{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/jj05.htm","path":"isl/pro/jj05.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/jj05.htm","text":"Sacred Texts\u00a0\nIslam\u00a0\nIndex\u00a0\nPrevious\u00a0\nNext\u00a0\nGetting Joseph\nInto The Jail\nWhen things got greater for the noble\nto hide, he did not find any solution for this except by putting Joseph\ninto the jail to get rid of the shame and avoid tongues to talk about it,\nto make people believe that he did not put him in the jail except for that\nhe is a liar to claim innocence, and so God said: And it seemed good to\nthem (the men-folk) after they had seen the signs (of his innocence) to\nimprison him for a time(Yousof:35). When he went into the jail and the\nguard saw him, he said to Joseph: I like you, then Joseph (PUH) said: nothing\nbrought me to this condition except love, and so my maternal aunt loved\nme and that made her steal me away, and my father loved me and that made\nmy brothers envy me, and the wife of the noble loved me and so she sent\nme to jail for her love..etc. So the reward of he who saved the house was\nas the reward of Sanimm\u00e2r [Sanimm\u00e2r: they say he was a Roman\narchitect that built a castle for one Arabian king before Islam that was\ncalled Al-Nu`m\u00e2n, after finishing the building of the castle he said\nto the king I know only one piece that I know in this castle, if removed\nthe castle would come down, so the king killed him so no one would know\nhis secret, and the story went as a proverb for a bad reward in exchange\nof the good deeds], and so the noble did not hurt the one that sacrified\nwith her reputation and with her dignity and her husband's dignity, but\nhe used the dignity of the innocent as a ransom for her reputation, and\nso it was like life, liked although it hurts a lot, and although it is\nknown it will end some day. We've pointed out that Joseph had two men going\nwith him into the jail, one of them was the chief baker for the king and\nthe second was the cupbearer, and their charge was betrayal, and then they\napproached Joseph after they knew his high place and his knowledge about\ninterpreting the dreams and one of them told him that he saw that he takes\nthe grapes and make a juice out of it in the cup of the king and the other\nsaid that he saw that he was carrying a basket of bread and the birds were\neating from it,and they requested from him to interpret their dreams, and\nwhen he (Joseph) saw them as persons that do care about his speech and\nto be trusted he showed them the truth about himself and about his beliefs\nand the he is following the religion of his fathers, Abraham, Ishmael,\nIsaac and Jacob, and he is believing in one God, so Joseph wanted them\nto follow his path and believe in the One God and he guided them to the\nstraight way as the prophets and viceroys would do, and he made them special\nfor telling them about their dreams interpretations, telling them so was\na clue that he was indeed of a high place and a prophet, and to strengthen\ntheir desire to listen to him and trust him he asked them then: Are divers\nlords better, or Allah the One, Almighty?(Yousof:39). The purpose of Joseph\n(PUH) was to show his religion and call for it and God made him able to\ndo so and made him able to interpret the dreams, and then he said to them\nthat no food comes to them that he does not know its interpretation before\nit comes to them and all of that is of what God taught him, and he believes\nin Him and only Him and disbelieve in all the gods. Then after telling\nthem all of that he answsered their request by saying: O my two fellow-prisoners!\nAs for one of you, he will pour out wine for his lord to drink, and this\none is the saved man, and as for the other, he will be crucified so that\nthe birds will eat from his head. Thus is the case judged concerning which\nye did inquire. The truth was as it had been told by him, and he asked\nthe saved man to remember him in the presense of his lord and ask the noble\nof Egypt to release him, but the devil made him forget all of that and\nfor this Joseph stayed in the jail for more years.\nAs attributed to `Ali ben Ibr\u00e2him\nthat he said: when the king (or noble) ordered for Joseph to be imprisoned,\ngod inspired him with the ability to interpret the dreams, and so he interpreted\nthe dreams for the prisoners until the two men asked him about the interpretations\nfor their dreams, and when he interpreted their dreams he said to the one\nthat would be saved: remember me in the presense of thy lord, and he did\nnot ask God for such thing, then God inspired unto him: who made you see\nthe dream, and he means the first dream as was told by God: I saw in a\ndream eleven planets..etc(Yousof:4), and who made you beloved to your father,\nand who guided the caravan to your place, and who taught you how to call\n(pray) so I made you out of the well, and who made the child speak so to\nmake you innocent, and who made you able to interpret the dreams? Then\nhe said: You O my Lord, then God said to him: then how come you asked for\nhelp from someone else other than Me, and seeked hope from one of My servants\nto remember you in the presense of a creature of My own