Yusuf 12:91–111

When the truth came out into the open, Joseph’s brothers acknowledged Joseph’s greatness and freely admitted their guilt. In the same way, Joseph also showed such broadmindedness as a true God-worshipper is expected to show on such occasions. He did not condemn his brothers. He completely forgot and forgave the bitter experiences of the past and once again entered into fraternal relations with his brothers. In this incident there is an example of a combination of divine and human help. And through this incident, circumstances were created which favoured the Children of Israel leaving Palestine and reaching Egypt where they attained a position of honour and prosperity. It was during the time of Joseph that the family of Jacob shifted to Egypt and for the next five hundred years they lived there with dignity and honour. According to the Bible, the number of members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt was sixty seven.

After the separation from his father, Joseph lived in the neighbouring country of Egypt for more than 20 years, but Jacob remained unaware of it. But during his last days, when Joseph’s garment was being brought back from Egypt, Jacob started smelling the garment’s fragrance before it reached him. This shows that a prophet’s knowledge is not his own personal affair but a gift from God. Had it been a question of his personal knowledge, Jacob would have come to know much earlier that his son was in Egypt, but this did not happen. He came to know about Joseph’s whereabouts only when God made him aware of them. The conversation between Jacob’s family members as recorded in this chapter at various places gives an indication that, in the eyes of his family members, Jacob did not inspire the awe befitting a prophet. Those who adore their ancestors, holding them holy, are not ready to admit the greatness of the living guide. The reason for this is that a halo of exaggerated stories and anecdotes of magical charms is woven round the venerated leaders of the past; an artificial image of the holy person is thus impressed on the minds of the people. As the living guide does not measure up to this artificial image, he does not appear to be a great man to his contemporaries.

Here the ‘couch’ does not mean a royal throne but the seat where Joseph used to sit and discharge the duties of his post; here prostration (sajdah) does not mean lying face down in the usual sense but bowing down and kneeling (ruku‘). This form of obeisance to a great man was prevalent in ancient times.

The one who rejects the truth looks at everything from the point of view of the human being, while a believer looks at everything in relation to God. Joseph received a high administrative post and he ascribed it to God’s generosity. He had the ability to interpret dreams but said that God had taught him all he knew. His own near and dear ones caused him trouble; even then he looked at this from the point of view that these were subtle devices of God by means of which He planned his intellectual and spiritual development. His sense of the majesty of God had obliterated all feelings of personal superiority. Even on reaching the zenith of worldly glory, he uttered these words, ‘O, God! Your being is all-powerful. It is You who fulfill all my needs. Kindly help me in the world as well as in the Hereafter. Include me among those people who have had the inspiration to submit to Your will in the world and in the Hereafter and are worthy of Your eternal reward.’

The story of Joseph is in itself a proof of the Quran being the revelation of God and not the discourse of a human being. This incident occurred about two and half thousand years prior to the advent of the Prophet Muhammad. He had neither witnessed this train of events himself, nor was it recorded in history books so that he could have read about it, nor could he have heard it from others. It was found only on the pages of the Torah, and before the age of the printing press, the Torah was a book which was known only to a few Jewish scholars at Jewish centres and not to anybody else. Moreover, the events pertaining to Joseph’s life have been described in the Quran in such a way that, in spite of their tallying basically with the descriptions in the Torah, they differ in respect of details. This difference is in itself a proof of the Quran being the revelation of God, because throughout the Quran its description appears to be very rational and natural. The descriptions given in the Quran are clearly consistent with Jacob’s and Joseph’s prophetic character, while the descriptions given in the Torah are not. Similarly, many very important aspects, for instance, Joseph’s speech in the prison ( 5: 37-40 ), which is mentioned in the Quran, find no place in the Bible or in the Talmud: even certain historical errors that are found in the Bible are not repeated in the Quran. For example, the Bible says that the king of Egypt in Joseph’s period was Pharaoh. In actual fact, the dynasty which assumed the title of Pharaoh became the rulers of Egypt only five hundred years after Joseph. During the period of Joseph, Egypt was ruled by an Arab dynasty, the Hyksos, known as the shepherd kings. (See Bible, chapter ‘Genesis’). The refusal to accept the Truth here is due to an apparent lack of reason. But as soon as a convincing argument is presented to an individual, he should immediately accept it. Most often the real reason for denial of the Truth is stubbornness. People do not accept the Truth because they do not want to do so. Acceptance of the Truth generally involves humbling oneself and this is a very difficult task for a human being. This is one reason why arrogant people never change their ways, in spite of valid arguments or reasoning being used to convince them. They will tolerate the downgrading of the truth, but they are not ready to humble themselves; they forget that those who keep a low profile in this world will be glorified in the Hereafter, whereas one who does not do so will be forever reduced to insignificance in the next world.

