Yusuf (Joseph)

84. “And he turned away from them and said: ‘Alas for Yusuf!’ And his eyes became white with the grief of that he repressed.”

The Arabic word /’asaf/ philologically means grief and sorrow accompanied with wrath. Ya‘qub constantly had some tear in his eyes, the word ‘what a pity!’ on his tongue, and grief in his heart.

Imam Baqir (as) has been narrated who said in a tradition that his father Ali-ibn-il-Husayn, even twenty years after the event of Karbala, used to weep upon any ground. Once he was asked why he wept such a great deal.

He answered:

“Ya‘qub had eleven sons one of whom disappeared, although he was alive Ya‘qub lost his eye-sight for him, while I saw by my own eyes that my father, my brothers and seventeen men from the house-hold of the Prophet (S) were slain as martyr before my eyes. How may I not weep?”

However, a deep sorrow and grief occupied throughout the entity of Ya‘qub, and the absence of Benjamin, the same son who was a cause of solace for him, reminded him of his dear Yusuf.

The remembrance of the time this fair, intelligent, faithful, fair young son was close in his bosom and a moment of the smelling of whose smelt refreshed the father as new life for him.

But now, not only there was no sign of him, but also his substitute, Benjamin, had an important painful fate like him. It was at this moment that he showed reaction as follows:

“And he turned away from them and said: ‘Alas for Yusuf!’...”

This double grief caused Ya‘qub (as) to shed flood of tears involuntarily as much as that his eyes lost its sight.

The verse continues saying:

“…And his eyes became white with the grief of that he repressed.”

He was very sad, yet he tried to control his grief and anger patiently, so that he would say nothing contrast to the Will of Allah.