🕋 تفسير سورة يوسف
(Yusuf) • المصدر: EN-ASBAB-AL-NUZUL-BY-AL-WAHIDI
وَرَفَعَ أَبَوَيْهِ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ وَخَرُّوا لَهُ سُجَّدًا ۖ وَقَالَ يَا أَبَتِ هَٰذَا تَأْوِيلُ رُؤْيَايَ مِنْ قَبْلُ قَدْ جَعَلَهَا رَبِّي حَقًّا ۖ وَقَدْ أَحْسَنَ بِي إِذْ أَخْرَجَنِي مِنَ السِّجْنِ وَجَاءَ بِكُمْ مِنَ الْبَدْوِ مِنْ بَعْدِ أَنْ نَزَغَ الشَّيْطَانُ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَ إِخْوَتِي ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي لَطِيفٌ لِمَا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ
📘 So, when they entered in upon Joseph, he embraced his parents.... And he lifted his parents to the throne, and they fell prostrate before him.... " He acted beautifully toward me when He brought me out of prison and brought you from the desert after Satan had sowed dis- sension between me and my brothers. Surely my Lord is gentle toward what He will. " In going to Egypt, all were the same. But at the time of proximity and caresses, they were differ- ent, for he put his father and maternal aunt on the throne of generosity and singled them out for the companionship, nearness, and embrace, as the Exalted Lord says: " And he lifted his parents to the throne. " But he brought his brothers down to the place of service: " And they fell prostrate before him. " This is an allusion that tomorrow at the resurrection, all the faithful will be brought into paradise, both the disobedient who have been forgiven and the obedient who have been approved. Then those who were the folk of disobedience, the ones received by the Real's forgiveness, will be set down in paradise, and the folk of recognition will be singled out for the special favor of proxim- ity and nearness. They will be brought to the Presence of At-ness: at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " The folk of service are one thing, the folk of companionship something else. The folk of service are prisoners of paradise, the folk of companionship com- manders of paradise. The prisoners are in joy and bliss, and the commanders dwell in secret whis- pering with the Beneficent. " He acted beautifully toward me when He brought me out of prison. The beautiful-doer is not he who acts beautifully at the beginning. The beautiful-doer is he who acts beautifully after your disloyalty. Joseph saw the disloyalty of his own soul at first, when he sought refuge with the cup- bearer in prison and said, " Remember me to your lord " [12:42]. Then he saw that his deliverance from the prison was through the Real's bounty and generosity, and he counted that as beautiful doing. He said, " He acted beautifully toward me when He brought me out of prison.
فَلَمَّا ذَهَبُوا بِهِ وَأَجْمَعُوا أَنْ يَجْعَلُوهُ فِي غَيَابَتِ الْجُبِّ ۚ وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْهِ لَتُنَبِّئَنَّهُمْ بِأَمْرِهِمْ هَٰذَا وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
📘 So when they went with him and agreed to put him at the bottom of the well, We revealed to him, " Surely thou shalt inform them of this affair of theirs when they are unaware. " Even if the care of his father was cut of from him, he received revelation from his Patron. Such is the custom of God: He never opens up a door of trial to the souls of His friends without opening up the doors of limpidness and the sorts of friendship to their hearts. If trial blocks a road for the servant, so what? God will open up the top of the road of limpid- ness with the attribute of friendship. If He takes back one mouthful, what's the loss? He will wrap up a hundred morsels for you. This is as they say: If I broke your necklace when drunk, I'll buy you a hundred gold beads to replace it. Although Joseph was sorrowful at separation from his father, why should he have lamented? He was colored by union with the revelation of the Real. The Real's revelation to him in that empty well was sweeter to him than union with Jacob in Canaan. Indeed, all caresses are in the midst of suffering, and beneath one disappointment lie a thousand treasures. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " If the marks of familiarity are true, whatever arrives from the Friend is beautiful doing. When there is no suspicion of the Friend in the apportioning, complaint is a fault. If this claim has meaning, happiness and grief will be the same for it. " I have a spirit inscribed with passion for You whether You pull it to happiness or grief.
