{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/jj08.htm","path":"isl/pro/jj08.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/jj08.htm","text":"Sacred Texts\u00a0\nIslam\u00a0\nIndex\u00a0\nPrevious\u00a0\nNext\u00a0\nAnother Tale\nAs attributed to `Ali ben Ibr\u00e2him\nthat he said: the distance between Joseph and his father took eighteen\ndays to travel, and he was in a desert and the people went to Egypt to\nget some food, and Jacob with his children were in a desert that had some\nmoqal (it is a type of plants that was used for fire at that time as it\nis known in the langiuage) [I could not find an exact translation for this\nplant's name so I typed it as it is], so the brothers of Joseph took of\nthat moqal and carried it to Egypt to buy with it some food, and some said\nthat their trade were some shoes, and Joseph used to take care of the selling\nby himself, and when they went to him he knew them but they did not know\nhim, and he prepared them well and then said to them: who are you? They\nsaid: we are the children of Jacob, so he said to them: what is your father's\ncraft? They said: he is a weak old man, he said: you have another brother?\nThey said: we have a brother from our father but not our mothers, then\nhe said: when you get back to me get him with you, and if you did not then\nno food to sell to you and never get closer, they said then: we will trick\nour father to take him, so then Joseph ordered for their stuff to be with\nthem so when they see it they come back to him, and when they got back\nto their father they said: O our father! What (more) can we ask? Here is\nour merchandise returned to us, The measure is denied us, so send with\nus our brother Benjamin that we may obtain the measure, surely we will\nguard him well, then said Jacob: Can I entrust him to you save as I entrusted\nhis brother to you aforetime? I will not send him with you till ye give\nme an undertaking in the name of God that ye will bring him back to me,\nunless ye are surrounded and can not protect him anymore, so they took\nhim and went out and Jacob told them: do not go there from one gate but\ngo in from several gates, and I can not protect you against God's will\nfor He has the judgement, and when they went as their father ordered them\nnothing saved them but God, and it was for a purpose that Jacob kept in\nhis soul and he was a wise man.\nIt is mentioned that when Benjamin\nwent with them he did not use to sit with them or talk to them or even\neat with them, and when they went to Joseph, he (Joseph) knew him just\nby looking, and he sat away from the rest, so then said Joseph: are you\ntheir brother? He said: yes, he asked then: why don't you sit with them?\nHe said: for they went out with my brother from my own mother and father\nand came back claiming that the wolf devoured him so I promised myself\nnot to sit with them ever as long as I am alive.He asked him then: did\nyou get married and got some children? He answered: yes, three children,\nI called one of them \"the wolf\" and the second I called \"the shirt\" and\nthe third I called \"the blood\", so then Joseph said to him: how did you\nchoose these names? He answered: so I will not forget my brother, and so\nwhenever I call one of my children I remember my own brother, and when\nthe children of Jacob wanted to go out, Joseph said to his brother: I,\neven I, am thy brother, therefore sorrow not for what they did, then he\nsaid to him: I would like to keep you with me, so he said: my brothers\nwill not let me for they promised my father to bring me back to him, so\nthen he said: I have a trick, and then when he prepared them and gave them\nwhat they need, he (Joseph) said to some of his assistors: put this cup\nin the saddlebags of Benjamin, and the cup was made of gold and they put\nit in his saddlebag and no one could notice, and when they got up to travel\nback, Joseph ordered for them to be imprisoned and then ordered someone\nto call O camel-riders! Lo! ye are surely thieves! Then Joseph brothers\nsaid: what are you missing? They answered: We have lost the king's cup,\nand he who bringeth it shall have a camel-load, and I (said Joseph) am\nanswerable for it, they said: By God, well ye know we came not to do evil\nin the land, and are no thieves, then Joseph said: And what shall be the\npenalty for it, if ye prove liars? They said: then the penalty of the one\nwho got the cup is to be imprisoned, and then he started searching in their\nbags before the bag of his brother, and then he got it out from the bag\nof his brother, God said: Thus did We contrive for Joseph. He could not\nhave taken his brother according to the king's law unless Allah willed(Yousof76),\nand also He said: And when he provided them with their provision, he put\nthe drinking-cup in his brother's saddlebag..etc(Yousof:70), and in a speech\nattributed to Al-S\u00e2diq (PUH): it was a cup of gold and it was for\nJoseph and when they measure, they measure with it.