• Another lesson: resorting to means that repel the evil eye and other harms, or that remove them after they have struck, is perfectly permissible. Nothing occurs except by Allah’s decree and predestination, yet the very means one employs are themselves part of that decree. Thus Jacob said, “My sons, do not all enter by one gate; rather, enter by different gates” (12:67).
• Another lesson: it is lawful to use stratagems and carefully planned measures in order to obtain one’s rightful claims, and knowing subtle ways that lead to those ends is praiseworthy. Stratagems devised to evade an obligation or perpetrate something forbidden, however, are unlawful and invalid.
• Another lesson: whoever wishes to let someone assume what he prefers not to reveal should employ verbal or practical equivocation that keeps him from lying. Joseph did so when he placed the goblet in his brother’s saddlebag, then retrieved it so that people assumed the brother had stolen, though he never explicitly said so. Likewise he declared, “Allah forbid that we should seize anyone except the one in whose possession we found our property” (12:79); he did not say, “the one who stole our property.”
• Another lesson: a person may testify only to what he has actually learned and verified by sight or hearing, for they said, “We testify only to what we know” (12:81), and Allah says, “None bear witness to the truth except those who know” (43:86).
• Another lesson: consider the severe trial by which Allah tested His prophet and chosen servant Jacob, decreeing separation between him and his son Joseph, whom he could not bear to part from even for an hour and whose absence filled him with profound grief. That separation lasted many years, and sorrow never left Jacob’s heart—“and his eyes turned white from sorrow while he suppressed his anguish” (12:84). His burden grew heavier still when the loss of a second son followed the first, yet throughout he remained patient with Allah’s decree, hoping for reward from Him.