وَشَرَوْهُ بِثَمَنٍ بَخْسٍ دَرَاهِمَ مَعْدُودَةٍ وَكَانُوا فِيهِ مِنَ الزَّاهِدِينَ
📘 They sold him for a paltry price. It is not surprising that Joseph's brothers sold him for a small price. What is surprising is the work of those travelers, who acquired someone like Joseph for twenty dirhams! It is not surprising that people should sell subsistent paradise for this small world. What is surprising is that they gain such a magnificent paradise and tremendous kingdom with a loaf of bread given to a poor man! Indeed, good fortune does not have a price, and the Real's generosity is nothing but a gift. If what Joseph possessed in himself-the characteristics of sinlessness, the realities of proxim- ity, and the subtleties of knowledge and wisdom-had been unveiled to his brothers, they would not have sold him for that small price, nor would they have called him a slave. A single speck of those characteristics and subtleties was unveiled to the governor of Egypt and Zulaykhā. Look how they bestowed their kingdom on his work and what value they placed on him! So also, when the women of Egypt saw his beauty, they said, " This is no mortal! This is none but a noble angel " [12:31]. Yes, it is showing that does the job, not seeing. MuṣṬafā said, " O God, show us things as they are! " Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, " Beauty is of two sorts, outward beauty and inward beauty. Outward beauty is an adorned creation and a lovely form. Inward beauty is perfect character and fine conduct. " The Lord of the Worlds showed Joseph's outward beauty to his brothers. They saw nothing more, even though in God's eyes the outward has no importance. Hence they sold him for a small price. A trace of the inner beauty was shown to the governor of Egypt, so he said to his wife, " Give him generous lodging " [12:21]. This is so that the world's folk may know that in God's eyes im- portance and worth belong to inner beauty, not outward. MuṣṬafā said, " God gazes not on your forms or your possessions, but He gazes on your hearts and your deeds. " It is said that one day Joseph looked in a mirror and gazed on himself. He saw perfect beauty and said, " If I were a slave, what would my price be!? Who would be able to pay it? " The Lord of the Worlds did not let that pass, not until Joseph had tasted the punishment of gazing on himself.
نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ الْقَصَصِ بِمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ وَإِنْ كُنْتَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الْغَافِلِينَ
📘 We will tell thee the most beautiful of tales. What a beautiful tale is the tale of Joseph! It is the tale of the passionate and the object of passion, the talk of separation and union. It wants the pain-stricken to read the tale of those in pain. It wants the passionate to report about the pain of passion and the burning of the passionate. It wants the burnt so that the burning of the longing may leave a trace. I am the slave of the yearner who lights up the fire of longing at the top of the Friend's street. I envy the eye that rains down tears at separation in love for the Beloved. I scatter spirit and heart before the lost-hearted one who tells the story of the lost-hearted. In the city my heart inclines, my dear, to him who sings your passion's tale, my dear. On the day when the seed of passion's pain was planted in the hearts of the familiar, the heart of Jacob the prophet was on the highway of this talk. He found flourishing in disengagement and solitariness, he took himself into the crucible of discipline and self-purification, and he became receptive to the seed of passion's pain. When the seed reached the earth of his heart, the water of “He sprinkled them with some of His light” nurtured it until the jasmine of the Covenant grew up. Then, as a pretext, the beauty of Joseph was made his kiblah, and his mortal nature was given ac- cess to its own kind. This cry went out: “Jacob's throat has been hung by the noose of desire for Joseph.” Within the curtain of jealousy that center point of the Haqiqah said, “Call Me Arsalan so that no one will know who I am.”
إِذْ قَالَ يُوسُفُ لِأَبِيهِ يَا أَبَتِ إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ أَحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوْكَبًا وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ رَأَيْتُهُمْ لِي سَاجِدِينَ
📘 When Joseph said to his father, " O my father, surely I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon. I saw them prostrating to me. " Ibn ʿAbbās said, " The eleven stars allude to the eleven brothers. " God is saying, " The stars are bright by themselves and people take to the road by them, " which is in His words, " By the stars they are guided " [16:16]. " In the same way Joseph's brothers had the brightness of prophecy, and within them was found the guidance of the people. " Their treachery toward their brother and their envy toward him are minor sins of the sort that occur for prophets. The wisdom in this is that the world's folk may come to know that the faultless is God, who is one and unique, and all other things have faults. In this meaning they have sung, I am the faulty and my Lord is pure- my faultiness is evidence of the Pure. It was said to Ḥasan, " Does the man of faith have envy? " He said, " What has made you forget the sons of Jacob? " Someone may say that Joseph was an immature child when he saw this dream, and it is known in the Shariah that no rulings apply to the act of a child. Since his act has no ruling, how can his dream have a ruling? The answer is that if the child's act is achieved by his own intention and aim, it can be attributed to his susceptibility to shortcoming and defect. But a dream is a divine showing, and in that children and adults are the same.
