Cause Me to Die a Muslim

My Lord, You have indeed given me of the sovereignty and taught me the interpretation of dreams. Creator of the heavens and the earth, You are my protector in this world and in the Hereafter.

Yūsuf had everything a seeker of this world could want. No matter how hard we work, we cannot get anything better than what Yūsuf had, by the standards of this world. He had power and authority. He was reunited with his parents and his family, and the dispute among them was resolved. He had wealth. He had control over the kingdom of Egypt, the greatest kingdom of the time. He had it all. Someone who had what Yūsuf (peace be upon him) had would hold on to it with his teeth and his nails and never want to leave it.

Remember when Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik asked Abū Ḥāzim: why do we hate death? What did Abū Ḥāzim say? He said: you have built up your dunyā and destroyed your Ākhirah, so you hate to move from what is built to what is destroyed.

Yūsuf (peace be upon him) had everything a person could want in the dunyā — but for Yūsuf this was nothing. He was not a seeker of the dunyā. He would say: praise be to Allah for what Allah (swt) has given me. But he was doing it as ʿibādah for Allah (swt). So look at the duʿāʾ of Yūsuf when he is at the pinnacle, the very peak of his power and fame and wealth and dominance on the face of the earth. Look at the duʿāʾ he makes: tawaffanī musliman wa alḥiqnī bil-ṣāliḥīn — cause me to die as a Muslim, and join me with the righteous.

You have a kingdom, you have power, you have fame, you have wealth, you have love in the hearts of everyone — and the dunyā in his eyes is nothing. Glory be to Allah: we have a few dollars and we cling to them, and we are afraid of death, for a little enjoyment, an enjoyment that will pass, something that is going to leave us — and we hold on to it tightly. And Yūsuf had all of this, and he was saying: cause me to die as a Muslim, and let me be with the righteous. These are hearts attached to Allah (swt), and attached to the Ākhirah.