\nAlso attributed to Al-B\u00e2qir\n(PUH) that he said: it was a bowl that was used to drink and to measure,\nand both speeches have the same meaning anyway.\nIt is mentioned that after this\neven the brothers of Joseph came to their brother Benjamin and said to\nhim: you defamed us, when did you take this cup? Then he said: this cup\nwas put in my bag by the one who put your merchandise back in your bags\nin the first time. About calling them thieves it is said that it was meant\nto be that they stole Joseph and betrayed their father about him, and they\ndid not steal the cup and Joseph did not lie as well. When the cup was\nfound in the bag of Benjamin they said: If he stealeth, a brother of his\nstole before, and they meant by that Joseph, for he was before his troubles'\nbeginning with his aunt and his father wanted to take him back from her,\nso she made him wear a girdle and he did not know, and in their laws at\nthat time the thief was to be owned by the one that was stolen from, so\nthen his aunt claimed that her built was stolen by him (Joseph) and then\nshe kept him with her for a while until he got out then with his brothers\nand they did what they did with him, and his aunt all of that for she used\nto love him so much, and for this matter they said: f he stealeth, a brother\nof his stole before, and they meant Joseph by that, and when Joseph heard\nthat he kept it as a secret and said to them: Ye are in worse case, and\nAllah knoweth best (the truth of) that which ye allege(Yousof:77), and\nthe meaning is that God knows better about the case of stealing for him\nand for his brother Benjamin and He knows they are innocents, but the one\nwho stole is you and not Joseph and not Benjamin.\nThey say that they gathered around\nJoseph and their skins dropping a yellow blood and they debated with Joseph\nabout Benjamin and about the heavy promises they made for their father\nabout Benjamin, and when the children of Jacob get angry, the hair of their\nbody gets out of their clothes with a yellow blood, and in that situation\nthey said to Joseph: O king his father is an old man so take one of us\nfor we see you a good man, then Joseph said: God forbid that we should\nseize save him with whom we found our property, and when they got despaired\nand wanted to go back to their father, Judah said: did not you know that\nyou made heavy promises for your father? You get back to your father but\nI will stay here until my father allows me to do so or until God make his\njudgement for me.\nGod said: Return unto your father\nand say: O our father! Lo! thy son hath stolen. We testify only to that\nwhich we know; we are not guardians of the Unseen(Yousof:34), and when\nthey got back to Jacob and told him about the story he said: Nay, but your\nminds have beguiled you into something. (My course is) comely patience!\nIt may be that Allah will bring them all unto me(Yousof:83) and he meant\nby that Joseph, Benjamin and Judah that stayed in Egypt, and then he went\naway from them and said: Alas, my grief for Joseph! And his eyes were whitened\nwith the sorrow that he was suppressing(Yousof:83), and when they wanted\nto go back to their father, the king (Joseph) sent a messanger to Jacob\ntelling him: This is your son I bought him with a cheap price and he is\nJoseph and I made him a slave, and this is your son Benjamin I took him\nand I found my cup with him so I made him a slave. Nothing harder could\npass over Jacob more than this message, so he ordered the messanger to\nwrite down: By the name of God, the most Merciful, from Jacob, Israel of\nGod ben Isaac ben Abraham the friend of God, I understood your message\nthat says that you've bought my son and made him a slave, and the troubles\nare always waiting for the children of Adam, and my grandfather Abraham\nwas thrown into the fire by Nimrod but he did not burn by anyhow, and for\nmy father, God ordered my grandfather to slain him by his own hands and\nwhen he wanted to do so God gave a ransom for him, and I had a child that\nno one was beloved to me more than him and he went out with his brothers\nand they got back to me claiming that the wolf devoured him, and for this\nmy back was bent and my eyes went white and blind because of crying, and\nhe had a brother from his own mother that was my joy and he went out with\nhis brothers to you to buy some food and they got back telling me that\nhe stole the cup of the king and you've put him in prison and we are a\nfamily that known for honour and not a suitable thing to be called for\nstealing or doing evil-acts, and I ask you by the God of Abraham and Isaac\nand Jacob to release him back to me may you be closer to God by doing so.