This one is about family and family matters and sacrifices
that you need to make sometimes in order to keep your family together.
Allah (swt) says,
Then they said, If he stole, then his brother before him also stole.
But Yusuf, he kept that in his side himself and didn't divulge it.
Instead, he said to them, You are in a far worse off position
and Allah knows best about what you are describing.
What is He speaking about? Well, Yusuf (a.s)
when he becomes the state treasure of Egypt known as the Aziz,
what happens is that the famine of Egypt actually spreads to include Palestine,
where his family are, where his brothers are.
They hear that Egypt has food supplies and they are rationing it out.
S o they come to Egypt, they will find Yusuf (a.s).
Yusuf (a.s) will recognize them, but they will not recognize him.
Yusuf Ali (a.s) will think of a plan to try and not only get them
to live again with him in Egypt, but to get his mother and father back to Egypt as well.
Part of that plan is to frame one of the younger brothers.
When he frames him,
it appears as though the youngest of them, Binyamin, stole the king's cup.
When the brothers see the cup being taken
out of the bag of the youngest brother, they are gobsmacked.
But what did they say in that moment?
They say,....... They say something mean.
They say, Well, if he stole, then his brother stole once upon a time as well.
You see, Yusuf and Binyamin were full brothers,
but they were half brothers to the other 10 brothers.
So those 10, it was as if they were saying, Binyamin stole, and you know what?
Yusuf, his other brother, he also used to be a stealer.
He also used to be a thief,
which is really horrible thing to say, but they don't realize it.
They are saying a lie in front of Yusuf (a.s) himself.
Now, if somebody lied about you to your face
and called you a thief, what would your reaction?
What would your instinct be?
It would be to correct them. You say, hang on a minute.
What do you mean I stole? I didn't steal anything.
Do you know who I am? I'm Yusuf.
What do you want to say now, hey?
But Subhanallah, Yusuf (a.s), he didn't do that.
Allah says...
That he took what they said of a lie and he buried it inside his heart.
Why did he do that?
And he didn't speak out about it.
Yusuf, why are you keeping it to yourself?
Why don't you correct them?
Yusuf (a.s), he knew that if he corrected them, if he got vengeance,
then the plan to get to reunite the family will be spoiled.
And they would say, Oh, it's you.
We're sorry, and we don't want anything to do with you anymore.
We're going back to Palestine.
Thank you very much.
So Yusuf (a.s), he knew that.
So in order to make the plan come to completion and to reunite his whole family,
he took that hurtful words and buried it inside his heart.
What does that teach us?
It teaches us that sometimes
you need to tolerate people's misbehavior for a bigger cause.
You need to recognize that you are part of a bigger picture.
It's not just about you.
It's not about personal vendettas, getting your own back.
You as a Muslim, are part of a bigger picture.
You are part of a family, you are part of a community.
You are part of an ummah,
and the ummah is of Muhammad sallalalallahu alaihi wa salam.
You have a role to play.
It's not just about you
because what you do affects other people and reflects on your family,
reflects on your community, reflects on the ummah itself.
What does that mean?
The consequence of knowing that is sometimes you got to take a hit yourself.
Sometimes you got to bite the bullet yourself.
Why? Because if I react to get a personal interest,
then I may compromise what's on the bigger picture.
You see what I'm saying here?
We're being taught that you know what,
sometimes your family will be mean, cruel to you.
And if you react to try
and get your right, you may be the cause of breaking up the whole family.
But somebody will say, hang on a minute, are you saying I should be a doormat?
No, that's not what we're saying.
But we're saying that sometimes you may need to accept some wrong in your life.
Not because you're a doormat, because you're a person who has a vision.
The vision of Yusuf (A.S) was the reunited family, and he was prepared to get hurt
just for the sake of fulfilling that vision.
In the same way, a Muslim should be willing to tolerate
some harm from his family members in order to keep the family together.