وَقَالَ الْمَلِكُ إِنِّي أَرَىٰ سَبْعَ بَقَرَاتٍ سِمَانٍ يَأْكُلُهُنَّ سَبْعٌ عِجَافٌ وَسَبْعَ سُنْبُلَاتٍ خُضْرٍ وَأُخَرَ يَابِسَاتٍ ۖ يَا أَيُّهَا الْمَلَأُ أَفْتُونِي فِي رُؤْيَايَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ لِلرُّؤْيَا تَعْبُرُونَ
📘 The king said, " I see seven fat cows that seven lean ones are eating. " The beginning of Joseph's trial was the dream concerning which he said, " I saw eleven stars " [12:4]. The cause of his deliverance was also a dream, that seen by the king of Egypt, who said, " I see seven fat cows. " This is so that you will know that things are done by the predetermination and governance of God and that He is one in driving things and taking care of things. Even though the causes are apparent, remaining with the causes is an error. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " Not seeing the cause is ignorance, but staying with the cause is associationism. Pass beyond the cause and reach the Causer. Do not close the door of causes lest you not reach yourself. " The recognizer's eyes are not on the Tablet, nor on the Pen. He is not bound to Eve, nor in prison to Adam. He has a constant thirst, even though he has a cup again and again. O most gener- ous Guardian, O most merciful Fount of Bounty! Take back the cup once so that this poor wretch may breathe! " It has been said that Joseph was perfect in two things: one was beauty of created nature, the other knowledge and astuteness. The beauty of created nature is the perfection of form, and knowl- edge and astuteness are the perfection of meaning. The Exalted Lord predetermined that his beauty would be the cause of trial and his knowledge the cause of deliverance. Thus the world's folk may know that beautiful knowledge is better than beautiful form. As the proverb says, " Knowledge bestows, though it be slow. " Since Joseph's knowledge of visions was the cause of his kingdom in this world, why is it surprising that knowledge of the Patron's attributes is the cause of the recog- nizer's kingdom in the afterworld? God says, " When thou seest it, thou wilt see bliss and a great kingdom " [76:20].
ذَٰلِكَ لِيَعْلَمَ أَنِّي لَمْ أَخُنْهُ بِالْغَيْبِ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي كَيْدَ الْخَائِنِينَ
📘 That, so that he may know that I did not betray him secretly.... But I do not acquit my own soul. Surely the soul commands to ugliness. When [the governor's wife] said, " That, so that he may know that I did not betray him secretly, " she saw the success-giving and protection of the Real. When she said, " I do not acquit my soul; surely the soul commands to ugliness, " she saw the shortcoming of her own service. The first clari- fies gratitude for God's success-giving, the second clarifies apology for shortcoming. The servant must always be passing back and forth between gratitude and apology. Whenever he looks at the Real, he should see blessings, take delight, and increase in gratitude. Whenever he looks at himself, he should see sin. He should burn and come forth in apology. Through the grati- tude, he becomes worthy of increase, and through the apology he becomes deserving of forgiveness. This is why the Pir of the Tariqah said, " O God, when I look at myself, I ask who is more miserable than I. When I look at You, I ask who is greater than I. " When my gaze falls on my own clay, I see nothing worse in the world. When I pass beyond my attributes, I look at myself from the Throne. Fuẓayl ʿIyāẓ was seen retired from the people and sitting in the corner of a mosque, having made the Real's remembrance his intimate friend. He had brought to hand the chevaliers' retreat with the Real, on the carpet of expansiveness in the tent of He is with you [57:4]. A friend arrived and saw him alone. He took seeing him as a blessing and sat before him. Fuẓayl said, " My brother, what has made you sit with me? " What has made you intrude upon me in this seclusion? Such detachment, that you attend to me! The dervish said, " Please excuse me. I did not know. I was unaware of your present moment and ec- stasy. Now tell me something about your present moment and speak of a fine point about your traveling so that I may not remain without a portion of companionship with you. " Fuẓayl said, " I will say what is fitting for you.
