{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/jj03.htm","path":"isl/pro/jj03.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/jj03.htm","text":"Joseph The Righteous\n(PUH)\nJoseph\nwas the beloved son of Jacob, and almost he could not leave him alone.\nJoseph was a man of nice face and shape, and so his father prefered him\nover his other children and even over himself and took care of him so much\nbeyond the known limits, and that was the reason for his brothers envy\nand for his troubles since he was a kid and for troubling his father with\ngreat matters such as being away from him for almost twenty years at least.\nThe children of Jacob saw how Joseph got all the attention of their father\nand so they got mad about it and they were in young ages so they plotted\nagainst him and said to their father: O our father! Why wilt thou not trust\nus with Joseph, when lo! we are good friends to him ? Send him with us\nto-morrow that he may enjoy himself and play. And lo! we shall take good\ncare of him(Yousof:11-12). Then Jacob felt some danger from them but for\nhe was afraid on Joseph against them he did not show anything and tried\nhardly to keep his feelings and so he answered them: Lo! in truth it saddens\nme that ye should take him with you, and I fear less the wolf devour him\nwhile ye are heedless of him(Yousof:13), and God knows that he was afraid\nfrom them and not the wolf, and their answer to him did not contain any\ncovenant or a promise to take care of him and did not make a way for their\nfather to disaprove so they said: If the wolf should devour him when we\nare (so strong) a band, then surely we should have already perished(Yousof:14).\nIt is mentioned that their land had some lions and at that time the lions\nwere so beasty. They said that Jacob saw in his dream that ten wolves surrounded\nJoseph to kill him, and then one wolf of them jumped to protect him, and\nthen as if the ground was cut into half and Joseph got into it deep inside\nthen went out after three days, and for this he said: I fear less the wolf\ndevour him, and in fact that was a lesson from him towards them but he\ndid not feel it, for it is mentioned that at that time they did not know\nthat a wolf can devour a human, and as attributed to the prophet (PUH)\nthat he said: do not teach how to lie and so you lie then, for the children\nof Jacob did not know before that the wolf can devour a human until their\nfather told them so and so then they lied.\nGod had revealed in the chapter\nof Yousof in His holy book explanations about His servant Joseph and whatever\nHe revelaed upon him from troubles and tests and virtues and fortunes,\nso He gave him what no one of the prophets did have, and tested him as\nno one before, so said God in the chapter of Yousof speaking to His beloved\nthe prophet (PUH): We narrate unto thee (Muhammad) the best of narratives\nin that We have inspired in thee this Qur'an, though aforetime thou wast\nof the heedless(Yousof:3), so stories come from quran and other ways, and\nthere is a difference between its stories and stories brought by other\nsources, and God called it \"best narratives\" for it reached the ultimate\nlevel of literature and rhyme with harmony, and it was been narrated in\nthe best of ways because it contained the wonders and sermons, and\u00a0\nbecause quran mostly tells the tidings of old nations and of coming nations\nand tells what servenats may need for their after-life so all of that was\nto be mentioned in the best rhyme and best order, and because the story\nof Joseph contains the jokes and wonders with benefits as no other story\ndid for its details in a wide manner, it did not let a question to be in\nthe mind of any one that might be asking about him, so then God said: When\nJoseph said unto his father: O my father! Lo! I saw in a dream eleven planets\nand the sun and the moon, I saw them prostrating themselves unto me. He\nsaid: O my dear son! Tell not thy brethren of thy vision, lest they plot\na\nplot against thee. Lo! Satan is for man an open foe(Yousof:4-5), and they\nsay the reason for revealing this chapter in quran was that some disbelievers\nin Mecca met some jews and they nagotiated about the condition of Muhammad\n(PUH) and so one of jews said: ask him (the prophet) why the family of\nJacob moved from the lands of Shem to Egypt and ask him about the story\nof Joseph, and so the chapter was revealed. What is apparent from the talk\nof Jacob to his son Joseph which is \"Tell not thy brethren of thy vision\"\nis that they did not know about his dream and neither about telling their\nfather about this dream but all of that happened without their knowledgement.\nWhat is mentioned in Torah is that\nall of that happened while his brothers were with him and then his father\nrebuked him for telling the dream in front of them and said to him: me\nand your mother and your brothers may prostrate for you, as for mocking\nat him, and this is the first point of difference. Then what is appointed\nby quran and its interpretations is that they asked their father to send\nJoseph with them by saying: Send him with us to-morrow that he may enjoy\nhimself and play. And lo! we shall take good care of him(Yousof:13), and\nin Torah is that his father sent him with them by his own will to check\ntheir manners and acts and then tell his father about what he saw, and\nfor this Torah claimed that he was seventeen years old, but the point is\nthat anyone in this age would be not be under such action as his brothers\ndid to him, and it is attributed to Torah: when he went with them and they\nwent far away with him and said: here comes the one of dreams wearing his\nstripped garment (and it was a garment given to him by his father) and\nthen they plotted a plot and they decided to throw him in the well after\ngetting his garment from him and never hurt him and tell their father that\nsome devoured him.