Yusuf

The Quran has been revealed for the guidance of the whole world. However, since its first addressees were the Arabs, it was revealed in the Arabic language. Now it is the duty of those who have Faith in it to translate its teachings into every language and to convey them to all the nations of the world. The Quran’s teachings have been communicated in different modes and styles: sometimes in the language of reasoning based on the phenomena of nature, sometimes in the language of warning and good tidings, and sometimes in the language of history. The message of chapter 12, is conveyed in the form of the story of Joseph (Yusuf). In this chapter, people of Faith are told, by means of a prophet’s story, that God is all-powerful. He helps those who come forward to promote the cause of Truth, finally making them successful in spite of the intrigues of opponents, on the condition that the people should be God-fearing and should have the quality of patience; they should have the fear of God in their hearts and regardless of the circumstances, should persevere on the path of Truth.

According to a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, there are three kinds of dreams—those of wish fulfillment, fear of Satan and good tidings from God. A common man’s dream may be of any of these kinds, but a Prophet’s dream is always from God. Sometimes it is direct in meaning and sometimes it is purely symbolic. Joseph lived in the nineteenth century B.C. His father, Jacob, was a resident of Palestine. Joseph and his brother Benjamin (Bin Yamin) were born of the same mother, while their ten older brothers had different mothers. In Joseph’s dream the sun and the moon stood for his parents and the eleven stars meant his eleven brothers. This dream predicted that prophethood would be conferred on Joseph and it also signified that the political power and worldly glory ordained for him would be decreed by God after his reaching Egypt; after which all his family members would be compelled to recognize his greatness. Looking at Joseph’s personality and his popularity, his ten step brothers were jealous of him, so his father Jacob (Ya‘qub), on hearing his dream, immediately advised Joseph not to mention it to his stepbrothers, as they would otherwise become even more hostile towards him. Feeling jealous of a person on account of his greatness shows an evil nature. One who has this trait in him ought to turn to God in repentance, because this is a proof that he is not reconciled to God’s will; he is following the lead of Satan rather than God’s guidance.

Here the expression ‘He will bestow the full measure of His blessings upon you’ applies to Joseph as it had previously applied to Abraham. The difference between the two was that Joseph was invested with political power, while Abraham was not. There was, however, an all-important factor common to both, namely, the prophethood conferred upon each of them by God. That was the sense in which God’s ‘blessings’ had been bestowed in ‘full measure’. It was the prophethood, that is, the conferring of special divine guidance, which would lead them to a high status in the Hereafter. God’s guidance to man is, in effect, the perfection of His favour to him. This favour is available directly to His prophets and indirectly to their true followers.

In the course of the last days of the Prophet Muhammad in Makkah, when Abu Talib and Khadijah had passed away, the people of Makkah intensified their opposition to him. In that period, some Makkans asked him about Joseph, whose name they had heard from some Jews during their travels. They asked him this question just to ridicule him, but God Almighty turned the thrust of this question against the interrogators themselves. By means of this story they were indirectly informed that they were treading in the footsteps of Joseph’s stepbrothers, while by the Grace of God, the prophet’s future would be like that of Joseph in Egypt. Jacob could see that among his children Joseph was the ablest and most pious. In him he could see the personality of a future prophet. For this reason, he was very much attached to Joseph. But his other ten sons looked at the matter from the worldly point of view. They thought that the most important in the eyes of their father should have been their collective group, because only that was capable of helping and supporting the family. In ancient tribal times the number (particularly male) of family members was of the utmost importance in defending and supporting the family. This one-sided view of theirs assumed such proportions that they thought that if they removed Joseph from the scene, they would have their father’s undivided attention. When they sat together to devise plans against Joseph, one of his brothers proposed that instead of killing Joseph, he should be pushed into some dry well. This was a special plan of God Almighty. It is the way of God, when a group is bent upon oppressing someone unjustly, that He makes them adopt such a moderate course as may open up new possibilities for their victim.

The reply given by Jacob to his sons shows that he had already guessed that it was not a question of Joseph playing and enjoying himself in some meadow, but that Joseph’s brothers had hatched a conspiracy against him. But a man who fears God is one who trusts in God. He had sensed what was going to happen, but he considered the power of God to be above everything else. With full faith in his Lord’s omnipotence, and in spite of sensing clear dangers, he consigned Joseph to the care of his brothers. This was the picture of a God-fearing person. By contrast, Joseph’s brothers presented a picture of people whose hearts are completely devoid of the fear of God. In making their plans to destroy a servant of God quite unjustifiably, they had forgotten that this was a world in which nobody had any power except God. They tried to present themselves as well-wishers simply on the basis of beautiful words, but before God, a person is treated as a well-wisher solely on the basis of his deeds.