۞ وَمَا أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِي ۚ إِنَّ النَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ إِلَّا مَا رَحِمَ رَبِّي ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
📘 That, so that he may know that I did not betray him secretly.... But I do not acquit my own soul. Surely the soul commands to ugliness. When [the governor's wife] said, " That, so that he may know that I did not betray him secretly, " she saw the success-giving and protection of the Real. When she said, " I do not acquit my soul; surely the soul commands to ugliness, " she saw the shortcoming of her own service. The first clari- fies gratitude for God's success-giving, the second clarifies apology for shortcoming. The servant must always be passing back and forth between gratitude and apology. Whenever he looks at the Real, he should see blessings, take delight, and increase in gratitude. Whenever he looks at himself, he should see sin. He should burn and come forth in apology. Through the grati- tude, he becomes worthy of increase, and through the apology he becomes deserving of forgiveness. This is why the Pir of the Tariqah said, " O God, when I look at myself, I ask who is more miserable than I. When I look at You, I ask who is greater than I. " When my gaze falls on my own clay, I see nothing worse in the world. When I pass beyond my attributes, I look at myself from the Throne. Fuẓayl ʿIyāẓ was seen retired from the people and sitting in the corner of a mosque, having made the Real's remembrance his intimate friend. He had brought to hand the chevaliers' retreat with the Real, on the carpet of expansiveness in the tent of He is with you [57:4]. A friend arrived and saw him alone. He took seeing him as a blessing and sat before him. Fuẓayl said, " My brother, what has made you sit with me? " What has made you intrude upon me in this seclusion? Such detachment, that you attend to me! The dervish said, " Please excuse me. I did not know. I was unaware of your present moment and ec- stasy. Now tell me something about your present moment and speak of a fine point about your traveling so that I may not remain without a portion of companionship with you. " Fuẓayl said, " I will say what is fitting for you.
فَبَدَأَ بِأَوْعِيَتِهِمْ قَبْلَ وِعَاءِ أَخِيهِ ثُمَّ اسْتَخْرَجَهَا مِنْ وِعَاءِ أَخِيهِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ كِدْنَا لِيُوسُفَ ۖ مَا كَانَ لِيَأْخُذَ أَخَاهُ فِي دِينِ الْمَلِكِ إِلَّا أَنْ يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ ۚ نَرْفَعُ دَرَجَاتٍ مَنْ نَشَاءُ ۗ وَفَوْقَ كُلِّ ذِي عِلْمٍ عَلِيمٌ
📘 Thus We schemed for Joseph.... We raise in degree whomsoever We will. Ibn ʿAṬāÌ said, " We tried him with various sorts of trial until We conveyed him to exaltedness and eminence. " In terms of allusion He is saying, " We turned Joseph over to various sorts of trial and kept him for a long time in the station of bewilderment on the carpet of remorse until We conveyed him to the place of generosity and elevation and let him taste the wine of nearness and intimacy. In face of this blessing that tribulation was not heavy, and next to this nearness that remorse was no loss. " The wont of the Lord of the universe is this: The foundation of happiness is all suffering, and be- neath one disappointment lie a thousand treasures. If you want the wisdom of this clearer and an explication fuller, it means, " We ruled and decreed in the beginningless that Joseph would be king of Egypt. First We showed him the abase- ment of slavery so that he would be informed of the remorse of captives and slaves. Then We tried him with the trial of prison so that he would be aware of the burning and grief of prisoners. We threw him into the gloom of exile so that he would not be heedless of the helplessness of exiles. " Be a mother to orphans, nurture them with gentleness, be noble to askers, fulfill their requests. The generosity We showed to you in your poverty and orphanhood- you show the same, O generous in character, to Our creatures. [DS 36] We raise in degree whomsoever We will. First there is going straight, then unveiling, then con- templation: " We give whomsoever We want a high standing, and We lift up his degrees: first the success of obedience, then the realization of recompense; first the self-purification of deeds, then making states limpid; first the resoluteness of service in the station of the Shariah, then the finding of contemplation in the Haqiqah itself. " Going straight alludes to the Shariah, unveiling alludes to the Tariqah, and contemplation alludes to the Haqiqah itself. The Shariah is servanthood, the Tariqah is selflessness, and the Haq- iqah is freedom in the midst of both. Become free of everything in the realm of being- be that Heart-taker's " companion of the cave. "
ارْجِعُوا إِلَىٰ أَبِيكُمْ فَقُولُوا يَا أَبَانَا إِنَّ ابْنَكَ سَرَقَ وَمَا شَهِدْنَا إِلَّا بِمَا عَلِمْنَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِلْغَيْبِ حَافِظِينَ
