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Another Tale
As attributed to `Ali ben Ibrâhim
that he said: the distance between Joseph and his father took eighteen
days to travel, and he was in a desert and the people went to Egypt to
get some food, and Jacob with his children were in a desert that had some
moqal (it is a type of plants that was used for fire at that time as it
is known in the langiuage) [I could not find an exact translation for this
plant's name so I typed it as it is], so the brothers of Joseph took of
that moqal and carried it to Egypt to buy with it some food, and some said
that their trade were some shoes, and Joseph used to take care of the selling
by himself, and when they went to him he knew them but they did not know
him, and he prepared them well and then said to them: who are you? They
said: we are the children of Jacob, so he said to them: what is your father's
craft? They said: he is a weak old man, he said: you have another brother?
They said: we have a brother from our father but not our mothers, then
he said: when you get back to me get him with you, and if you did not then
no food to sell to you and never get closer, they said then: we will trick
our father to take him, so then Joseph ordered for their stuff to be with
them so when they see it they come back to him, and when they got back
to their father they said: O our father! What (more) can we ask? Here is
our merchandise returned to us, The measure is denied us, so send with
us our brother Benjamin that we may obtain the measure, surely we will
guard him well, then said Jacob: Can I entrust him to you save as I entrusted
his brother to you aforetime? I will not send him with you till ye give
me an undertaking in the name of God that ye will bring him back to me,
unless ye are surrounded and can not protect him anymore, so they took
him and went out and Jacob told them: do not go there from one gate but
go in from several gates, and I can not protect you against God's will
for He has the judgement, and when they went as their father ordered them
nothing saved them but God, and it was for a purpose that Jacob kept in
his soul and he was a wise man.
It is mentioned that when Benjamin
went with them he did not use to sit with them or talk to them or even
eat with them, and when they went to Joseph, he (Joseph) knew him just
by looking, and he sat away from the rest, so then said Joseph: are you
their brother? He said: yes, he asked then: why don't you sit with them?
He said: for they went out with my brother from my own mother and father
and came back claiming that the wolf devoured him so I promised myself
not to sit with them ever as long as I am alive.He asked him then: did
you get married and got some children? He answered: yes, three children,
I called one of them "the wolf" and the second I called "the shirt" and
the third I called "the blood", so then Joseph said to him: how did you
choose these names? He answered: so I will not forget my brother, and so
whenever I call one of my children I remember my own brother, and when
the children of Jacob wanted to go out, Joseph said to his brother: I,
even I, am thy brother, therefore sorrow not for what they did, then he
said to him: I would like to keep you with me, so he said: my brothers
will not let me for they promised my father to bring me back to him, so
then he said: I have a trick, and then when he prepared them and gave them
what they need, he (Joseph) said to some of his assistors: put this cup
in the saddlebags of Benjamin, and the cup was made of gold and they put
it in his saddlebag and no one could notice, and when they got up to travel
back, Joseph ordered for them to be imprisoned and then ordered someone
to call O camel-riders! Lo! ye are surely thieves! Then Joseph brothers
said: what are you missing? They answered: We have lost the king's cup,
and he who bringeth it shall have a camel-load, and I (said Joseph) am
answerable for it, they said: By God, well ye know we came not to do evil
in the land, and are no thieves, then Joseph said: And what shall be the
penalty for it, if ye prove liars? They said: then the penalty of the one
who got the cup is to be imprisoned, and then he started searching in their
bags before the bag of his brother, and then he got it out from the bag
of his brother, God said: Thus did We contrive for Joseph. He could not
have taken his brother according to the king's law unless Allah willed(Yousof76),
and also He said: And when he provided them with their provision, he put
the drinking-cup in his brother's saddlebag..etc(Yousof:70), and in a speech
attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH): it was a cup of gold and it was for
Joseph and when they measure, they measure with it.
Also attributed to Al-Bâqir
(PUH) that he said: it was a bowl that was used to drink and to measure,
and both speeches have the same meaning anyway.
It is mentioned that after this
even the brothers of Joseph came to their brother Benjamin and said to
him: you defamed us, when did you take this cup? Then he said: this cup
was put in my bag by the one who put your merchandise back in your bags
in the first time. About calling them thieves it is said that it was meant
to be that they stole Joseph and betrayed their father about him, and they
did not steal the cup and Joseph did not lie as well. When the cup was
found in the bag of Benjamin they said: If he stealeth, a brother of his
stole before, and they meant by that Joseph, for he was before his troubles'
beginning with his aunt and his father wanted to take him back from her,
so she made him wear a girdle and he did not know, and in their laws at
that time the thief was to be owned by the one that was stolen from, so
then his aunt claimed that her built was stolen by him (Joseph) and then
she kept him with her for a while until he got out then with his brothers
and they did what they did with him, and his aunt all of that for she used
to love him so much, and for this matter they said: f he stealeth, a brother
of his stole before, and they meant Joseph by that, and when Joseph heard
that he kept it as a secret and said to them: Ye are in worse case, and
Allah knoweth best (the truth of) that which ye allege(Yousof:77), and
the meaning is that God knows better about the case of stealing for him
and for his brother Benjamin and He knows they are innocents, but the one
who stole is you and not Joseph and not Benjamin.
