Yousef (Joseph 1)
اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ بِجَمِیعِ مَحَامِدِه کُلِّهَا عَلَی جَمِیعِ نِعَمِهِ کُلِّهَا… اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ مالِکِ الْمُلْکِ مُجْرِی الْفُلْکِ مُسَخِّرِ الرِّیاحِ فالِقِ الاْصْباحِ دَیّانِ الدّینِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمینَ اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ عَلی حِلْمِهِ بَعْدَ عِلمِهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ عَلی عَفْوِهِ بَعْدَ قُدْرَتِهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ عَلی طُولِ اَناتِهِ فی غَضَبِهِ وَهُوَ قادِرٌ عَلی ما یُریدُ
Praise is to God with all his praises, for all his blessings. . . Praise is to God, the owner of the property, the operator of the orbit, the bender of the wind, the glory of the morning, the religion of the beliefs, lord of the worlds; praise is to God for his dream after his knowledge and thank God for forgiveness after his power, and praise be to God for his long patience in his wrath and he is capable to do what he wills
و نشهد أن لا اله الا الله وحده لا شریک له، و أَنَّ محمداً عبده و رسوله ارسله بالهدی و دین الحق لیظهره علی الدین کله و لو کره المشرکون اوصیکم عبادالله و نفسی بتقوی الله و اتباع امره و نهیه، و اخوفکم من عقابه
And we bear witness that there is no god but God alone, without partner, and that Muhammad is his servant and messenger, he sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, that he might proclaim it over all religion, even if the polytheists hated it.
The biography of the honest Yousef in Qur’an
The story of Yousef is one of the most beautiful and instructive stories of the holy Qur’an. The holy Qur’an dedicates an independent surah to the story of prophet Yousef and says:
نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ الْقَصَصِ بِمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ وَإِنْ كُنْتَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الْغَافِلِينَ؛
We will recount to you the best of narratives in what We have revealed to you of this Quran, and indeed prior to it you were among those who are unaware [of it]. (Yousef: 3)
Why is the story of prophet Yousef considered as the “best story”? It is said that because a teenager is the main character, and the story is about the Great Jihad and confronting the sinful desires of the soul, and also all the characters in the story confronted a happy ending. Yousef’s blind father finally became sighted; Yousef reached the position of the minister from the bottom of the well and Pharaoh’s prison. Yousef’s fellow prisoners were released; Yousef’s brothers repented and ended up well.
There is an answer for those who considered the holy Qur’an and the holy prophet under the influence of Jews and Christians and the contents of the Bible; even today, there are people who have such an idea. The story of Yousef is one of the famous stories of the Bible in the Book of Creation, and if the messenger of God had learned from the Bible, Jews, and Christians, he must not have been ignorant of the story of Yousef, while this verse clearly points to this ignorance.
The holy Qur’an considers the story of Yousef to have instructive themes for humans and says:
لَقَدْ كَانَ فِي يُوسُفَ وَإِخْوَتِهِ آيَاتٌ لِلسَّائِلِينَ؛
In Joseph and his brothers there are certainly signs for the seekers. (Yousef: 7)
Prophet Yousef’s story has many tips for thirsty and curious people. This verse says “questioning verses” because a person who does not have a question in his mind will not seek an answer. The more knowledgeable a person becomes, the more questions he has. Therefore, one should first be inquisitive in order to gain knowledge, and one should continue this search and questioning in order to gain more knowledge.
The story of Yousef in mystical literature has also been very important to poets. They used Yousef’s story for long and excellent themes and wrote beautiful poems. Bidel Dehlavi says:
Take care of the knowing hearts, Yousef’s close friends have seen this well;
It doesn’t hurt to close the education, in a dry heart; don’t seek sorrow like moaning of a pen;
Don’t lose the youthfulness of your body, forget the image of the year and the month;
The outstanding moral points in the story of Yousef in the holy Qur’an:
- Jealousy, the root of fratricide
The story of prophet Yousef in the holy Qur’an begins with his narrating of his dream to his father Yaqoub, and warning his father not to narrate his dream to his brothers. From the very beginning of the story, prophet Yaqoub is worried about the jealousy of Yousef’s brothers and says:
إِذْ قَالَ يُوسُفُ لِأَبِيهِ يَا أَبَتِ إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ أَحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوْكَبًا وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ رَأَيْتُهُمْ لِي سَاجِدِينَ؛ قَالَ يَا بُنَيَّ لَا تَقْصُصْ رُؤْيَاكَ عَلَى إِخْوَتِكَ فَيَكِيدُوا لَكَ كَيْدًا إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لِلْإِنْسَانِ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ؛
When Joseph said to his father, ‘Father! I saw eleven planets, and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrating themselves before me,’ he said, ‘My son, do not recount your dream to your brothers, lest they should devise schemes against you. Satan is indeed man’s manifest enemy. (Yousef: 4-5)
- A) A jealous person complains to God and not to the person who is jealous of him. He says why did God give him this superiority and not me?
- B) Jealousy does not play a role in destroying the superiority of the other party. No matter how much a jealous person is jealous, nothing changes in the real world, God does not take that blessing and superiority from the other side. Jealousy only hurts the owner and envy does not add anything to him.
- C) A jealous person has a sad and bitter life. In the words of Saadi:
I can’t do what I need to do with jealousy inside someone who is in pain
Die to release you from the envy; grudge is a pain, from the hardships of which you can’t get rid of it except by death
Yousef’s brothers were jealous of him, and went to kill him, although in the end they stopped killing Yousef and threw him into a well:
إِذْ قَالُوا لَيُوسُفُ وَأَخُوهُ أَحَبُّ إِلَى أَبِينَا مِنَّا وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ إِنَّ أَبَانَا لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ؛ اقْتُلُوا يُوسُفَ أَوِ اطْرَحُوهُ أَرْضًا يَخْلُ لَكُمْ وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ وَتَكُونُوا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ قَوْمًا صَالِحِينَ؛ قَالَ قَائِلٌ مِنْهُمْ لَا تَقْتُلُوا يُوسُفَ وَأَلْقُوهُ فِي غَيَابَتِ الْجُبِّ يَلْتَقِطْهُ بَعْضُ السَّيَّارَةِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ فَاعِلِينَ؛
When they said, ‘Surely Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than [the rest of] us, though we are a hardy band. Our father is indeed in manifest error.’ ‘Kill Joseph or cast him away into some [distant] land, so that your father’s attention may be exclusively towards you, and thereafter you may become a righteous lot.’ One of them said, ‘Do not kill Joseph, but cast him into the recess of a well so that some caravan may pick him up, if you are to do [anything].’ (Yousef: 8-10)
The unlucky ones wish for loss of blessings and wealth of the lucky ones;
What a sin if an eye does not see the moth in the spring of the sun;
To be righteousness, thousands of blind eyes are better than the black sun;