After the Truth, has been made plain, those who do not accept it, say that the requisite sound arguments in its favour were not forthcoming and had such reasoning been put forward, they would have accepted it. In other words, according to them, the reason for their denial lay outside them and not within them. That is to say, that they had failed to accept the truth, not because of any lack of receptivity on their part, but because of a lack of arguments in support of the truth. But just the opposite is true. The Truth is so clear that when it appears, all the signs of the earth and the heavens corroborate it. It becomes the most established and proven fact in the universe. But, in order to find the Truth, an observant eye and a receptive mind are vital and these are the very virtues which are non-existent in those who deny the truth. When a man shows arrogance with regard to the Truth, the reason for it is mostly polytheism (shirk). The position taken by most people is that while accepting God, they also love some living or dead beings in whom they have placed their trust and to whom they give a position of greatness. In this way, everyone has appointed for himself some ‘great ones’ other than God. They lead their lives relying on these ‘great ones’, though before God all of them are small. Ultimately, the only things which will save one, will be one’s personal deeds and not the exaltedness of the ‘great ones’. A prophet’s mission is to exhort his hearers to turn to the one and only God. He sets out on this mission because of his realization of the truth. In other words, the prophetic call is that which links a man with the one and only God. The veracity of this call is so abundantly evident to him that it bespeaks a deep realization of godhood and acts as an inspiration to him. Man takes his temporary satisfaction to be permanent in nature, though nobody has any guarantee of how long he will live. Nobody knows when death will come and prove all his claims false; and when the upheaval of Doomsday will upset his well-made world. Man thinks that a sure and certain fate is in store for him, though in fact at every moment of his life, he is standing on the shore of an uncertain future.

History shows that even those who believed in prophethood also rejected it, when a person in their own community was made a prophet and stood right in front of them. The reason for this was that the prophet of the past had by then become a historically accepted prophet, while the contemporary prophet’s merits were as yet unproven. The acceptance of a historical prophet has never proved difficult, while the reverse is true of any prophet who is still a figure of controversy. The deserted settlements of the communities of the ‘Ad, Thamud, Midian and Lot lay in ruins around the land of the Quraysh, who could not fail to see them in their travels. These ruins were a silent reminder of the punishment which God had meted out to these communities: they were destroyed only because they failed to recognize a prophet during the controversial stage of prophethood. But, in spite of this, the Quraysh did not learn a lesson from them. The reason for this was that it is man’s weakness to do wrong and then, on the basis of some weak arguments, excise his name from the list of wrongdoers. Verse 110 of this chapter is clarified by verse 214 of the second chapter, in which it is stated, ‘Do you think that you will enter Paradise without having suffered like those who passed away before you? Affliction and hardship befell them and so shaken were they, that the Messenger and the believers with him would exclaim, “When will God’s help come? Surely the help of God is near.’” God always helps one who spreads the word of God. But this help brings in its wake punishment for the rejectors of truth. That is why help comes only when the missionary struggle (dawah) has reached its final stage. There are times when this delay makes the preachers feel frustrated and they despair of God’s succour. ‘And surely, the abode of the Hereafter is better for those who fear God’. This shows that God’s succour for His envoy is symbolic of His choicest blessings upon them in the Hereafter. God always helps those who call upon others to accept the Truth: in this world God makes their call supreme. They are thus successful in fulfilling their mission, in spite of all kinds of conspiracies and the opposition of their enemies. This honour and glory will be theirs in the Hereafter, but in a far more perfect and absolute form.

The stories of previous prophets and their communities are the stories of all mankind, as far as moral lessons are concerned. If a man exercises his wisdom he will be able to derive lessons for the present period from past incidents. He will amend his way of life on seeing the fate of others. The Quran is not a book concocted by a man. It is a Book revealed by God. It is exactly in accordance with the predictions that were made in the previous scriptures. It contains all the necessary guidance required by man. If man follows this guidance, he shall certainly be blessed by God both in this world and in the Hereafter.