Yusuf (Joseph)

A prophet and the son of a prophet. In al-Bukhari the Prophet said: "The generous son of the generous son of the generous son of the generous: Yusuf ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim" ¹. So he is the son of Ya'qub.

In al-Bukhari the Prophet also said: "Had I remained in prison as long as Yusuf remained, and then the summoner came to me, I would have answered him" ². And among his supplications against Mudar: "Make them years like the years of Yusuf" ³.

The Sheikh summarises Yusuf's ordeal: a dream that stirs envy, his father's counsel not to tell it, then his brothers' envy and throwing him into the well, his sale and becoming a slave in Egypt, and his unjust imprisonment for several years; he says that when God wishes to rescue a servant He brings causes that never crossed his mind ⁴.

He says that when God wishes to settle someone's debt, guide a sinner or soften the heart of a relative toward him, He brings a cause you never thought of, and then mentions that the king slept in his bedroom and in the morning told his council that he had seen seven fat cows eaten by seven lean ones, and seven green ears of grain (needs_source) ⁵.

He mentions that the king's advisers said it was a muddle of dreams and that they had no knowledge of interpreting it, and the Sheikh says that here begins the key to resolving the problem of Yusuf, forgotten in prison, and that it was God who made the king see the dream so as to bring a man out of detention through it ⁶.