\nSo, when the message reached Joseph, he put it over his face and cried\nloudly, then he looked at his brothers arriving with the message and he\nsaid to them:Know ye what ye did unto Joseph and his brother in your ignorance?\nThey said: you are Joseph! Then he said: I am Joseph and this is my brother\nand God gifted us, then they said: God preferred you to us and we were\nwrong, then he said: Have no fear this day! May Allah forgive you..etc(`Yousof:92),\nthe narrator said: they knew him by his smile for when they saw his teeth\nthat were like pearls they remembered Joseph and some said that they knew\nhim when he lifted the crown from his head.\nIt is mentioned that when the messanger\nwent out from Jacob to the king (Joseph), Jacob raised his hands then to\nthe sky and said: O best of Friends and Generous One, O God of Goodness,\ngive me hope and end up my troubles, so then Gabriel (PUH) came down and\nsaid to him: O Jacob, Shall I teach you a pray that may God give you back\nyour sight and your sons? He said: yes, he said then: then say: O One that\nno one knows how He is except of He, O One who blocked the air and pressed\nthe earth over water and chose the best of names for Hisself, give me hope\nand end up my troubles, then the narrator said: and it was the next morning\nwhen the shirt came up and was thrown over his face and his became normal\nand his sons came back to him, and as attributed to Al-Mofadhal Al-Ja`fi\nhe said: I said to Al-S\u00e2diq (PUH): tell me about the type of Joseph's\nshirt, he (PUH) answered: when Abraham (PUH) was to be thrown into the\nfire, Gabriel came down with a shirt from paradise and made him wear it,\nand so no fire or coldness affected him ever, so when Abraham then was\nabout to die, he wrapped it in a piece of skin and hanged it on Isaac,\nand Isaac later on hanged it on Jacob, and when Jacob had Joseph as a child\nhe hanged it on him, and when Joseph took it out of the skin, Jacob smelled\nthe scent and said: Truly I am conscious of the breath of Joseph, though\nye call me dotard(Yousof:94). Then the one asking and he is Al-Mofadhal\nAl-Ja`fi said to Al-S\u00e2diq (PUH): O may I be a ransom for you, who\nowned the shirt later on? He (PUH) answered: to his own people, and then\nhe continued: every prophet that inherited a wisdom or anything else, are\nall at the end at the hand of Muhammad and his Household (PUT), and Jacob\nwas at that time in Palestine, and when the caravan departed Egypt, Jacob\nsmelled that scent of Joseph from the shirt that was brought from heavens.\nThey say that Joseph said: the one\nwho got my shirt with blood in the first time shall go now with my shirt,\nso then Judah said: I went with the blood-polluted shirt, so he said: then\ngo with my shirt to my father and tell him I am alive and make him happy\nas you made him sad before, so he took the shirt and went out with bare-feet\nuntil he reached him (Jacob), and he had seven pieces of bread and the\ndistance was eighty leagues and still he did not consume all his bread\npieces, then Jacob travelled from the desert with his household after getting\nthe shirt to him and being able to see, and they said to him: O our father!\nAsk forgiveness of our sins for us, and he said: I will. Some mentioned\nthat he waited until the late night time to ask for forgiveness for their\nsins because it is a time when prays are answered, and when they reached\nEgypt, Joseph sat on the throne and put the crown over his head for he\nwanted his father to see him like that, and when his father went in, he\ndid not stand up for him, and they fell prostrating so then Joseph said:\nO my father! This is the interpretation of my dream of old. My Lord hath\nmade it true(Yousof:100). It is attributed to Al-K\u00e2\u00f0im (PUH)\nthat he said: the prostrating of Jacob and his sons was not for Joseph\nin his person, but was to obey God's commandment and as a greeting for\nJoseph as angels did prostrate for Adam before, for it was not for Adam\nbut they obeyed God's commandment and as a greeting for Adam, so Jacob\nand his children prostrated to God as to thank God for gathering them together\nagain, and Joseph said as it had been told by quran: O my Lord! Thou hast\ngiven me (something) of sovereignty and hast taught me (something) of the\ninterpretation