Stories of the Qur'an

The Story of the Prophet Yusuf

It comes about suddenly. Grips you at the most obscure of moments, watching your sister try on a new abaya, or your brother smile in happiness as he races around the house in his new pair of sneakers. Thoughts of murder enter your mind, your lips pucker, and you snap at anyone who even tries to talk to you. What I'm describing my friends, is jealousy.

It is one of the most disliked emotions by Allah, and is such a universal emotion that the prophet Muhammad (SAW) spoke many times about it. In one hadith he (SAW) says, "Beware of envy as it destroys good deeds."

Unfortunately, Muslims of our day and time do not and have not heeded this warning. Envy, is at an all time high in the Muslim community in this time and age, and about the prettiest of things.

One sister in my community refused to speak to a woman who lived out in the mansion decorated 'burbs of our city, because, according to her, "Rich Muslims are not Muslim." Astagfurallah. As we enter the crucial last 15 days of Ramadan, I thought it would be a good reminder to go over the story of the prophet Yusuf, who was a victim of his brothers ruthless jealousy.

The prophet Yusuf (may Allah bless him) was the son of the Prophet Ya'qub (may Allah bless him) and from a very young age he began to see dreams. Dreams of the sun and moon and all the planets bowing down to his feet. After having the dream time after time, he went to his father and related the dream to him.

His father realizing that the dream outlined his young son's future destiny, cautioned him to not tell his brothers of the dream. Fearing that they would become jealous of him. Nonetheless he continued to keep a careful eye on his son.

Meanwhile, Yusuf's brothers began to notice that their father was paying more attention to Yusuf and spending more time with him and began to grow, as their father had feared, jealous of him.

"What," they thought, "Makes Yusuf more special than us?" The more they pondered the question, the angrier they grew. They were so blinded by their anger that they began to plot a plan to get rid of Yusuf (may Allah bless him) once and for all.

Soon their plan was in place and they, went to their father and asked him to allow them to take Yusuf (may Allah bless him) with them on a caravan trip (back in that day tribes put together all their tradeable items and traveled to trading centers in order to trade Yusuf's brothers often made the trip in place of their aging father), Ya'qub (may Allah bless him) was suspicious, he wondered why his sons were suddenly taking an interest in the younger brother that they had previously ignored. But, they kept insisting that Yusuf (may Allah bless him)-who was now old enough to learn the trade would benefit from the trip. They also promised that they would guard and look after him with their lives, so Ya'qub thinking that some good would come out of the trip finally agreed to let them take Yusuf (may Allah bless him) along with them.

They weren't halfway to their destination yet, when they came upon a well and decided that they would toss Yusuf (may Allah bless him) into it. They rationalized the action to themselves by saying that at least they weren't killing him and that he would be picked up by another caravan passing by.

On their way back home they took one of Yusuf's shirts and smeared it in the blood of a goat that they had slaughtered, they gave the shirt to their father and told him that Yusuf had been mauled to death by a wolf and that the shirt was all that was left of him.

Unfortunately for Yusuf, the next caravan that passed by was that of some slave traders. They pulled him from the water and seeing that he had a handsome face and good body immediately enlisted him as a slave that would be sold at the slave market in Egypt.

At the slave market, Yusuf drew lots of commotion as everyone present wanted to own the handsome young man. After many bids he was sold to an official in the Pharaoh's court named Fatifaar who after hearing tale of the remarkable young man bought him with the intentions of adopting him as his son.

For a while Yusuf lead a peaceful life with Fatifaar and his wife Zulaikah. This all changed however, when Zulaikah who had been slowly growing attracted to Yusuf's good looks. Tried to start an affair with him.

Yusuf, being a moral young man and a Prophet of Allah, of course backed away from her advances and as he turned to leave, she yanked his shirt from the back, in an attempt to bring him towards her, his shirt however, tore and it was as she stood their with a piece of torn fabric from Yusuf's shirt that her husband walked in.

Her mind whirred and she quickly thought of an excuse, she accused Yusuf of trying to assault her. Just as Yusuf began to protest and Fatifaar was about to rail into him, a baby cried from the cradle:

"If his shirt is torn from the front, then she speaks the truth and he is of the liars. And if his shirt is torn from behind, then she lies and he is of the truthful ones.

(Surah Yusuf, 12:26)

Yusuf's (may Allah bless him) shirt was of course torn from the back. Zulakiah's husband was annoyed by his wife's indecent behavior and told her to stay away from Yusuf. Despite their best attempts, news of the incident spread around the entire city. 

So she, like Yusuf's (may Allah bless him) brothers plotted a plan for revenge. She invited all the women of the city to a luncheon and while they held knives for cutting fruit she called Yusuf into the dining room. The women, who were still holding the knives. Gasped in shock at the beauty standing before them and forgetting that they held knives let them cut into their fingers.

The women all went back to town and spoke of Yusuf (may Allah bless him) and his beauty to everyone that they knew, but they also spread the news about what Zulaikah had done to them and soon everyone in town became aware of her vengeful nature.

Zulaikah was complete and utterly humiliated and urged her husband to throw Yusuf in jail to save their reputation in the city. Her husband was initially apprehensive about unjustly banishing Yusuf (may Allah bless him) to jail, but after repeated requests from his wife he decided that he would go against his moral's and send the young man to jail. 

Thus, the young Yusuf's stint in jail began. 

So far we have seen that jealousy, is not in fact a harmless emotion, but one that can drive families, as in the case of Yusuf and his brother, apart or like in the case of Fatifaar, drive people to go against their morals and do the wrong thing. We will see how the Prophet Yusuf (may Allah bless him) went recovered from the evils around him with the help of Allah. 

I pray to Allah to protect us all from the dangers of jealousy. Amen.