# Why Trials Shape Us: Wisdom from Yusuf (as) | Ramadan Reflections **Author:** Tom Facchine **Series:** Ramadan Reflections (2025) **Published:** 2025-03-14 **YouTube:** https://youtu.be/aa5b1NO1rJU **URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/why-trials-shape-us-wisdom-from-yusuf-ramadan-reflections **Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia ## Description Is there a purpose to our pain? How do our trials shape us? And how does the next life give us perspective and perseverance in this life? Imam Tom Facchine explores these questions in the light of Surah Yusuf. ## Transcript **[0:00]** SubhanAllah, Ramadan is flying by already. May Allah ﷻ make it easy for all of us and accept all of our deeds. One of the things, last time we were here we were talking about justice. We're talking about what makes Islam special. Especially in the context of what we see around us today. **[0:19]** Last week we were talking about justice and how Islam is unique in that it calls for justice for everybody. Not just for your group, not just for your tribe, not just for your nation. It calls for justice for everybody whether it's for us as Muslims or against us. Today, one thing that I wanted to focus on and this will be relevant especially if you're going doing about a juz a day. **[0:41]** You will be coming within the next few days across Surah Yusuf, Surah Ar-Ra'd and Surah Ibrahim. And one of the lessons that is told in Surah Yusuf and one of the fundamental teachings of Islam is that believing in an afterlife, believing in a creator, believing in accountability gives you purpose. **[1:06]** It gives you purpose for anything that you could experience in your life. Many of us, SubhanAllah, the last 15-16 months have been very very draining for a lot of us. Whether it's Palestine and Gaza, may Allah give victory to our brothers and sisters in Palestine. **[1:22]** Whether it's been Sudan, whether it's our brothers in East Turkestan. All over the world we've got many wounds as a Muslim Ummah. Right here at home, right here at home we have many wounds in the Muslim community and beyond. **[1:38]** For a person who doesn't believe in a creator or a person who is in doubt about life after death, suffering doesn't have a purpose. There's no reason why you should be suffering. **[1:55]** There's no reason why you should have to experience this. And people develop an expectation and this is an expectation that is actually fed into in our society today. That you should never experience any harm whatsoever. That you should never experience any pain. **[2:10]** That you should never really go through anything and we call this entitlement. You feel entitled. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran, both explicitly and implicitly in a variety of ways, that you have no right to expect this. **[2:26]** You have no rights to such entitlement. That to be part of this dunya is to suffer. Is to suffer. Because suffering is a part of the human experience. Even to bring a child into this world, one of the greatest blessings, you can't separate that, ladies you know what I'm talking about, from suffering. **[2:46]** That suffering is, it doesn't matter what kind of pill, what kind of injection, what kind of thing they're going to come up with in a lab, you're still going to have suffering. To come into this world, there's suffering. To leave this world, there's suffering. And along the way, as we know, there's a whole lot of suffering. **[3:02]** Now, if you think that we just came from nothing. Or we evolved from apes. Or that we're just an accident. Just a mutation. Then there's no reason why any of this suffering should have any purpose and life, quite frankly, is very depressing. **[3:22]** You look around the world and you see everything that's going on and you say, why? When is it going to be over? This doesn't seem fair. It seems like the universe is cruel. It seems like the universe runs on chaos. But if you understand that you're here for a purpose. **[3:40]** And that your existence was an intentional act by a creator who loves you. That you didn't have to exist. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decided and chose for you specifically. Could have been someone else that doesn't exist. **[3:55]** Chose for you specifically to come into existence. That's an act of love. And that means that you're here for a reason. A very good reason. And whatever you have to do and whatever Allah wants you to do in this life of yours that he's given to you. **[4:10]** No matter how long or short it is, that means nobody else could have done that job. Allah made you custom built for the purpose. And so when you go into Surah Yusuf and you see all the stuff that he went through. Jealousy. How many of us have been victims of jealousy? **[4:28]** Plotting. His own brothers. Yes, family drama. Yusuf (عليه السلام) wasn't safe from it. Neither are you or me. Throwing him down the well. Picked up and sold into slavery. Tempted through seduction. **[4:45]** Wrongfully imprisoned. Rotting away in jail for years. And you know one of the funniest things about that story that never ceases to amaze me. Is that when he interprets the dreams of the gentleman to the left and his right. **[5:01]** The one goes free and then forgets all about Yusuf. And it says literally in the Quran that he stayed in prison years after that. And it's only when the king has a dream that's when he remembers, oh yeah there's this guy, he's still in jail. **[5:16]** He can interpret your dreams. And the crazy thing that blows me away is that Yusuf (عليه السلام) doesn't even call him out on it. That when he comes back and he says, hey Yusuf we need you. We need you to interpret a dream. If it were me in that situation I would have been like, Joker where you been? **[5:34]** I've been sitting here waiting for you to get me out. It's been years. But Yusuf (عليه السلام) doesn't say that. He doesn't do that. He just said what's the dream? Give it to me. And then he interprets it. And then even then, you've been in jail. Think about it. **[5:50]** You've been wrongfully imprisoned for years and years and years. And then the king says to you, okay you can go free. He says, no. Not until you exonerate me. Because I'm here, I shouldn't be here. **[6:06]** He doesn't ask the women about those who cut their hands. He doesn't want to get out just on a federal pardon or one of these things that the president does, right? He wants to be, have his name cleared. Who has the patience for that? **[6:22]** Because Yusuf (عليه السلام) understood that that was what he was built for. That was the job that Allah put him there to serve and to fulfill. And that the suffering, whatever he endured, it had to be that way so that he could get to the status that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted for him. **[6:40]** It's like you're here and Allah wants you here. But you're not going to go from here to there without paying a price. And that price often is in the form of pain or suffering, trials, tribulation. **[6:55]** And