creations, and\nso he stayed then some more years in jail. As attributed to Al-S\u00e2diq\n(PUH) that he said they were seven years. Then Joseph said: I ask You by\nthe rights of my fathers to release me, so then God inspired to Joseph:\nO Joseph, what rights your fathers have? Your father Adam I made him with\nMy own Hands and breathed in him from My soul and made him dwell in My\nparadise and ordered him not to eat from that tree but he did what I prohibited,\nand asked for repentace and I gave it to him, and your father Noah I did\nchoose him among the rest of My creation and I made him a prophet to his\npeople, and when they refused him he prayed to Me and I answered him and\nsaved him and his followers in the ark, and your father Abraham I did choose\nhim as a friend and saved him from the fire, and your father Jacob I gave\nhim twelve sons and I made only one of them absent and he kept on crying\nuntil his sight begone and sat on the roads complaining, so what rights\ndo your fathers have? Then Gabriel said: O Joseph say: O I ask You by Your\ngreat gifts and by Your old Goodness, and then when he said it, the king\nsaw that dream and then he was released from the jail.\nIt is said that when the period\nof time is almost over and God permitted his release, he put his cheek\non the ground and said: O God, if my sins wore out my face in front of\nYou, then I shall ask You, by the faces of my faithful fathers, Abraham\nand Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob, to release me, and so then God released\nhim, and then the Imam (PUH) was asked [the author did not mention which\nImam is meant here]: shall we pray with in similar manner? He (PUH) said:\npray the same and say: O God if my sins wore out my face in front of You\nthen I shall ask you by Your prophet, the prophet of mercy, Muhammad and\n`Ali, and F\u00e2tima and Al-Hasan and Al-Husain and the nine Imams from\nthe descendants of Al-Husain to do (whatsoever here and mention your own\nrequest).\nAs attributed to Al-S\u00e2diq\n(PUH) that he said: when Joseph was in jail he complained to God about\neating the bread alone and asked for some variation, and he had at that\ntime lot of dry bread pieces, so He ordered him to make all the bread in\none basket and pour water on it with some salt and then it becomes easy\nto eat, and he (PUH) said also: the Criers are five, Adam, Jacob, Joseph,\nF\u00e2tima the daughter of Muhammad (PUH), and `Ali ben Al-Husain (PUH),\nfor Adam he cried for paradise until his tears made like valleys on his\nface, and Jacob cried for Joseph until he became blind, and Joseph cried\nfor Jacob until the prisoners were annoyed and said to him: either you\ncry in daytime and be silent at night or cry at night and be silent at\ndaytime, and so he agreed on one of the choices, and for F\u00e2tima (PUH)\nshe cried for her father the prophet Muhammad (PUH) until the people of\nMedina were annoyed of her and said to her: you annoyed us for your crying,\nso then after that she started to go out to the graves of martyrs and cry\nthere and when she finishes she gets back home, and for `Ali ben Al-Husain\n(PUH) he cried for forty years for his father Al-Husain ben `Ali (PUH),\nand no food nor a drink would be presented to him without him been crying\nuntil a servant for him said to him: O may I be a ransom for you, I am\nafraid that your doom is close for all of this, so he answered him: but\nI complain about my sadness to God and I know from God what you know not,\nand everytime I remember the troubles of the children of F\u00e2tima I\ncan not stop crying.\nAnd as attributed to Ibn `Abb\u00e2s\nthat he said: Joseph stayed in the house of the king (or noble) and Zalikh\u00e2\nfor three years and then she loved him and asked him the evil act, and\nthey say that she kept his love for seven years while he was in her house\nand she used to look at him while she used to stand on her feet's fingers\nwhile he used to keep his eyes to the ground for his faith in God, and\nshe said to him one day: lift up your head and look at me, he said: I am\nafraid of becoming a blind, she said then: O how beautiful are your eyes!\nHe then said: they will be the first to fall down on my cheek when I am\nin my grave, she said then: O how beautiful is scent, he answered then:\nif you smelled me after three days after my death you would escape away\nfrom me. She said then: why don't you get closer to me? He answered: I\nwish by that the closeness to my God, she said: to my silky bed to satisfy\nme, he said then: I am afraid that my share of paradise I will lose, then\nshe said: I will put you under torture, he said then: God is enough for\nme. It is mentioned that the women that were gathered by Zalikh\u00e2\nthen said to Joseph: go and obey your lady for she is wronged and you are\nunjust to her. God said: Lo! the guile of you is very great(Yousof:28),\nfor their guile is more greater than the guile of the devil for they show\nit apparently and their guile get to the heart, but the guile of the devil\nis done in secret, so the guile of women is greater than the guile of devil.