The story of Joseph is definitely more detailed than what has been described in the Quran. But the real purpose of the Quran is to convey moral advice and not to engage in story telling. So, it deals with only those aspects that are useful for the purpose of giving moral lessons and omits other parts, leaving them for the historians to compile. According to traditions, Joseph was in the dry well for three days. During these three days, he was probably shown his future through dreams. In one of them, he saw himself coming out of the well and reaching a high position of honour and glory. Ultimately, such a wide gap develops between his position and the position of his brothers that they are unable to recognize him when they see him. All this was revealed by his dream. What Joseph’s brothers did was an act of extreme provocation. Unlike them, Joseph entrusted his fate to God and, sitting quietly in the dry well at a deserted place, waited for God’s help to arrive. Joseph’s father, Jacob, for his part, took the course of noble patience. According to some commentaries he is reported to have told his sons that had a wolf devoured Joseph, it would certainly have torn his shirt. He meant, what a noble wolf it was who took away Joseph and removed his blood-stained shirt to hand it over to them undamaged.

After pushing Joseph into the dry well, the brothers returned home. Three days later, a caravan of traders, which was going from Midian to Egypt, happened to pass by that place. A member of the caravan set out in search of water and let his bucket down into the dry well. Joseph (who was about 16 years old at the time) caught hold of it and was pulled up. This was the age of the slave trade. So the people of the caravan were very happy because they could carry this lad to Egypt and sell him very profitably. Accordingly, when they reached Egypt, they put Joseph on sale along with other saleable commodities. There, a man, finding Joseph attractive in appearance and demeanour, bought him for twenty dirhams. Joseph’s brothers exiled him and pushed him into a well. The people of the caravan sold him as a slave. Thereafter the wife of a highly-placed officer of Egypt (Zulaykha) had him imprisoned. But God Almighty made all these stages stepping stones of honour and glory for him. What a tremendous difference there is between human knowledge and the divine knowledge of God!

It is said that an officer of the Egyptian government, Potiphar, bought Joseph. He recognized Joseph’s great personality hidden behind an ordinary exterior. He could make out that Joseph was not really a slave but a member of a noble family who, for whatever the reason, had fallen into the hands of the caravan and been sold into slavery. So he asked his wife not to keep Joseph as a slave, but as a family member. He further said that the youth appeared to be a promising young man, capable of managing the affairs of his household and property. Moreover, Potiphar was childless and wanted to adopt somebody as his son. So he intended to adopt Joseph as his son if he lived up to his expectations. When Joseph was about forty years old, God blessed him with prophethood on the one hand and with power and authority on the other. He received this reward owing to his righteous deeds. The door of God’s blessings is always open for righteous people! The only difference is that during the age of prophethood, a deserving person could have been given prophethood as a result of his righteous deeds but, in later periods, (after the Prophet Muhammad, the last messenger of God) he may receive all bounties except that of prophethood.

Zulaykha, the wife of the nobleman, was charmed by the beauty of Joseph. She constantly tried to seduce him and one day, finding the opportunity, she closed the door of the room. This was a very critical occasion for an unmarried youth, but Joseph had preserved his godly nature and this nature came to his rescue on this occasion. The capacity to distinguish between truth and untruth, right and wrong, is ingrained in every human being by birth and this serves as a warning on all such occasions. To ignore it amounts to ignoring the voice of God. One who does so is deprived of God’s succour so that his moral strength gradually ebbs away. On the contrary, one who immediately bows down before the divine call, as soon as it is given, can count on God’s help; this improves his moral fibre and on future occasions he becomes stronger in the face of evil. What prevented Joseph from indulging in evil was in fact the fear of God but, at that time, invoking God before Zulaykha would have been ineffective. This was not an occasion for a declaration of Truth but an occasion when he had to save himself in a critical situation. In view of this situation he referred to Zulaykha’s husband. He said that ‘her husband was his master and he had maintained him in his house with due honour. Therefore, it was not possible for him to besmirch the honour of his benefactor.’

Joseph ran towards the door to save himself and Zulaykha also ran after him and caught hold of his shirt from behind. In this chaos the back of his shirt was torn. However, Joseph was able to open the door and came out. It so happened that Zulaykha’s husband was there outside the door. On seeing him, Zulaykha put all the blame on Joseph. She did not hesitate to make a false accusation against a person for whom she had been professing love only a moment earlier. Joseph said that the matter was entirely the opposite of what Zulaykha claimed. Now the question was to decide as to who was in the wrong. No third person was present on this occasion who could have been an eyewitness. At that time a wise person of the household offered good advice. (In all probability this person was already aware of the situation. Moreover, he might have already seen that Joseph’s shirt was torn from behind and not from in front.) He told all those concerned that, in the absence of an eyewitness, circumstantial evidence should be relied upon and the circumstantial evidence was that Joseph’s shirt was a clear proof of the fact that in this case it was not Joseph, but Zulaykha who had made improper advances.

Certain ladies of noble families were invited by Zulaykha to meet Joseph and they saw in him a handsome young man. Joseph also could have seen these ladies as a means of satisfying the desires of his lower self. But even in the most exciting of circumstances, he did not see them as such. The ladies were all so thrilled by his extremely charming personality, that, in their extreme state of absorption, they injured their hands with knives while cutting fruit. But Joseph’s whole attention was directed towards God. God’s greatness and Majesty so dominated his senses that nothing could divert his attention. What a difference there is between one human being and another.