\nThey said that when he was thrown\ninto the well he was ten years old, and some said that he was twelve years\nold and some said nine and seven, and he met his father again and he was\nforty years old. When they wanted to throw him in the well they said to\nhim: take off your garment, so he cried and said: O brothers, take off\nmy beholdings?! Then one of them got a knife towards him and said: if you\ndo not take it off I will kill you, so he took it off and they got him\ndown into the well and went away, then Joseph said while he was in the\nwell: O God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, have mercy upon me for my weakness\nand youth, and then a caravan came from Egypt and its traders sent someone\nto get them water from the well, and when he put the bucket down into the\nwell, Joseph cought it tightly and when the man pulled the bucket back\nhe felt the heaviness, so then he looked and saw a boy hanging on it with\na beautiful face that he never saw before, so he left him and went back\nto his people and said: this is a boy, we can get him out and sell him\nand make a trade out of him. His brothers were watching at that time for\nwho will take him, and some of them used to give him food while he was\nin the well and guard the well as well and never left him alone in any\nday as it is most famously announced, and when the caravan passed by the\nwell they were there beside the well and when the traders insisted on taking\nhim, his brothers came and said: this is a servant for us and he escaped\naway and we are seeking him.\nThen the brothers of Joseph said\nto him: if you did not admit that you are a servant for us we would kill\nyou with carelessness, and when he knew the situation very well he accepted\nthat without thinking, so then the caravan's traders said to Joseph: what\ndo you say about what they are saying? He said: I am a servant for them,\nthen the traders said to the brothers of Joseph: would you then sell him\nto us? They said: yes, and so they bought him from them and decided to\nsell him in Egypt, and they took him for a cheap price, and as attributed\nto Al-Ridh\u00e2 (PUH) that the price was twenty coins and it was the\nprice of a hunting hound if it experienced some hunting. It is apparent\nthat they had him from their father as it had been told in quran and they\nwent with him and decided to get him into the well. Then they came to their\nfather at night crying, and said: O father, we went to race and left Joseph\nbeside our things and the wolf devoured him and you won't believe us even\nif we were truthful, and got his garment with a false blood, and this phrase\n\"you won't believe us even if were were truthful\" towards their father\nis because they felt that they were in the place of doubt for their father,\nand they know that and they know that their father's intuition about what\nevil they were planning for their brother was not wrong, and their deed\nwas not hidden from him and for this when he took the garment from their\nsinful hands and he did not find any tearing in it he said to them: how\nmerciful is this wolf that devoured my son Joseph without touching his\ngarment. He said that for his sorrow for Joseph and for mocking at them\nand their lies, and when he knew clearly their situation he said: Nay,\nbut your minds have beguiled you into something. (My course is) comely\npatience. And Allah it is Whose help is to be sought in that (predicament)\nwhich ye describe(Yousof:18).\nAs attributed to Al-B\u00e2qir\n(PUH) in general about the interpretation of God's saying: And they came\nwith false blood on his shirt(Yousof:18), is that they slain a ram over\nhis shirt and polluted it with blood and said to each other: we shall say\nto our father that the wolf devoured him, and when they did so, Levi said\nto them: O people, do you think that God hide such tidings away from his\nprophet Jacob? So they said: what to do? He said: we shall go and wash\nup and pray together and ask God to hide this from his prophets for He\nis Generous, and so they did, and the regulations of Abraham and Isaac\nand Jacob was to pray as a group only if there are eleven men to do so,\nand so one stand up as a leader and ten behind him to pray, so then they\nsaid: what to do now and we do not have a leader? Because all of them were\nten only, then said Levi: we shall make God our leader, and then they prayed\nand weeped and asked God to never tell his prophet Jacob about what they\ndid, and then they came to their father weeping with his shirt polluted\nwith blood and said: O our father! We went racing one with another, and\nleft Joseph by our things...etc, so then their father Jacob said: how mad\nwas that wolf over Joseph and how merciful it was for his shirt, for he\ndevoured Joseph and did not tear his shirt.\nThen the caravan that took Joseph\ncarried him back to Egypt and sold him to a noble man of Egypt and he was\ncalled Al-Rayy\u00e2n ben Al-Waleed as been told, so he who bought him\nsaid to his wife: Receive him honourably. Perchance he may prove useful\nto us or we may adopt him as a son, for they did not have children and\nso they took care of him and educated him so fine, and so when he grew\nup, the wife of the noble loved him so much, and it said that no man cna\nlook at him without liking him, and no woman would look at him without\nloving him for his face was like a full moon, and then the wife of the\nnoble tried to have a relation with him as it had been told by God saying:\nAnd she, in whose house he was, asked of him an evil act(Yousof:23), then\nthey said that she kept on trying to get him until happened what was mentioned\nin quran: She verily desired him, and he would have desired her if it had\nnot been that he saw the argument of his Lord(Yousof:14), then the wife\nof the noble closed all the doors and went to an idol in her house and\ncovered it with a cloth and said: so it won't see us for I am shy of him.