📘 Return to your father and say, " O our father! Surely thy son has stolen. " When Jacob became distracted and distraught in separation from Joseph, helpless in his pain with- out remedy, he wanted to make the remembrance of that dear one a balm for his wound and to be passionate with someone linked to Joseph. He made Benjamin his reminder and sympathizer, for he had drunk water from the same drinking place as Joseph and had been nurtured on the same lap. The heart of the passionate man always inclines toward someone who has a link or some sort of similarity with the object of passion. Do you not see that Majnūn of Banī ʿāmir went out to the desert hunting for a gazelle? He saw that its eyes and neck were like those of Laylā. He was passing his hands over its neck, kissing its eyes, and saying, " Your eyes are her eyes, your neck is her neck! " When Jacob fastened his heart to Benjamin and when a part of him came to rest in him, the venomous sickle was once again drawn from the sheath of time and Benjamin was separated from his father. Then the name of thief was thrown on him, and this added trial to his trial-salt was sprinkled on his wound and the burn was once again burned. Just as fire wants to kindle burnt rags, so also the pain of separation wants to settle down with a burnt heart. Whenever pain steps forth from this heart of mine another pain takes its place in the breast. I become the companion of every pain for fire flares up when it reaches the burnt. Whenever Jacob saw Benjamin, he was consoled by him, for " He who is prevented from gazing is consoled by a trace. " 4 Then, when he was held back from Benjamin, the burning reached the utmost limit and he moaned at the pain in his heart. With the tongue of longing he said,
وَتَوَلَّىٰ عَنْهُمْ وَقَالَ يَا أَسَفَىٰ عَلَىٰ يُوسُفَ وَابْيَضَّتْ عَيْنَاهُ مِنَ الْحُزْنِ فَهُوَ كَظِيمٌ
📘 " Oh, my grief for Joseph! " And his eyes turned white because of the sorrow that he was suppressing. Revelation came from the Compeller of all engendered beings: " O Jacob! You grieve so much for him, but you do not grieve for what you are missing of Me by being busy with grief for him! " O Jacob, how long this sorrow and regret at separation from Joseph? How long will you suffer grief and coldly sigh? Do you not suffer grief that you are held back from Me while busy with him? " With two kiblahs you can't walk straight on the road of tawḤīd- either the Friend's approval, or your own caprice. [DS 488] " O Jacob! Be careful not to pass Joseph's name over your tongue any more, or I will remove your name from the register of the prophets. " The Pir of the Tariqah said, " Jacob's remembrance of Joseph was the seed of heartache, and Joseph's remembrance of Jacob was the seed of ease. Since Jacob had all that rebuke for remem- bering Joseph, everything other than remembering God is loss. It is said that remembering the Friend is like the spirit. Look more carefully: remembering the Friend is the spirit itself! " When Jacob saw the harshness of the Real's rebuke, he no longer mentioned Joseph's name. Then the mercy and gentleness of the Exalted Threshold gave this command to Gabriel: " O Ga- briel, go to Jacob and remind him of Joseph. " Gabriel came and mentioned Joseph's name. Jacob sighed. Revelation came from the Real: " O Jacob, I know what is beneath your moaning. By My exaltedness, were he dead, I would resurrect him because of the beauty of your loyalty. " And his eyes turned white because of the sorrow that he was suppressing. Abū ʿAlī al-Daqqāq said, " Jacob wept because of a created thing, so his eyesight went. David wept more than Jacob, but his eyesight did not go, because his weeping was for the sake of his Lord. " Weeping for the Real is of two sorts: weeping from the eyes and weeping from the heart. Weeping from the eyes is the weeping of repenters in fear of God; they weep at seeing their own disobedience.
اذْهَبُوا بِقَمِيصِي هَٰذَا فَأَلْقُوهُ عَلَىٰ وَجْهِ أَبِي يَأْتِ بَصِيرًا وَأْتُونِي بِأَهْلِكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
📘 Go with this shirt of mine and cast it upon the face of my father so that he may come to seeing. Joseph said, " Take my shirt to Jacob, for his pain has not ceased from the time he saw the shirt stained with the wolf's blood. The balm will also be my shirt. " When they took the shirt from Egypt, the morning breeze was commanded to take the shirt's scent to Jacob's nostrils so that, before Joseph's messenger could give the good news, he would receive it from the Real's mes- senger and recognize the Real's perfect gentleness and favor toward him. According to the tasting of the recognizers, this is the divine breeze that wanders furtively around the world to the doors of the breasts of the faithful and the tawḤīd-voicers to see where there may be a limpid breast and an empty secret core in which to dwell. Her love came to me before I knew love- it came across a carefree heart and took possession. To this alluded the Prophet: " Surely your Lord has breezes in the days of your time, " and so on. As for Jacob, this generosity was shown to him by means of passion for Joseph. Beneath this lies a magnificent secret. Its explanation is that contemplating Joseph for Jacob was by means of con- templating the Real. Whenever Jacob saw Joseph with the eyes of his head, he was gazing on the Real in contemplation with the eye of his secret core. So, when he was veiled from contemplating Joseph, his heart was also veiled from contemplating the Real. All of Jacob's anxiety and grieving was because of the loss of the contemplation of the Real, not the loss of companionship with Jo- seph. His longing and lamenting at separation from Joseph was because he had lost his mirror. He did not weep for the mirror itself, but for his heart's intimate, which he no longer saw. He burned because of losing that. Hence, on the day when he saw him again, he fell down in prostration, for his heart was contemplating the Real. He was prostrating before the contemplation of the Real, for none other than God is worthy of prostration.
