Story Of Prophet Yusuf ✔

PART 30:YUSUF WAS REUNITED WITH HIS BROTHER [Surah Yusuf 12: 69-73]

69. And when they entered upon Yusuf, he took his brother onto him, he said “Verily I am your brother, so do not be sad because of what they used to do”.

70. So when he had furnished them with their provisions he put the drinking cup in his brother’s luggage, then a caller called out “O people of the caravan, surely you are thieves”.

71. They said, turning towards them, “What have you lost?”.

72. They said “We have lost the king’s cup. And the one who comes forth with it shall have a camel load, and I am responsible for that”.

73. They said “By Allah, certainly you know that we did not come to cause corruption in the land and we have never been thieves”.

The brothers entered the palace of Yusuf (AS). He spoke with them and gave them the grain as he had promised he would do. Then Yusuf (AS) took Binyamin to a private chamber where the brothers would not hear their conversation. Some scholars say that he divided the group into two in order to host them. As they were eleven in number and Yusuf is the twelfth so he put two of them in every room, and as for the youngest one, he said, "he doesn't fit into any of your rooms so I will keep him in my room." So he took him aside and had his full brother Binyamin alone with him.

In private Yusuf (AS) tells Binyamin that he is indeed his brother. Most likely Binyamin knew that he had a brother called Yusuf who was missing. That long lost brother. The one about whom his father always speaks of. The one whom his father still grieves for. The one whom his father yearns to be reunited with. The one who disappearance was a tragedy for the entire family. This was none other than Yusuf. Then he tells his brother not to be grieved at what they had been doing. The pronoun “they” here, of course, refers to the brothers. We see from here that they had been doing much to cause grief to Binyamin. They couldn’t get rid of Binyamin, and they couldn’t throw him into a well, but for his entire life, Binyamin is being ridiculed and treated in a harsh manner and treated very crudely by all of the elder brothers.

So he tells Binyamin, “Don’t worry about what they have done and don’t be worried about what is going to happen. Put your trust in me. I will arrange a plan for you to stay here.” But how can he keep Binyamin?  Binyamin is a foreigner, and foreigners are not allowed to remain in Egypt. Yusuf (AS) devises a plan; Allah gives him the plan of keeping Binyamin in Egypt.

Yusuf (AS) placed a special drinking cup in Binyamin’s bag. Allah (swt) Knows best but this was probably a very expensive and important cup. Some scholars have said that it was the king’s personal drinking cup and others have said that it was the cup with which the grain was measured. This was done as part of Allah’s plan. Allah had a plan to keep Binyamin in Egypt. This was part of His greater plan to bring the children of Israil to Egypt. The scholars say that Yusuf (AS) disclosed the details of this plan to his brother when he was alone with him in his chamber.

The brothers having all of their provisions now set off for home with Binyamin. They were some distance from Egypt when they heard the call of the caller accusing them of being thieves. Some scholars say that the army of Egypt came to meet these brothers at the border. These brothers were certain that the caller was mistaken. So immediately after hearing this call they turn around and went towards the army and asked for a further investigation to determine what exactly was missing. They were certain that this investigation will reveal that the item was not missing at all.

The brothers responded to the accusation and swear by Allah and told Yusuf and the army that they did not come to cause corruption in the land. They did not come to steal, they are not thieves. They came to get grain.

LESSONS

1. Sometimes deception is needed to achieve good and to protect yourself from an enemy. This whole scenario of hiding the drinking cup in Binyamin’s bag and then accusing him of theft was deception. But as we see from the ayah it was needed in order to keep Binyamin in Egypt. It was needed in order to achieve the good of taking Binyamin away from the brothers who were oppressing him, and also for the greater good of bringing the children of Israil to Egypt. Remember that all of this was eventually a part of Allah’s plan.

2. We must never feel safe from the plan of Allah (swt). Just because everything may be going well for us at a particular point in our lives does not mean that Allah (swt) might not afflict us with some calamity.

3. Take time to plan all of your endeavors well and execute in the best way possible. We cannot simply play everything by ear and then hope for all things to turn out for the best. Our Lord gave us minds for a reason. It is so that we would have excellence in everything. It is so that we would do everything that we do in the best way possible. The success of any endeavor comes from good planning. Why would Allah (swt) allow any endeavor to succeed if the ones who carried it out were too lazy to plan it properly? So in your dawah, in your studies, in your work, and in your life, plan out everything properly. Realize that even the effort that you put into such planning is part of your striving to please your Lord. Of course, we always have trust in Allah (swt), but at the same time we also plan to the best of our ability as Allah (swt) had commanded to.