Ayah 4 : The Dream

Ayah 4 : The Dream 

When Yusuf said to his father my beloved father it is certainly I who has seen 11 stars and the sun and the moon, I saw all of them performing prostration ( bowing their heads on the ground) for me.

The story of Yusuf AS begins in ayah 4. The story is structured in the form of scenes. And here is scene 1. Ayah 4, 5 & 6 are one scene. It is a very personal and private conversation that is happening between a father and a son.

Here a child is initiating a conversation with the parent. 

• A child should be comfortable talking about anything with his dad. 
• Sometimes kids say one thing but parents know that there’s something behind it.
• And sometimes they act in a certain way and the parents have to pick up on what’s the reason behind that.

Secondly, children should be able to talk to their parents about what’s going on in their lives.

When kids are little they seek their parent’s attention but as they grow old, they are more comfortable talking to their friends.

Yaqoob AS made Yusuf AS feel so welcomed, nurtured and protected that he can even tell him about a dream he had.

How can we become someone our kids can relate to?

You should know what your kids are upto & take part in it. When you are doing something, you should make them a part of it.

Experiences matter more than stuff. 

Those moments can become pillars in a child’s life. There’s a bond that’s built between parents & children by shared experiences.

This ayah is teaching us that we have to create an environment so beautiful that our kids communicate with us, we are not the ones trying to communicate with them.

لِأَبِيهِ يَا أَبَتِ

When Yusuf said to his father, my beloved father

Allah could have said, Yusuf said Dad I saw 11 stars. The word father is repetitive, even if you take it out, the sentence makes sense.




It is highlighting the fact that the go to for Yusuf AS was his father. We need to nurture our children to the point that we are their support & refuge.

يَا أَبَتِ

The added ت is a common expression of the Quran but not a common expression of the arabic language. Normally it’s يا أبي. The extra ت suggests two things, love & respect.

He looks to his father with love but he has also been taught what it means to respect his father because he addresses him with respect.

إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ أَحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوْكَبًا وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ

He has seen a dream and the contents of the dream are very strange. He has seen 11 stars which is basically a reference to the night. Along with the stars he also saw the sun and then the moon. The order is also different. By this strange sequence he is already letting us know that he is disturbed by what he saw and he also knows that they are not actually the stars, the sun and the moon.

He has 11 brothers so it wasn’t difficult for him to figure out that it might be referring to his family. Sun and moon could be his mom & dad.

Contemplation by Ustadh Nouman 

Stars for the night sky are a source of beauty. They may also be a source of guidance and comfort. That’s only for people who are on a journey. We may not depend on our siblings but there may be times when we need guidance from our siblings. They are not a need of ours but they can be one at times. A sibling should be someone who beautifies your life. When you look up at the sky, they are always there.

Sun & moon play a daily role in our lives. They are fundamental to our survival. Moon affects the tide on this planet which is related to the temperature regulation. It warms the poles because of the movements of the tides. A big part of the sustainability of life on this planet is how the oceans function. And the functioning of the ocean is dependent upon the different phasing of the moon.

Earth revolves around the sun. but the moon revolves around the earth. We go to our parents for care and as the parents age, they become dependent on us. Even when they come to us we are the beneficiaries.

Our relationship with Allah revolves around worship and worship is two things. Worship either goes by the position of the sun - the five prayers. And our worship depends upon the sacred calendar like hajj or fasting- that entirely depends on the moon.

In your homes, the clock is for the day & the calendar is for the month. Allah put a clock in the sky called the sun & a calendar called the moon. So our entire lives are organized by the clock & calendar. We keep the track of our time with them.

We also get to know what kind of a powerful influence the parents have on the lives of their children. 

No conversation which a parent has with his child is insignificant. 

You never know which conversation shapes the entire life of your child.

Yusuf AS would never have thought that dream was the epic moment of his life, yet it is an ayah in the Quran from the highest heavens for the entire humanity to learn about the conversation a boy had with his dad.