of events - Creator of the heavens and the earth! Thou art\nmy Protecting Guardian in the world and the Hereafter. Make me to die muslim\n(unto Thee), and join me to the righteous(Yousof:101), and it is said that\nJoseph sent one hundred messangers (travellers) to bring his family, providing\nthem with what they need for travelling, and when Jacob got closer to Joseph,\nJacob started by greeting and said: O peace upon you grieves taker, and\nthen they hugged and cried while Joseph kept on kissing the fingers of\nhis father and can not stop crying because of his happiness and surprise,\nfor the situation of Jacob when he met Joseph can not be described and\nnothing like it except going into paradise and hugging the nymphes of paradise\nby the viceroys of God and His beloved servants, may God make us one of\nthem with the rest of the blievers by His prophet, the prophet of mercy\nand his Household (PUT).\nThey say that they (Israelites)\ngot into Egypt and they were seventy three, and then they went out at the\ntime of Moses (PUH) and they were around six hundred thousand and five\nhundred and seventy men, and the time elapsed between Moses and Joseph\nwas four hundred years, and after the arrival of Jacob to Egypt and after\nhaving some rest, he said to Joseph: tell me son, what did they do to you\nwhen they took you from me? He said: release me from doing so father, he\nthen said: tell me some of it, then said Joseph: O father, when they put\nme in the well they said: take off your shirt, so I said to them: O brothers\nfear God and do not take off my things, then they showed a knife towards\nme and said: if you did not take off your shirt surely we will slay you,\nso I took off the shirt and they put me in the well naked, so then Jacob\nhad a deep breath and fell down in a coma, and when he woke up again he\nsaid: O son, tell me, then Joseph said to him: O father I ask you by the\nGod of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to release me from doing so, and so\nJacob then released him from doing so. They say that Jacob lived for seventeen\nyears after arriving to Egypt, and he was at that time one hundred and\nforty seven years old, and he asked to be buried beside his father and\nhis grandfather after his death, so Joseph then ordered the physicians\nto mummify him and so they did and his body was carried to Palestine and\nwas buried there as he asked, and Jacob was the leader and the kingdom\nwas for Joseph, and when he died the leadership became for Joseph.\nThen the brothers of Joseph, save\nbut Benjamin, were honoured and respected for the presense of their father,\nand after the death of their father, they say that they fell at the feet\nof Joseph seeking repentance and forgiveness for they were afraid that\nhe might be harsh on them after the death of their father, for they thought\nthat he was nice to them only for their father presense, and they said\nto him: out father told us to ask you to forigve us for our sins toward\nyou, and they presented themselves as slaves to him, so then Joseph cried,\nand when he calmed down he explained to them how their wrong-doing brought\ngoodness to the people on earth and that God wanted all of that for a mercy\ntowards His servants, and Joseph then lived for one hundred and ten years,\nand it is mentioned that when Joseph died in Egypt they buried him in the\nNile in a box made of marble, and this is because that when he died people\nalmost fought together to let his body buried in their places seeking his\nblesses, and so they buried him in the Nile to end up the fights and the\nNile is common among all the people and everyone drinks from it and so\nthe blesses would go to the all, and it stayed there until Moses carried\nit when he went out of Egypt and buried him with his fathers, Abraham and\nIsaac and Jacob in Palestine and their monuments are famous there.\nSome archaeological historians said:\nI've visited Hebron and the monument of Abraham, and I saw there when I\nentered to the place of their graves and close to their graves, a monument\ncalled the monument of repentance, and some natives there say that this\nis the tomb of Joseph (PUH) and he is buried there in that cave, and some\nsaid that he is buried in Nabulus and he has a monument there and people\nvisit it, and some said that they made sure as witnessed by some natives\nthere that the grave of Joseph is there in Nabulus and not in Hebron, and\nthis is what is mentioned in Torah as well, and only God knows.\nNext: Lot of Sermons in The Josephite\nVirtues","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Jacob and Joseph: Another Tale","type":"page"}