Difficulty Leads to Solace

Taking the whole sūrah now from beginning to end — rather than telling the whole story, which has been given in brief already — and since, as Allah says, there is much naṣīḥah in it, much guidance, many lessons to be drawn, and counsels and advice, what follows points out a few verses but is chiefly an attempt to draw out the lessons. There will be lessons that readers may draw for themselves, and those would be well worth hearing; but at least these are the ones gathered here.

One of the fundamental lessons, one of the fundamental points for consideration, is that hardship — and this world is full of hardships — will sometimes lead a man at last to solace, comfort, benefit and the bounties of Allah (swt). And one of the greatest examples of it is the story of Yūsuf (peace be upon him). Consider how many hardships he had to pass through even as a child. The poor boy: an innocent child who knows no evil, and he is thrown into a well. Consider what must have passed through his mind — that his own brothers threw him into a well. One might expect bandits to do such a thing; that would be terrible enough, terror enough. But when it is one's own brothers, whom one is bound to love and who are bound to love one — subḥānAllāh, consider what a hardship that must have been.

And then he is picked up — some relief at last — but then he is sold as a slave. And afterwards, as he grows older, matters seem to improve somewhat; and then of a sudden there is this attempt at seduction, and he a man of a very pure heart, who must deal with it. Then he is thrown into prison for seven years, in isolation, kept away there. But at length Allah (swt) gives him that position: he becomes the minister of the food rations and their distribution, or whatever the office was.

Always, then: a man with hardships will find much in this. There are many reading this who have hardships. They have lost someone; they have difficulties with someone; they have sicknesses and illnesses, or whatever the case may be. Let them read this story and take the lesson of all these hardships; and when we hear of other hardships, and then of the great ending of this one, that will, in shāʾ Allāh, give us much comfort. And this is one of the purposes of this sūrah from Allah (swt).