They say that they gathered around
Joseph and their skins dropping a yellow blood and they debated with Joseph
about Benjamin and about the heavy promises they made for their father
about Benjamin, and when the children of Jacob get angry, the hair of their
body gets out of their clothes with a yellow blood, and in that situation
they said to Joseph: O king his father is an old man so take one of us
for we see you a good man, then Joseph said: God forbid that we should
seize save him with whom we found our property, and when they got despaired
and wanted to go back to their father, Judah said: did not you know that
you made heavy promises for your father? You get back to your father but
I will stay here until my father allows me to do so or until God make his
judgement for me.
God said: Return unto your father
and say: O our father! Lo! thy son hath stolen. We testify only to that
which we know; we are not guardians of the Unseen(Yousof:34), and when
they got back to Jacob and told him about the story he said: Nay, but your
minds have beguiled you into something. (My course is) comely patience!
It may be that Allah will bring them all unto me(Yousof:83) and he meant
by that Joseph, Benjamin and Judah that stayed in Egypt, and then he went
away from them and said: Alas, my grief for Joseph! And his eyes were whitened
with the sorrow that he was suppressing(Yousof:83), and when they wanted
to go back to their father, the king (Joseph) sent a messanger to Jacob
telling him: This is your son I bought him with a cheap price and he is
Joseph and I made him a slave, and this is your son Benjamin I took him
and I found my cup with him so I made him a slave. Nothing harder could
pass over Jacob more than this message, so he ordered the messanger to
write down: By the name of God, the most Merciful, from Jacob, Israel of
God ben Isaac ben Abraham the friend of God, I understood your message
that says that you've bought my son and made him a slave, and the troubles
are always waiting for the children of Adam, and my grandfather Abraham
was thrown into the fire by Nimrod but he did not burn by anyhow, and for
my father, God ordered my grandfather to slain him by his own hands and
when he wanted to do so God gave a ransom for him, and I had a child that
no one was beloved to me more than him and he went out with his brothers
and they got back to me claiming that the wolf devoured him, and for this
my back was bent and my eyes went white and blind because of crying, and
he had a brother from his own mother that was my joy and he went out with
his brothers to you to buy some food and they got back telling me that
he stole the cup of the king and you've put him in prison and we are a
family that known for honour and not a suitable thing to be called for
stealing or doing evil-acts, and I ask you by the God of Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob to release him back to me may you be closer to God by doing so.
So, when the message reached Joseph, he put it over his face and cried
loudly, then he looked at his brothers arriving with the message and he
said to them:Know ye what ye did unto Joseph and his brother in your ignorance?
They said: you are Joseph! Then he said: I am Joseph and this is my brother
and God gifted us, then they said: God preferred you to us and we were
wrong, then he said: Have no fear this day! May Allah forgive you..etc(`Yousof:92),
the narrator said: they knew him by his smile for when they saw his teeth
that were like pearls they remembered Joseph and some said that they knew
him when he lifted the crown from his head.
It is mentioned that when the messanger
went out from Jacob to the king (Joseph), Jacob raised his hands then to
the sky and said: O best of Friends and Generous One, O God of Goodness,
give me hope and end up my troubles, so then Gabriel (PUH) came down and
said to him: O Jacob, Shall I teach you a pray that may God give you back
your sight and your sons? He said: yes, he said then: then say: O One that
no one knows how He is except of He, O One who blocked the air and pressed
the earth over water and chose the best of names for Hisself, give me hope
and end up my troubles, then the narrator said: and it was the next morning
when the shirt came up and was thrown over his face and his became normal
and his sons came back to him, and as attributed to Al-Mofadhal Al-Ja`fi
he said: I said to Al-Sâdiq (PUH): tell me about the type of Joseph's
shirt, he (PUH) answered: when Abraham (PUH) was to be thrown into the
fire, Gabriel came down with a shirt from paradise and made him wear it,
and so no fire or coldness affected him ever, so when Abraham then was
about to die, he wrapped it in a piece of skin and hanged it on Isaac,
and Isaac later on hanged it on Jacob, and when Jacob had Joseph as a child
he hanged it on him, and when Joseph took it out of the skin, Jacob smelled
the scent and said: Truly I am conscious of the breath of Joseph, though
ye call me dotard(Yousof:94). Then the one asking and he is Al-Mofadhal
Al-Ja`fi said to Al-Sâdiq (PUH): O may I be a ransom for you, who
owned the shirt later on? He (PUH) answered: to his own people, and then
he continued: every prophet that inherited a wisdom or anything else, are
all at the end at the hand of Muhammad and his Household (PUT), and Jacob
was at that time in Palestine, and when the caravan departed Egypt, Jacob
smelled that scent of Joseph from the shirt that was brought from heavens.
They say that Joseph said: the one
who got my shirt with blood in the first time shall go now with my shirt,
so then Judah said: I went with the blood-polluted shirt, so he said: then
go with my shirt to my father and tell him I am alive and make him happy
as you made him sad before, so he took the shirt and went out with bare-feet
until he reached him (Jacob), and he had seven pieces of bread and the
distance was eighty leagues and still he did not consume all his bread
pieces, then Jacob travelled from the desert with his household after getting
the shirt to him and being able to see, and they said to him: O our father!
Ask forgiveness of our sins for us, and he said: I will. Some mentioned
that he waited until the late night time to ask for forgiveness for their
sins because it is a time when prays are answered, and when they reached
Egypt, Joseph sat on the throne and put the crown over his head for he
wanted his father to see him like that, and when his father went in, he
did not stand up for him, and they fell prostrating so then Joseph said:
O my father! This is the interpretation of my dream of old. My Lord hath
made it true(Yousof:100). It is attributed to Al-Kâðim (PUH)
that he said: the prostrating of Jacob and his sons was not for Joseph
in his person, but was to obey God's commandment and as a greeting for
Joseph as angels did prostrate for Adam before, for it was not for Adam
but they obeyed God's commandment and as a greeting for Adam, so Jacob
and his children prostrated to God as to thank God for gathering them together
again, and Joseph said as it had been told by quran: O my Lord! Thou hast
given me (something) of sovereignty and hast taught me (something) of the
interpretation of events - Creator of the heavens and the earth! Thou art
my Protecting Guardian in the world and the Hereafter. Make me to die muslim
(unto Thee), and join me to the righteous(Yousof:101), and it is said that
Joseph sent one hundred messangers (travellers) to bring his family, providing
them with what they need for travelling, and when Jacob got closer to Joseph,
Jacob started by greeting and said: O peace upon you grieves taker, and
then they hugged and cried while Joseph kept on kissing the fingers of
his father and can not stop crying because of his happiness and surprise,
for the situation of Jacob when he met Joseph can not be described and
nothing like it except going into paradise and hugging the nymphes of paradise
by the viceroys of God and His beloved servants, may God make us one of
them with the rest of the blievers by His prophet, the prophet of mercy
and his Household (PUT).
They say that they (Israelites)
got into Egypt and they were seventy three, and then they went out at the
time of Moses (PUH) and they were around six hundred thousand and five
hundred and seventy men, and the time elapsed between Moses and Joseph
was four hundred years, and after the arrival of Jacob to Egypt and after
having some rest, he said to Joseph: tell me son, what did they do to you
when they took you from me? He said: release me from doing so father, he
then said: tell me some of it, then said Joseph: O father, when they put
me in the well they said: take off your shirt, so I said to them: O brothers
fear God and do not take off my things, then they showed a knife towards
me and said: if you did not take off your shirt surely we will slay you,
so I took off the shirt and they put me in the well naked, so then Jacob
had a deep breath and fell down in a coma, and when he woke up again he
said: O son, tell me, then Joseph said to him: O father I ask you by the
God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to release me from doing so, and so
Jacob then released him from doing so. They say that Jacob lived for seventeen
years after arriving to Egypt, and he was at that time one hundred and
forty seven years old, and he asked to be buried beside his father and
his grandfather after his death, so Joseph then ordered the physicians
to mummify him and so they did and his body was carried to Palestine and
was buried there as he asked, and Jacob was the leader and the kingdom
was for Joseph, and when he died the leadership became for Joseph.
Then the brothers of Joseph, save
but Benjamin, were honoured and respected for the presense of their father,
and after the death of their father, they say that they fell at the feet
of Joseph seeking repentance and forgiveness for they were afraid that
he might be harsh on them after the death of their father, for they thought
that he was nice to them only for their father presense, and they said
to him: out father told us to ask you to forigve us for our sins toward
you, and they presented themselves as slaves to him, so then Joseph cried,
and when he calmed down he explained to them how their wrong-doing brought
goodness to the people on earth and that God wanted all of that for a mercy
towards His servants, and Joseph then lived for one hundred and ten years,
and it is mentioned that when Joseph died in Egypt they buried him in the
Nile in a box made of marble, and this is because that when he died people
almost fought together to let his body buried in their places seeking his
blesses, and so they buried him in the Nile to end up the fights and the
Nile is common among all the people and everyone drinks from it and so
the blesses would go to the all, and it stayed there until Moses carried
it when he went out of Egypt and buried him with his fathers, Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in Palestine and their monuments are famous there.
Some archaeological historians said:
I've visited Hebron and the monument of Abraham, and I saw there when I
entered to the place of their graves and close to their graves, a monument
called the monument of repentance, and some natives there say that this
is the tomb of Joseph (PUH) and he is buried there in that cave, and some
said that he is buried in Nabulus and he has a monument there and people
visit it, and some said that they made sure as witnessed by some natives
there that the grave of Joseph is there in Nabulus and not in Hebron, and
this is what is mentioned in Torah as well, and only God knows.
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Virtues