12. Yusuf

He said, ‘There shall be no reproach, [no] blame, on you this day — he specifically mentions this [day] because it was [the day] when they expected to be reproached, although any other day would have been more appropriate [for them to be reproached on]. God will forgive you, and He is the Most Merciful of the merciful.

He [Joseph] asked them about his father; and they told him that his eyesight had gone. And so he said: Go with this shirt of mine — and this was the shirt of Abraham, the one he wore when he was thrown into the fire; he [Joseph] had it around his neck when he was at the bottom of the well. It [the shirt] had come from Paradise: Gabriel commanded him [Joseph] to send it off [to Jacob] saying that the scent of Paradise lingers in it, and whenever it is cast upon a sufferer, it heals him — and lay it on my father’s face, and he will recover his sight; and bring me all your folk’.

And as the caravan set forth, leaving behind the palm fields of Egypt, their father said, to those of his sons and their children present, ‘Truly I sense the scent of Joseph — which the east wind had brought to him, with God’s permission, across a distance of three or eight or more days’ journey; if only you did not think me doting’, [if only] you [did not] regard me as foolish, you would believe me.

They said, to him: ‘By God, you are certainly in your misguidance, your error, of old’, in your excessive adoration of him, and your [enduring] hope of encountering him [again] despite the length of time [that has passed].

Then, when (fa-lammā an: an is extra) the bearer of good tidings, Judah, came, with the shirt — he had [been the one who] brought the blood-stained shirt, and so now he wished to bring him joy, after he had [previously] brought him grief — he laid it, he cast the shirt, on his face and he regained his sight. He said, ‘Did I not say to you, “Indeed I know from God what you do not know?” ’

They said, ‘O our father, ask forgiveness for us of our sins; truly we have been sinful’.

He said, ‘Assuredly I shall ask forgiveness for you of my Lord. Lo! He is the Forgiving, the Merciful’: he [Jacob] put off this [plea of forgiveness] until [the last hour] before dawn, in order to be closer to [the likelihood of] it being accepted, or [he put it off] until the eve of Friday. They then departed for Egypt, where Joseph and the senior courtiers came out to meet them.

And when they entered to Joseph, in his tent, he took his parents, his father and his mother — or [and] his maternal aunt — into his arms, and said, to them: ‘Enter into Egypt, if God will, in safety’, and they entered, and Joseph sat down on his throne.

And he raised his parents, he seated them next to him, upon the throne, and they fell down, that is, his parents and brothers, prostrating before him — a prostration that was [actually] a bowing down, not placing their foreheads down [on the ground]; this was their standard [form of] greeting at that time. Then he said, ‘O father, this is the interpretation of my vision of old. Indeed my Lord has made it true. And indeed He has been gracious to me, since He brought me out of the prison — he did not say ‘out of the well’, in [a show of] magnanimity, lest his brothers feel ashamed — and has brought you from the desert after Satan had incited ill feeling, made trouble, between me and my brethren. Truly my Lord is Subtle in [bringing about] what He will. Truly He is the Knower, of His creatures, the Wise, in His actions. His father [Jacob] remained with him for 24 years, or for 17 years. The duration of his separation [from Joseph] had been 18, or 40, or 80 years. When death approached him, he charged Joseph to take him and bury him by his father [Isaac], and so he [Joseph] himself went and buried him there. He [Joseph] then returned to Egypt and remained [alive] for another 23 years.