In the name of God
Peace be upon you, O Aba Saleh al-Mahdi (a)
The Story of Prophet Joseph (as)(The Vizier of Egypt)
Joseph was eight or nine years old when he had a strange dream. When he woke up, he went to his father, Prophet Jacob’s room, and said: “O father, last night I dreamed that I was standing on a high place and that the sun, the moon and eleven stars were prostrating to me”
Prophet Jacob (as) said: “This dream shows that you will reach a high status in the future.
O my son, God has appointed you my successor, and one day you will be a prophet. But, you should remember not to tell anyone your dream, even to your brothers!”
*****
However, Joseph’s (as) brothers were informed of his dream. They were eleven. Except for the younger brother Benjamin, the rest of them had no good relationship with Joseph (as).
One of the older brothers said: “He will soon succeed the father, and he means us by those eleven stars.”
Another brother said: “Why should he succeed the father? He who is smaller than all of us!”
The older brother said, “We have to get rid of Joseph (as). As long as he is alive, the father would not like us!”
“Our hands should not be dirty with our brother’s blood,” Levi said.
“We have no choice,” the older brother said. “As long as Joseph (as) is alive, we will not achieve anything.”
“We have to take Joseph away from the father,” Levi said, “On the pass of commercial convoys, there is a well. We can throw him into that well. The caravans that pass by will take him with them. By doing so, we will get rid of Joseph and our hands will not be stained with his blood either.”
The older brother said, “Do not you know that the father does not allow us to take Joseph with us?”.
Another one of them said: “We have to be kind to Joseph for few days and treat him kindly in the presence of the father. Then we will take permission from him to take Joseph with us and will throw him into the well.”
Joseph’s (as) brothers threw him into the well, and hid somewhere farther.
One of the brothers asked, “What should we tell the father now?”
Another brother said, “We say a wolf caught and killed him. We paint Joseph’s shirt with animal blood and show it to the father. Seeing Joseph’s bloody shirt, he will believe that we are not lying”.
They stayed there until a caravan arrived. The people of caravan pulled Joseph (as) out of the well and took him with them.
*****
Joseph (as) went to Egypt with the caravan. The caravan’s leader took him to slave market to sell. At the Egyptian slave market, everyone looked at him with surprise. He looked very beautiful and was not like slaves.
Eventually the king of Egypt’s wife bought and brought him to the king’s palace to serve her as a slave.
The Egyptian king, who saw and talked to Joseph (as), told his wife, “This child does not look like slaves and is very wise and literate. It is better to adopt him as a child”.
Now, Joseph (as) lived like a prince happily in the palace.
He grew older and had a good life until he was imprisoned due to a plan drawn by the king’s wife.
In prison, Joseph (as) had difficult times but he hoped in God and thanked Him.
One day, two of the prisoners came to him. One of them said, “O Joseph (as)! I dreamed that I had some bread on my head and birds were eating from it. What does my dream mean? “
Joseph (as) sighed and said, “The meaning of your dream is that you will soon be executed and birds will eat from your brain!”
Another prisoner said, “I dreamed that I was making wine from grapes.”
“You will be released from prison soon and work in the king’s palace,” said Joseph (as).
In less than few days, the first man was taken out for execution. And the second man was also released from prison, and as Joseph (as) said, he worked in the king’s palace.
One day the king summoned the courtiers of the palace and said, “I dreamed that seven skinny cows ate seven fat cows; and I saw seven dried wheat spikes wrapped around seven green wheat spikes and destroyed them. Is there anyone among you who knows the meaning of my dream?”
Everyone said something, and at the end they concluded that the dream had no meaning and should not be considered important, but the king said, “We must find someone to interpret my dream!”
The released prisoner, who was among the courtiers, came forward and said, “My majesty! I know a young man who knows the meaning of all dreams. If you let me go to prison and tell him your dream to interpret it?”
*****
The man went to prison and told Joseph about the king’s dream. Joseph said: “The king’s dream means that the Egyptians have to plant wheat for seven years and store it in silos, because after seven years, drought begins and people must eat the stored wheat so that they do not starve”.
The man went to the king and told him the meaning of his dream.
The king ordered to release Joseph and take him to the king. He gave Joseph a place beside himself and said, “I was wrong about you and now I know that you were not guilty. I want to make up for the past and give you every position you want”.
Joseph said: “The dream you saw will happen soon, and a bad drought will begin.
I would like you to appoint me as the treasurer of Egypt and assign me with wheat cultivation to cultivate and store a lot of wheat in these seven years.”
The king said, “I agree. From now on, you are my deputy (the vizier of Egypt) and tell me any problems you have”.
Joseph ordered all farmers to plant wheat as much as they could and store their extra wheat in the silos built by his order.
Seven years passed and all the silos were full of wheat. Then, the dry years began, but the Egyptians were not worried because they had enough wheat.
They queued up at the silos to get their stocks once a week.