وَلَمَّا فَصَلَتِ الْعِيرُ قَالَ أَبُوهُمْ إِنِّي لَأَجِدُ رِيحَ يُوسُفَ ۖ لَوْلَا أَنْ تُفَنِّدُونِ
📘 Their father said, " Surely I find Joseph's scent. " The wonder is that the bringer of the shirt found nothing of that scent, but Jacob found it at the dis- tance of eighty farsakhs. For that was the scent of passion, and the scent of passion blows only on the passionate. Moreover, it does not always blow. As long as a man has not been cooked by passion and pounded by the trial of passion, the scent will not blow on him. Do you not see that at the beginning of the work and the outset of the story, when Joseph was taken away from him, the first stage was not reached when they threw him into the well. Jacob had no awareness of this and caught no scent. Finally, at Canaan, he reported about Joseph's scent: " Surely I find Joseph's scent. " It is said that in the House of Sorrows, Jacob wept a great deal every dawn. Sometimes he lamented miserably, sometimes he wailed at his abasement, sometimes he opened the journal of passion and began the chapter on passion. Sometimes he put his head on his knees, sometimes he placed his face in the dust, his two hands raised in supplication. Sometimes he recognized Joseph's scent from the dawn wind and said with the tongue of his state, " The wind at dawn brings your scent, my dear- I am the dawn wind's slave in the tracks of your scent. " Thus it is that on the day of relief the morning breeze brought the scent of Joseph to Jacob and brought him into proximity. This is the custom of the lovers: asking in the lands, conferring with ruined encampments, and sniffing news from the winds. In this meaning someone sang, " I will let the winds guide me to your scent when they blow from your direction And ask them to carry my greetings to you. Respond to me if they come one day. "
فَلَمَّا دَخَلُوا عَلَىٰ يُوسُفَ آوَىٰ إِلَيْهِ أَبَوَيْهِ وَقَالَ ادْخُلُوا مِصْرَ إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ آمِنِينَ
📘 So, when they entered in upon Joseph, he embraced his parents.... And he lifted his parents to the throne, and they fell prostrate before him.... " He acted beautifully toward me when He brought me out of prison and brought you from the desert after Satan had sowed dis- sension between me and my brothers. Surely my Lord is gentle toward what He will. " In going to Egypt, all were the same. But at the time of proximity and caresses, they were differ- ent, for he put his father and maternal aunt on the throne of generosity and singled them out for the companionship, nearness, and embrace, as the Exalted Lord says: " And he lifted his parents to the throne. " But he brought his brothers down to the place of service: " And they fell prostrate before him. " This is an allusion that tomorrow at the resurrection, all the faithful will be brought into paradise, both the disobedient who have been forgiven and the obedient who have been approved. Then those who were the folk of disobedience, the ones received by the Real's forgiveness, will be set down in paradise, and the folk of recognition will be singled out for the special favor of proxim- ity and nearness. They will be brought to the Presence of At-ness: at an Omnipotent King [54:55]. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " The folk of service are one thing, the folk of companionship something else. The folk of service are prisoners of paradise, the folk of companionship com- manders of paradise. The prisoners are in joy and bliss, and the commanders dwell in secret whis- pering with the Beneficent. " He acted beautifully toward me when He brought me out of prison. The beautiful-doer is not he who acts beautifully at the beginning. The beautiful-doer is he who acts beautifully after your disloyalty. Joseph saw the disloyalty of his own soul at first, when he sought refuge with the cup- bearer in prison and said, " Remember me to your lord " [12:42]. Then he saw that his deliverance from the prison was through the Real's bounty and generosity, and he counted that as beautiful doing. He said, " He acted beautifully toward me when He brought me out of prison.
Book A Free Trial