\nIt is mentioned that Zalikh\u00e2\nsaid to her husband: this slave defamed me among the people and I can not\ngive an excuse for this, so either you allow me to get out to the public\nand apologize or you imprison him as you are imprisoning me, and so he\ndid although he knew his innocence, and some interpretations about Joseph\nsaying: O my Lord! Prison is more dear than that unto which they urge me(Yousof:33),\nthat Joseph chose that as to escape from their guile, and he did not chose\nGod's willings and His choice, and not as our prophet (PUH) that used to\ntake refuse in God whenever he is in need and pray with the pray of Al-Iftiq\u00e2r\n[the name of the pray] and he used to say whenever he is in need: O Flipper\nof hearts and sights, make my heart stable for obeying You, and so God\nthen answers his requests nad fulfills his needs, and saved him against\nhis enemies, and made him infallible in public and in secret, and Joseph\nby his choice was sent to jail, and not as our prophet (PUH) for he chose\nGod to make the choices for him and not making them by himself, and Jacob\nwhen trusted his children to take care of Joseph and then they threw him\ninto the well and took his shirt by force while he was saying: O brothers\ndo not do that to me and give me the shirt to cover myself with, and they\nsaid to him: let the sun and the moon with the eleven planets amuse you,\nand then they put him in the well and when he reached the middle of it\nthey threw him to the ground asking for his death and the well had some\nwater so he fell on it and stood upon a rock that was there and his brother\nJudah used to bring him food as historians said, and they say that the\nwell was enlightened as a mercy from God unto him and the water was turned\nto be so fine that it made him satisfied away from other foods and drinks\nand then his brothers sold him to the caravan, and all of that happened\nbecause they did not follow the choice of God since the beginning although\nthey were so faithful, and we've mentioned that tests from God to His prophets\nand viceroys are faster to occur than His tests to His enemies, and God\ndraws them and make them get more into their wrong-doings as if the life\nwas their paradise and then in the after-life they have no other choice\nbut hell, and then when Jacob took refuse in God for his son Benjamin when\nhe sent him with his brothers and he depended on God to save him and said:\nAllah is better at guarding, and He is the Most Merciful of those who show\nmercy(Yousof:64), only then God made him on the throne of the kingdom and\ngot Joseph back to him and got the people out of their troubles, so meditate\nO people of hearts and get benefit from God's mercy for eternal gifts.\nAs attributed to many trusted sources\nthey reported to Al-S\u00e2diq (PUH) that he said about the sadness of\nJacob for Joseph: it was like the sadness of seventy women lost their children.\nIt is mentioned also that when Joseph was in the prison, Gabriel (PUH)\ncame down and said: God had tested you and your father and God will release\nyou from this jail so ask God by Muhammad and his Household to release\nyou from this, so then Joseph said: O God I ask You by Muhammad and his\nHousehold to release me and make me out of my troubles, so then Gabriel\nsaid: O Righteous, God will release you after three days and will give\nyou the kingdom of Egypt and their people, and then at that night the king\nsaw a dream that made him afraid and he told it to his assistors but they\ndid not how to interpret it, and then the man that was saved from the jail\nremembered Joseph and said: O king send me to the jail for there are a\nrighteous wise man, and I with that man that you crucified him after his\nkilling, we both saw dreams and he interpreted them for us and it was as\nhe said, and that man was crucified and I was saved, so the king to said\nto him: go to him and ask him about my dream, and so he went and asked\nJoseph: Joseph! O thou truthful one! Expound for us the seven fat kine..etc(Yousof:46),\nand when he gave his message to the king and told him about what will happen\nas told by the king's dream, the king said then: Bring him unto me that\nI may attach him to my person, and when they told Joseph the king's message,\nJoseph said then: how shall I be safe with him and he imprisoned me for\nyears although he knows my innocence? So when the king heard about his\nanswer he sent his messangers to the women and asked them: What happened\nwhen ye asked an evil act of Joseph? They answered: Allah Blameless! We\nknow no evil of him(Yousof:51), so he (the king) sent to him and got him\nout of the jail, and when he talked to him, he liked his speech and his\nwisdom, so then said the king: tell my dream, I want to hear it from you,\nso then Joseph mentioned it as the king saw in his sleep and then interpreted\nthe dream for the king, and then the king said: you told the truth, so\nwho will save me from such troubles? Then said Joseph: God inspired to\nme that I will take care of the matter in these fertile coming years and\nI will keep food stored in the granaries for the years of famine, by the\nwill of God.\nNext: Getting Out From The Jail\nto The King of Egypt","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Jacob and Joseph: Getting Joseph Into The Jail","type":"page"}