May 8, 2012

critical thinking and a glance into Surah Yusuf

realizing how much i miss writing, and how the lack of it affected my critical thinking process.

this update is dedicated to amalina, who requested an update about the recent sisters' gathering, where we discussed the translation of Surah Yusuf in a glance.

this chapter in the Quran is one of the most beautiful story, as regarded by many scholar. unlike any other surah that was named after a certain prophet or person, Surah Yusuf tells us the story of Prophet Yusuf, from the beginning until the end.

in any other surah in the Quran that was named after a person, we see that there are narrations about something other than the story of the said person, say...surah Maryam, there are stories about something and someone else as well.

thus it is one of the unique thing about surah Yusuf, where Allah tells us only about His beloved prophet, Joseph. Basically, what we learned on that day can be divided into three premises;

1. productive leadership
2. humbleness to parents
3. young men and temptation

so what about productive leadership? personally, i think every time somebody talks about this surah, we tend to think of only one thing; Yusuf and Imrah-al-Aziz. of course, it is one of the most important lesson we learn in this chapter, but by overly focusing on this premise, we overlook other aspects that this chapter are trying to teach us. one of it is definitely productive leadership.

in the surah, once yusuf was appointed as one of the minister in Egypt, among the first thing that he did was save up as much resources as possible to face the upcoming drought (the king's dream as interpreted by him). what most of us did not now was, when yusuf decided to save up the resources, he did not only save them for the people of egypt, but he also did stock up extras, in the case that those from neighbouring countries will need help. it was proven true as the chapter tells us about the time when yusuf's family came from palestine to egypt to look for foods.

here we see an excellent example of a productive (visionary) leader. from my personal experience of being a leader, i do think that some of us fail to look beyond what are obvious to us. we failed to think in long terms scope, but rather only the short terms. this is what differentiate a successful leader from a decent leader.

be extraordinary. push yourself. you don't know how far you can go if you don't try.



so, let's move on to the second premise of that day input. humbleness to our parents.

have you wonder, no matter how high you have fly, no matter how low you have go, and no matter how powerful and wise you are, you are;

still your parents baby?

yes?

our parents will always worry after us, no matter how crippling old we are. i said we, not them ;)
thus, it is their right to bother us as much as they want, because, well, they are our parents. and to be frank,

'redha Allah terletak pada redha ibu bapa'. (don't know how to translate that, pls note that our wala' [obedience] to parents also has a limit, it is not a blinding kind of wala')

from this chapter in the Quran, we see how yusuf is still humble to his father, and did not ever slight his father despite his high position in the government of Egypt.

however, we see many opposing situations happening in the world lately. parents are forgotten easily once the child is independent and stable.

i think the third story is so well known, so i will not write about it. :)

so, young people! ask yourself, don't you want to be like yusuf?

loved by the people on earth and those in heavens?

let us learn from Prophet Yusuf a.s, given the worst of challenges, and still shine despite all the difficulties that he faced in his life. what a positive role model. :)




2 comments:

InkFlow said...

RECENT?

*roll eyes*

nice update. Moar pls

niksan said...

I like it! A lot. :)
Keep writing.