Surah Yusuf [ Joseph ] , 12...Prologue

IT IS POSSIBLE that, from a very early age, young Joseph felt that he had a special position in God's estimation. He had clearly shown certain qualities of leadership. For, although he was the youngest of his brothers, his personality had stood out amongst them and he won their father's love more than any of them had done. Jacob [ Ya'qub ], Joseph's father, inherited religious leadership from his own father, Isaac [ Ishaq ], who had inherited it from his father, Abraham [ Ibrahim ]. Would it be unreasonable to deduce that Joseph would expect to inherit that legacy from his father, Jacob?

Joseph related to his father a dream he had, saying: "O my father! Lo! I saw in a dream eleven planets and the sun and the moon, I saw them prostrating themselves unto me  "(4) . Jacob understood the meaning of the dream and was filled with apprehension over his young som's future: he feared his brothers' jealousy, and so said to him:

O my dear son! Tell not thy brethren of thy vision, lest they plot a plot against thee. Lo! Satan is for man an open foe. (5) Thus thy Lord will prefer thee and will teach thee the interpretation of events, and will perfect His grace upon thee and upon the family of Jacob as He perfected it upon thy forefathers, Abraham and Isaac. Lo! thy Lord is Knower, Wise. (6)

Jealousy  drove Joseph's brothers to collude to take him out to the fields one day with the intention of harming him or, somehow, intentionally losing him so that his father would never see him again.They put their plan onto action and Joseph found himself at the bottom of a dark pit in the middle of a wilderness. The young Joseph remained calm and confident that he would be saved and would one day face his brothers and make them ashamed of what they had done to him. His brothers had left him for dead, but God had other plans for him:

Then, when they led him off, and were of one mind that they should place him in the depth of the pit, We inspired in him: Thou wilt tell them of this deed of theirs when they know (thee) not. (15)

As Joseph was left behind by his brothers, he was overwhelmed by the feeling that somehow they, and not he, would be the losers in that dangerous game they were playing. A few decades were to pass before Joseph's dream would come true. They were not to know it, but his brothers were to go and beg him for food, after he had become an important official in the government of Egypt.

And when they came (again) before him (Joseph) they said: O ruler! Misfortune hath touched us and our folk, and we bring but poor merchandise, so fill for us the measure and be charitable unto us. Lo! Allah will requite the charitable, (88) He said: Know ye what ye did unto Joseph and his brother in your ignorance? (89) 

God's infinite wisdom had seen to ot that Joseph's ordeal at the bottom of that dark and desolate pit would become the first step on the road to power and glory. When his brothers arrived home after leaving him for dead in the pit, they said to their father:

O our father! We went racing one with another, and left Joseph by our things, and the wolf devoured him, and thou believest not our saying even when we speak the truth. (17)

Their father's reply was: "... Nay, but your minds have beguiled you into something. (My course is) comely patience. And Allah it is Whose help is to be sought in that (predicament) which ye describe " (18). It was indeed, sweet patience which eventually paid off for Joseph and his father.

The Qur'an here presents the factual details from an episode of human history rather than mere work of fiction. Human society has always known literary works of fiction, which are in the main a product of their writers' rich, but sometimes contrived, imagination. Fiction writers create situations and characters, modelling and manipulating them in a fashion and for a purpose that would make the story interesting, compelling and complete. Some authors use symbolism and allegory, and some use animal rather than human characters.

But relating real historic events is a different matter altogether because it involves the identification and understanding of God's laws and how they operate in life and society, as well as the interpretation of certain facts and truths that affect human life and behavior. God says to Prophet Muhammad: "We narrate unto thee (Muhammad) the best of narratives in that We have inspired in thee this Qur'an, though aforetime thou wast of the heedless " (3). Muhammad had no hand in the articulation or authorship of the revelation he received. Towards the end of the surah we read: "This is of the tidings of the Unseen which We inspire in thee (Muhammad). Thou wast not present with them when they fixed their plan and they were scheming "(102). The surah closes with a comprehensive and definitive statement that applies to all historic narratives given in the Qur'an. It says:

In their history verily there is a lesson for men of understanding. It is no invented story but a confirmation of the existing (Scripture) and a detailed explanation of everything, and a guidance and a mercy for folk who believe. (111)

Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali
[ 1917 - 1996 ]



Reflection and commentary by Shaykh Yasir Qadhi:-
Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlFPWpR8F50
Part 2  :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLeVR6RWdk0&feature=fvwrel




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