\nThen said said Joseph: you are shy of an idol that hears not and sees not,\nand I shall not be shy of my Lord? Then he jumped off and ran and she ran\nafter him, and he wants to get away from the door, and then the noble appeared\nfrom the door and saw their situation and it was as God said: And they\nraced with one another to the door, and she tore his shirt from behind,\nand they met her lord and master at the door(Yousof:25), and then the wife\nof the noble said: What shall be his reward, who wisheth evil to thy folk,\nsave prison or a painful doom ?(Yousof:25), then Joseph said: She it was\nwho asked of me an evil act, and some say that God inspired unto Joseph\nto say to the king (noble): ask this child that still in cradle then he\nwill testify that she was the one who started, then the noble asked the\nboy about what he saw, so then God made the child speak and testify for\nJoseph, and the child said: If his shirt is torn from before, then she\nspeaketh truth and he is of the liars. And if his shirt is torn from behind,\nthen she hath lied and he is of the truthful, So when he saw his shirt\ntorn from behind, he said: Lo! this is of the guile of you women. Lo! the\nguile of you is very great(Yousof:26-28), and then the noble said to Joseph:\nO Joseph! Turn away from this, and thou, (O woman), ask forgiveness for\nthy sin. Lo! thou art of the faulty(Yousof: 29). It is then mentioned that\nwhen her tidings and conditions reached everyone in the city and the women\nof the nobles started to blame and talk about Zelikh\u00e2' the wife of\nthe noble as been told by the quran: And women in the city said: The ruler's\nwife is asking of her slave-boy an ill- deed(Yousof:30) , and she understood\nand knew what is the situation and the gossip in the city, and so she gathered\nthem all and they sat on the place that was prepared for them, and then\nshe gave each one of them a knife, a citron and a lemon and she ordered\nthem to cut and eat, and then she said to Joseph: get out for them, and\nthen when they saw him they became amazed and their hearts loved him and\nsaid: O God this is not a human but an angel, and they started cutting\ntheir hands without feeling it for they were busy with looking at him and\nhis beauty, and for this they said this is not a human, and then the wife\nof the noble said: This is he on whose account ye blamed me. I asked of\nhim an evil act, but he proved continent, but if he do not my behest he\nverily shall be imprisoned(Yousof:32).\nIt is mentioned in tidings that\nafter this event, every woman that saw him sent to him want him beside\nher, so he got much pain for that, and said: O my Lord! Prison is more\ndear than that unto which they urge me, and if Thou fend not off their\nwiles from me I shall incline unto them and become of the foolish(Yousof:33),\nand so God answered his prays and fended off their wiles. Then the wife\nof the noble ordered for him to be imprisoned, and it is mentioned about\nthe interpretations of God's saying: And it seemed good to them (the men-folk)\nafter they had seen the signs (of his innocence) to imprison him for a\ntime(Yousof:35), and the signs were the testimony of the child and he was\nZalikh\u00e2's sister's son and he was three months old and he was in\nthe cradle and Joseph used his testimony to prove his innocence, and the\nshirt the was tornfrom behind and Zalikh\u00e2 torn it for her love to\nJoseph when they raced to the door until that her husband heard her trials\nto get him and he was avoiding her, and when he refused, she did not leave\nhim alone until she ordered for him to be imprisoned. Then two young men\nwent with him into the jail, some say that they were servants for the king,\none was the bread maker and the other was the cupbearer and they were imprisoned\nfor someone told the king that they were trying to poison him, and some\nsay that the king appointed these two men to protect him, and when Joseph\nwent into the jail they asked him: what is your craft? He answered: interpret\ndreams, and then one of them dreamt what was mentioned in quran as: I dreamed\nthat I was pressing wine(Yousof:36), and then Joseph said to him: you will\nbe out of prison and manage the drink of the king and you will have a high\nplace in his court, and the other said: dreamed that I was carrying upon\nmy head bread whereof the birds were eating, but he actually did not see\na dream, but he was lying only. Then Joseph said: you will kill and the\nking will kill you and crucify you and the birds will eat from your brain,\nso he said then: I did not see a thing, then Joseph said: Thus is the case\njudged concerning which ye did inquire, and when the cupbearer wanted to\ngo out of jail and he was the one that was saved, Joseph said to him: mention\nme in the court of your lord but the devil made him forget about him as\nit was mentioned in quran and he stayed some more years.\nSome historians say: Joseph was\nfor his master, before the event with the wife of the noble took place,\nhe was the owner of commands and the head of his servants and also the\none that used to control his house and no one in the house has a higher\nplace than him except for his master and his wife, and God guided Joseph\nand educated him, and taught him great knowledgement, and God appointed\nthat by saying: Thus we established Joseph in the land that We might teach\nhim the interpretation of events. And Allah was predominant in His career,\nbut most of mankind know not. And when he reached his prime We gave him\nwisdom and knowledge. Thus We reward the good(Yousof:21-22).\nNext: Gifts Are in Troubles","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Jacob and Joseph: Joseph The Righteous (PUH)","type":"page"}