But people in other cities were suffering from drought and starvation; for example, Joseph’s father and brothers had no wheat to eat.
One day, Joseph’s brothers went to their father Jacob (as) and said, “O father! We have heard that a man called the vizier of Egypt has stored a lot of wheat and distributes it among people. Let us go to Egypt and get some wheat from him!”
Jacob (as), who had got sick and blind after losing his son Joseph, said: “Go, but Benjamin will stay with me”.
Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt, and each of them stood in the wheat queue with a bag in hand.
Joseph recognized them as soon as he saw them, but his brothers did not recognize him. Joseph asked them, “How is your father? Why did not you bring him with you?”
*****
Joseph’s brothers said, “Since wolf caught and killed our little brother, our father is not in a good and healthy state.”
Joseph asked: “You had another brother. Where is he?”
The brothers looked at each other with surprise, and then one of them said, “Our brother Benjamin stayed with the father to take care of him.”
Joseph said: “Be sure to bring him with you the next time you come here; otherwise I will not give you wheat!”
The next time when Joseph’s brothers decided to go to Egypt, they said to their father, “The vizier of Egypt has conditioned to take our brother Benjamin with us this time we go to Egypt. If we do not, he will not give us wheat!”
Prophet Jacob (as) said, “I am afraid that what happened to Joseph would happen to Benjamin!”
But, the brothers insisted, “We will take him back safe and sound.”
But, Jacob (as) did not accept and said to them, “Unless you swear an oath to God to bring Benjamin back safe and sound, I will never allow you to take Benjamin with you to Egypt.”
They swore an oath to God, and Prophet Jacob (as) allowed Benjamin to go with them to Egypt.
They arrived in Egypt. Joseph saw his brother Benjamin, pulled him aside and introduced himself. The two brothers hugged each other and wept. Joseph asked Benjamin not to tell this secret to his brothers.
The day when they were going to go back to their town, Joseph hid one of the king’s expensive pots in Benjamin’s wheat bag. The soldiers searched all the wheat bags of Joseph’s brothers to find the king’s pot and found it in Benjamin’s bag.
Joseph said to his brothers, “You are the children of Prophet Jacob (as); why did you do such an action?”
One of the brothers said: “It is no wonder if Benjamin has committed theft; because we had another brother named Joseph who was also a thief”.
Joseph got upset by hearing this and said, “Do not say lies and God is aware of your work. Get out of here, but your brother Benjamin stays with us to be punished!”
*****
They went back to their father and told the story of Benjamin’s theft.
Jacob (as) said: “Woe to you who always choose the way of Satan!”
After a while, Prophet Jacob’s (as) sons came to Egypt again both to acquire information about their brother’s situation and get some wheat from the vizier of Egypt, but when they saw Benjamin next to the vizier of Egypt, they wondered at his expensive clothes and asked: “What are you doing here Benjamin?”
Benjamin smiled and did not answer, but Joseph said, “The sin you did to your brother Joseph was not missed in the sight of God. Today you are plagued by bad luck, but he … “.
Joseph remained silent. His brothers looked at him carefully. One of them said, “O My God! He is Joseph ……”.
They hung down their heads in shame. “You committed a great oppression to our father and caused his suffering for years” Joseph said, “Pray that God forgives your sins!”
Then he gave them one of his shirts and said, “Go back to the father and give him this shirt of mine and tell him to put it on his eyes so that his eyesight is restored. Then bring him with you to Egypt, because I have missed him so much.”
Joseph’s brothers went back to their hometown. Neither of them dared to tell the truth to their father until one of them went to the father with Joseph’s shirt, knelt and sat before him.
Jacob (as) said, “Who is here? I notice the smell of Joseph. Has Joseph come?”
That brother said: “No, father, I am your son… but I have brought you a good news.”
He continued, “Your Joseph is now the vizier of Egypt; the one who we talked about. He has sent his shirt for you to put it on your eyes and regain your eyesight”.
Prophet Jacob (as) grabbed Joseph’s shirt as tears fell down from the corners of his eyes and put it on his eyes. When he picked up the shirt, his eyes were healed and they saw well.
He raised his head, thanked God and said, “Prepare to go to Egypt as soon as possible! I want to embrace Joseph and feel his presence”.
Few days later, Prophet Jacob (as) and his children moved to Egypt.
It was a great and memorable day for Joseph, when the father and son embraced each other, and all who were there shed tears, seeing this scene.
*****
Being in his father’s hug, Joseph kissed him and said, “Thanks to God that the days of separation and suffering are over. Today we can invite people together to the religion of God and build a good life for them”.
This way, the dream, Prophet Joseph (as) had, became true.
With hope that our separation from the Joseph of al-Zahra (Imam mahdi(s)) will end in the near future.
God willing
O God, hasten the coming of Your Friend [Imam al-Mahdi (a)]
Edition and revision: The12thimam.com
Illustrator : Buragh Publications
writer : ebrahim hassan beygi