so when Yusuf (عليه السلام) gets to it in the whole, at the very end of the story, and he comes out and he's on top and he's the wazir, he's the person who's in charge of the granaries, and his dream comes true and he sees his parents and he sees his brothers, they've all repented and they've sought his forgiveness. **[7:13]** And he's able to forgive them, he's able to muster that grace. Because he understood that all of this was for a purpose. All of it had to happen. And that if the glory of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to be manifested and demonstrated in this life, **[7:33]** then there's going to be suffering along the way. And there's reasons for that. One of the reasons, there's multiple reasons. One of them is because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shows you who is who in those times. When suffering happens, Allah shows you who is who. Everybody who smiled in your face and told you they were your friend and told you they were down with you, right? **[7:52]** You get to see whether that was for real or not. And even the people that maybe they didn't go out of their way to be nice to you, maybe you see that they're the people that come through for you. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes what is hidden manifest through trials and tribulations, **[8:08]** and only the believer understands the value of suffering. So, we'll conclude that this entire society is afraid. It's afraid of pain. It's afraid of suffering. That's why we keep on trying to invent new ways to avoid it. **[8:23]** I'm sure Elon Musk is trying to cook up a way so that you can never die. That you can live forever without pain, and that's called Jannah. We believe in that, but we don't believe that here in this life. We believe that after we die. That's called Jannah. As for this life, we understand that we are prepared for what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has decreed for us. **[8:43]** We're ready and we accept it. And we understand that part of it is going to be suffering, and part of it is going to be pain. But we understand that just like bitter medicine, that the pain and the suffering that we have to go through is only going to make us stronger. **[8:58]** It's only going to put in deposits for our afterlife, and raise our status and our rank on the day of judgment. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us what we need to face those tests, and to face those trials, and to face those tribulations, and to be content with our portion of suffering that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has decreed for us. **[9:17]** And to put it in our scales that we might transcend that and fulfill his purpose. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses us and does not replace us. Barakallahu fikum, subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika ash-hadu an la ilaha illa anta astaghfiruka wa atubu ilaik. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullah. **[9:34]** you ## Other Episodes in "Ramadan Reflections (2025)" - [Praying the “Night Prayer” During the Day | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/praying-the-night-prayer-during-the-day-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Is Laylatul Qadr on the 27th Night? | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/is-laylatul-qadr-on-the-27th-night-ramadan-reflections.md) - [The Guilt of Sleeping on Laylatul Qadr | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/the-guilt-of-sleeping-on-laylatul-qadr-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Why the Prophet ﷺ Forgot the Exact Date of Laylatul Qadr | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/why-the-prophet-forgot-the-exact-date-of-laylatul-qadr-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Why Tonight Could Be Laylatul Qadr | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/why-tonight-could-be-laylatul-qadr-ramadan-reflections.md) - [A Complete Guide to the Last 10 Nights and Laylatul Qadr | Dr. Omar Suleiman](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/a-complete-guide-to-the-last-10-nights-and-laylatul-qadr-omar-suleiman.md) - [The Other Side Series Live Q&A with Dr. Omar Suleiman](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/the-other-side-series-live-q-and-a-with-dr-omar-suleiman.md) - [Gaza Burns Again: How to Process Endless Grief with Courage | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/gaza-burns-again-how-to-process-endless-grief-with-courage-ramadan-reflections.md) - [The Miracle of the Longest Surah of the Qur’an | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/miracle-of-the-longest-surah-of-the-quran-ramadan-reflections.md) - [The Biggest Losers | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/the-biggest-losers-ramadan-reflections.md) - [The Qur’an Won’t Benefit You Until You Do This | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/the-quran-wont-benefit-you-until-you-do-this-ramadan-reflections.md) - [How To Never Miss Sunnah Prayers Again | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/how-to-never-miss-sunnah-prayers-again-ramadan-reflections.md) - [How Ya’qub (as) Knew Yusuf (as) Wasn’t Dead | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/how-yaqub-knew-yusuf-wasnt-dead-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Will Your Qur’an Recitation Be Accepted? | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/will-your-quran-recitation-be-accepted-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Do You Want to See Tyrants Suffer? | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/do-you-want-to-see-tyrants-suffer-ramadan-reflections.md) - [A Giant in Prison: Imam Jamil Al Amin | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/a-giant-in-prison-imam-jamil-al-amin-ramadan-reflections.md) - [What Justice Really Means in Islam | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/what-justice-really-means-in-islam-ramadan-reflections.md) - [The Prophet ﷺ’s Tears and the Warning of Jibreel (as) | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/the-prophet-tears-and-the-warning-of-jibreel-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Why Reciting the Qur’an Is A Miracle In Itself | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/why-reciting-the-quran-is-a-miracle-in-itself-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Did Past Nations Fast Like Muslims Today? | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/did-past-nations-fast-like-muslims-today-ramadan-reflections.md) - [This Ramadan Can Change Your Future | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/this-ramadan-can-change-your-future-ramadan-reflections.md) - [Fasting & Prayer: The Amazing Hidden Connections | Ramadan Reflections](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ramadan-reflections-2025/fasting-and-prayer-the-amazing-hidden-connections-ramadan-reflections-omar-suleiman.md) - [Tackling the Beast of Iftar Expectations | Sh. 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