What Makes You Beautiful?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Imagine, you are very young and your older siblings are jealous of you and they throw you in a well. You then get picked up by strangers and taken far away and sold into slavery. Imagine you are now a little older and people slandered you and accused you of wrongdoing and despite your innocence, you were imprisoned, and you stayed in prison for the next 20-30 years. Imagine you become very powerful in the land and have the power to punish those people who have wronged you.

Can you forgive those people and see the kindness of Allah? A beautiful person can.
This, you can find in the story of Prophet Yusuf, peace be upon him, in Surah Yusuf.

'They said: "By Allah! Indeed Allah has preferred you above us, and we certainly have been sinners. He (Prophet Yusuf) said: "No reproach on you this day, may Allah forgive you, and He is the Most Merciful of those who show mercy!' Quran Yusuf 12:91-92

'And he (Prophet Yusuf) said: "O my father! This is the interpretation of my dream aforetime! My Lord has made it come true! He was indeed good to me, when He took me out of the prison, and brought you (all here) out of the bedouin-life, after Satan had sown enmity between me and my brothers. Certainly, my Lord is the Most Courteous and Kind unto whom He wills. Truly He! Only He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.' Qur'an Yusuf 12:100

When Prophet Yusuf, peace be upon him, recounted Allah's favor, he did not bring up what his brothers had done to him. He never said Allah took him out of the well but said Allah took him out of prison. He concealed and covered his brothers' mistakes and not let his brothers dwell in their wrong against him. Such is a beautiful person.

His beauty caused havoc in the hearts of the ladies to a grand banquet of the wife of the Aziz, a prominent and powerful figure of that society. The ladies were just about to cut the fruit with their knives, when, behold! Prophet Yusuf was brought into their midst, they lost self control and cut their fingers!

Two men came to the prison about the same time as Prophet Yusuf. Both these men felt not only that Prophet Yusuf had wisdom, but that he was kind and benevolent, and would give of his wisdom even to strangers like themselves. They therefore told him their dreams and asked him to interpret them. Prophet Yusuf gave the interpretation of their dreams, which came true--one man was executed and another man was released to serve the King. Prophet Yusuf asked the man to mention him to the King but he forgot and so Prophet Yusuf stayed in prison for another few years. Years later when this man came back to ask Prophet Yusuf for the interpretation of the King's dream, the magnanimous Prophet Yusuf had not a word of reproach, but got straight on with the interpretation.

Prophet Yusuf had a great share of Allah's beautiful attributes, and Allah made him beautiful.

May Allah enable us to realize His beautiful Names. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam