The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Jacob and Joseph: Another Tale

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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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