Historians won’t write that in their books. But this is the history coming from the heavens. Nobody else could see what was important. One in the highest heavens is watching the conversation we are having with our kids. When kids speak it’s important to Allah. Because here’s a kid speaking and Allah listened and he put it in the Quran. Being good listeners to our children is important.

إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ 

Certainly/ no doubt about it I. The purpose of ان is to remove doubt. Prophet Yusuf AS said to his dad, Dad for real, seriously, I really did see 11 stars. As if he is saying something that’s hard to believe. In his mind somewhere, he thinks that his dad might not believe him what he is saying. It’s crazy, it’s too much! Why would dad even believe me. When children experience something shocking then they add words like “really”. Their eyes bulge out & they are excited.

The airaab of اني. The word ان is harf nasiba. The ضمير متصل is ism of ان. And that’s the mubtada. And رأيت is the خبر. It’s a جمله فعليه في محل رفع.

Beyond the grammar is the actual, natural language. I actually did see this dad. 

Before he says it, he made sure he let him know that he loves & respects him يا أبت. What he is about to say might sound disrespectful.

What this is teaching us is that sometimes we might have conversations with our loved ones that might get us in trouble. There needs to be transparency in the relationship. When there’s transparency, the love & respect remains. Transparency helps to solve a lot of problems even if they are difficult ones.

رَأَيْتُهُمْ لِي سَاجِدِينَ

By the time Yusuf AS got to the moon, he was so disturbed, that he stopped. He couldn’t go on. So there’s a pause and then he says, I saw them رأيتهم, / you know what I saw them doing? I saw them doing “sajdah” for me!

One opinion is that he had two visions, one vision of the celestial bodies and the second one of doing sajdah.

When someone is doing sajdah before someone, they have to be close to them. But the stars, sun & moon are far away. Yusuf AS is bothered by the fact there’s going to be a time in his life when he is really going to be far away from his brothers, mom & dad. But even though he would be far away, somehow they would come close. Close enough that they would be doing Sajdah because of him.

رَأَيْتُهُمْ

Means I saw them. In arabic the pronouns for غير عاقل (non-living things), are feminine or feminine plural. The pronoun for skies is either هي or هن. Here we are supposed to be talking about inanimate objects. It should be رأيتهن لي ساجدات or رأيتها لي ساجدة. Because they are جمع تكسير. The word هم is only used for people. As he is speaking, he already interpreted the dream.

سَاجِدِينَ

It’s for the men and women. In جملة فعلية , you say the حال and then جار مجرور. The expected sequence would be رأيتهم ساجدين لي. But here the لي is muqadam مقدم, brought earlier. It suggests التعجيب - a kind of shock. Sajdah of all things because of me.

Theory by Ustadh Nouman

It is only to Allah whoever in the skies and earth do sajdah. But in the Quran you find sajdah that’s not done to Allah

• Sajdah to Adam AS by the angels. 
• Sajdah by the magicians in the story of Musa AS. 
• 11 stars, sun & moon fell into sajdah to Yusuf AS

لِي

The ل can be used for علة. The magicians fell into sajdah in the story of Musa AS, not to Musa AS but because of Musa AS. For what Musa AS did, they saw the magnificent power of God and fell into sajdah.

Ibrahim AS taught his children Islam & he was the one who built the Kaaba. He taught them how to do sajdah only to Allah.

Tafseer literature: sajdah tu takreem, before Quran it was okay to do sajdah to someone other than Allah out of respect.

Dad I saw all of them bowing because of me!

Later on in the story the king also saw a dream and didn’t know what it means and said he is bothered by it. He asked his people and they replied like it’s nothing.

But a father is much more in a position to say to his son that it doesn’t mean anything, it’s probably a nightmare. But Yusuf AS's dad didn’t do that and he attentively listened to his son and the way he responds to his son is mind blowing!