laka qaida, Yaqub says that they will begin to plot against you. But then the next part of the surah, the same verse, sorry, the same verse, the same ayah, is Inna shayqana li'insani adubum mubeen. That shayqana is to the human beings a clear enemy. Now, that means that there are the whisperings and the calling from shayqana for us to wrong ourselves or to wrong others. I think that's something that's very clear that is here. Now, when we talk about this story of Yusuf alayhi salam, I'm not going to go into detail, but because there's one thing I want to talk about in terms of what I believe is a principle that Allah swt is conveying to us in that story. And we'll talk about that in a minute. However, when we look at this story and the situation that Yusuf finds himself in right now, when I talked about this in the first week, in week one in my lesson, that the Qur'an, thinking of the Qur'an is a mean of guidance in our lives. Thinking of the Qur'an as a means of guidance in our lives. How is this story of surah al-Yusuf and specifically in this beginning right here, how is it? What's the message? What is the message around ethics or morals? And then what is the principle? Because like I said, this Qur'an is teaching us principles. In my opinion, the principle that we are dealing with here in this surah, in the beginning of the surah right now is one of envy. And the ruination that can be caused from envy. Such to a point that the brothers were taken because of their fear of a father giving more deference to Yusuf alayhi salam, that the brothers were planning and had actually conspired to take his life. Now, one of them said, no, that's not what we should do. We'll throw him in a well and he'll be taken off by someone and that's actually what transpires. However, they come up with a plan. They tell their father, they take him out and they come up with a plan that they're going to tell their father that a wolf ate him. They come back after their outing and they bring a Yusuf shirt to Yaqub alayhi salam and they present it to him. And what I find is really interesting in here is that when a wrongdoing is happening, we cannot think of every single detail that is here. And there's something that happens, a detail that is overlooked that Allah, I'm sorry, that Yaqub alayhi salam immediately understands that this is a lie of what they're saying. A wolf did not eat Yusuf alayhi salam. This is what he conveys to them. This is something that you're making up. And then how does he understand that? Because when the Qur'an talks about it, they bring on his shirt, or they put on his shirt, bidam in kevb, with a false blood. So they bring a Yusuf shirt to Yaqub alayhi salam. They present it to him. They say a wolf has eaten him. And then I was reading in a tafsir and some of the commentators said that Yaqub's response was that this must have been a merciful wolf. And the children, the sons were perplexed. A merciful wolf. Think about that for a moment. How could this wolf, right? How could you bring this shirt to me? And this shirt is covered with blood. But yet there are no tears on the shirt and there are no traces of any type of scuffling or tussling. You know, that would have indicated that this actually transpired in a way that the sons had called it. Now the interesting thing is that all of this, as I said, is driven by envy. And the role that the shirt plays in this when it's driven by envy is one that is, as I said, brings about ruination at this point. I want to take a moment and just share with you what Imam Rosali says about envy. He says envy is greater than miserliness. He says envy is greater than miserliness. He says the simple miser is one who is stingy toward others with his possessions, right? That's a bahil. I have something I don't want to share with others. That's miserliness. He says, however, the greater miserliness is the one who is stingy with Allah's favors upon his servants. The one who is stingy with Allah's favors upon his capital H, meaning Allah's servants, right? Favors that are not even his, but from the fast treasures of Allah's omnipotent power. The envious person is the one who is pained when Allah Almighty from his treasures of his omnipotent power bestows one of his servants with wealth, knowledge, or love in the hearts of people, or any kind of good fortune. He is pained to the point, meaning the envious person is pained to the point where he wishes that Allah's favors would be taken away from that person, even if the same favor would not transfer to him as a result. This is really the pinnacle of wickedness and about which the Prophet ﷺ said that envy devours good deeds just as fire devours woods. Now, this is where, again, we're understanding this now, right? Envy and why it is so blameworthy is because Allah SWT is going to bestow his gifts upon whoever he wants, however he wants, whenever he wants. In a manner of however he wants. No one is there to say that person X or Y should not have certain things because Allah SWT has decreed it. Now, whether those things are beneficial for them or detrimental to them, that's something that exists in the knowledge of Allah SWT. And we find that type of explanation in Baqarah that perhaps it is that you love something and is harmful perhaps it is that you detest something. Perhaps it is you detest something that is good for you and perhaps it is that you love something and is detrimental to you. Allahu ya'alum wa antulata'alimu, right? So we don't know whether these things are beneficial or not. However, it continues here by saying that the envious person himself is one who suffers punishment and receives no mercy. May Allah protect us from the state. He is in continuous torment for there will never be a lack of those among his contemporaries and acquaintances on whom Allah has bestowed knowledge or wealth or esteem. Thus the envious person continually suffers punishment in this world right up to his death. May Allah protect us from that. And the punishment of this world to come is even greater and more severe. In fact, the servant does not arrive at truth faith as long as he does not love for his brother and his rest of the Muslims what he loves for himself. So think about that for one moment. This envy, the ruining ability of this envy and the punishment, right? The constant punishment that a person find themselves in. Why? Because as I said, there will never be a shortage of Allah giving wealth or knowledge or the love of this person in the hearts of others that will never stop. So imagine that every time a person witnesses this, every time they see this, they're torn up inside because of an envy that they have. That's why Allah swt talks about this in protecting to allow us to protect ourselves from it. And it's just to me, it's just so amazing that he brings this story out not just as an average person, but it's something that even afflicted the sons of Yaqub alayhi salam, right? And not to someone outside but to their own brother, their own flesh and blood. And these are the stories, alayhi salam, Quran. These are not something that just happened a long time ago with Yusuf alayhi salam. These are not alayhi salam, these aren't just stories of the ancients. They are there for us to be able to ground ourselves morally, ethically, and to have principles upon which we live that are shown over and over and over again in the Quran. And to me, this is one of the clearest examples. This is one of the clearest stories. Now, the interesting thing is the role that this shirt plays. And in Sha'at al-A'ala, in the coming week, I'll talk about another story when the shirt is dealt with, but it's another blameworthy and another characteristic that can bring us to ruination. And it also has to do with the shirt. And all of this came from a conversation I had with a friend of my doctor, Jibril Atif, who was just saying to me the other day. He said, it's amazing that the shirt is mentioned in three different places in the Quran, different realities in each one of them. He says, but it's as if there is a message that is being conveyed through this shirt. And then looking on it further, as I said, this first part that I found that I just wanted to share with you was this idea that the shirt represents the story to highlight the idea of envy and how envy can be so ruinous for us. And as I said, to this level where it's even afflicting the sons of a prophet to someone as close as their brother. So may Allah SWT protect us and may Allah SWT shower his favor on us and protect us from envy and protect us from miserliness, right? Miserliness with our own goods and that we may never be envious with the gifts that Allah bestows upon his servants in a manner that he sees fit and how he sees fit with whom he sees fit. And again, especially in this month, I pray that Allah showers all of us with his unique gifts that are sent down in these last 10 days. Then may Allah SWT bless us to see the night of power and may, you know, the reality of the supplication. When Aisha, she asked the Prophet, you know, what should I recite? Allah SWT, he said to her, he said, Allahumma anta'aafu anta'aafu faafu anna. Oh Allah, you are the partner, you love to pardon, please pardon us. So we seek Allah's pardon in these last nights. Alhamdulillah, this is one of the odd nights. May Allah give us the strength to be able to stand and worship him in this evening, seeking out Layatul Qadr. And again, my thanks to the MCC community for hosting this month and facilitating, you know, this program. And so may Allah SWT continue to bless you. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.