Answer
Short Answer:
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Asalamu Alaikum,
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Nouman Ali Khan from Bayyinah Institute addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Nouman Ali Khan:
“Welcome everybody to “Amazed by the Quran,” a series in which I love sharing with you stuff I find amazing about the Quran.
And today, some insights from the words of Ya’qub (alayhi salaam), the father of Yusuf, who, when his sons told him,
“We want to take Yusuf along with us into the woods. He’s going to play with us… he’s gonna play around and he’s going to race and all that stuff,”
he said something to them and he said,
“It makes me really sad that you’ll take him away.”
“It makes me sad that you’ll take him away.” It’s remarkable language!
And the reason it’s remarkable is when something hasn’t happened yet, you’re not sad. When something hasn’t happened yet, you’re afraid.
And he says, “I fear that a wolf might eat him,” because it hasn’t happened yet.
Why is he becoming sad that “you’ll remove my child”?
He actually becomes sad because he realizes already that he can’t stop them; It’s as good as done.
The insight of this father, the insight of his father!
And he doesn’t just say… “that you will take him”… the words are so profound! He says, “It makes me sad that you will remove him.”
Look! It is so subtle: “You’ll remove him,” as opposed to “You’ll take him.”
When you say, “You’ll take him…” there’s almost an implication that you’ll bring him back. But when he says, “You’ll remove him…”, it’s like he has this gut feeling something bad is about to happen.
When you have that kind of a feeling, don’t underestimate it
Sometimes your fears or sometimes things that are really like becoming a dark cloud inside your heart and you feel like… “if I let this happen, this bad thing is going to happen”… it’s okay to trust your gut feeling.
It’s okay not to have a rational explanation.
He spelled it out: even though he was in this situation… you can tell that he was powerless to anything. He was not able to stop his sons. Even though he’s so convinced something bad is going to happen.
Look: the thing that his brothers will do (remove him) is almost certain in his mind. The fear that a wolf might eat him is not as certain.
So he’s not sad that a wolf might eat him, he’s actually just afraid that a wolf might eat him. So that’s still kind of like a possibility, but not a certainty.
But knowing his sons… he sees more of a certainty: “This child, one way or the other, is going to get snatched away from me. He’s going to get removed from my life.” SubhanAllah.
So you know, the first bad thought sometimes that comes in your mind—a protective thought, a precautionary thought—don’t dismiss it. Maybe it’s from Allah.
Maybe Allah is protecting you by just putting something in your heart. This could be a form of Ilham (intuition), so we shouldn’t dismiss it.
Just like… it came to Yaqoob (alayhi salaam). It’s not like it was revelation necessarily. It was simply just something from Allah, a khatira.
And Allah put that in the Quran, just to let us know: sometimes these feelings are there, and they’re there as a precaution for you, to prepare you for what harm might come your way.
Allah sends sometimes his messages to you in ways that you cannot put in rational ways, you know?”
And Allah knows best.
I hope this helps. Please keep in touch.
Walaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh.
(From Ask About Islam archives)
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