Yusuf NabiAS blessed his sons on their departure and prayed to Allah for their protection. Yusuf NabiAS greeted them happily and took his younger brother Banyameen aside and revealed to him that he was his brother Yusuf who had been thrown into a well.
Yusuf NabiAS had a certain plan in his mind .He furnished the brothers with their provisions and asked one of his servants to put a golden beaker in their bag (which was also used as a measure). As a caravan was about to depart, a soldier announced:
“O you in the caravan! Surely, you are thieves!”
The brothers, asked “What is it that is missing?” They replied, “We are missing the great beaker of the king and for him who produces it, is the reward of a camel load.”
One of the brothers said “We are not thieves and we have not come here to make mischief.” An Egyptian officer, with prior instructions from Yusuf NabiAS, exclaimed, “What punishment should you choose for the thief?” The brothers answered “According to our law, whoever steals becomes a slave to the owner of the property.” The officers agreed. They began to search the sacks of the brothers and finally found the missing beaker in the sack of the youngest one – the brother of Yusuf NabiAS.
This incident was followed by a great deal of excitement. The brothers tried very hard to convince Yusuf NabiAS not to detain their brother but he refused and asked them not to back out of their promise.
The eldest of the brothers decided to stay back with the youngest. He said:
“We promised our father in the name of Allah not to fail him. Therefore I will not leave this land until my father permits me, or Allah commands me: and Allah is the best to command.”
Thus he stayed back while his brothers left and informed their father of the situation. Yaqub NabiAS on hearing this was heartbroken but he chose to be patient and forbearing and said:
“So patience is most fitting for me. Maybe Allah will bring them all back to me in the end. Allah is indeed full of knowledge and wisdom.”
But the grief of separation from Yusuf NabiAS was so great in Yaqub Nabi’sAS heart and he wept so much that he lost his eyesight.
Yaqub NabiAS directed his sons to go and seek tidings of Yusuf NabiAS and his brother. Thus they left for Egypt again. Allah narrates this incident in the Quran:
“And when they came back into the presence of Yusuf, they said: “o exalted one! Distress has seized us and our family; we have now brought but scanty capital; so pay us full measure, and treat it as charity to us; for Allah rewards the charitable.”
It was then that Yusuf NabiAS revealed his true identity to the brothers and said:
“I am Yusuf and this is my brother. Allah has indeed been gracious to us”
Yusuf NabiAS graciously forgave the brothers for what they had done. He then gave them his shirt and said:
“Go with this shirt of mine, and cast it over the face of my father; he will regain his eyesight. Then return to me together with all your family.”
Even as his brothers were about to return home, their father remarked that he smelt the fragrance of Yusuf. When the brothers finally arrived and cast the shirt of Yusuf NabiAS on his face he at once regained his eye sight.
The brothers sought his forgiveness and returned to Egypt with their parents. Yusuf NabiAS gave them a warm welcome and treated his parents with great respect. It was then that the brothers fell down in prostration for Yusuf NabiAS and he said to his father:
“O my father! This is the interpretation of my dream of old!”
The narratives of Anbiya KiraamAS are not mere fables rather, there are meanings to all the incidents. Misbah has attempted to narrate them simply as they are described in the Quran. The aim is to familiarize the reader with them so that when he recites the Quran or listens to the meanings ascribed to them, he does so with better understanding. These narratives are not necessarily actual happenings; some maybe symbolic depictions that can be interpreted and explained only by the true representative of Imam-uz-ZamanSA.
