The Cursed Family of Jacob & the Blessed Caravan
The Cursed Family of Jacob and the Blessed Caravan
Which of us hasn’t heard of Jacob’s family? Or rather, who doesn’t hold it in high esteem? Any why not when its off-spring world-wide take great pride in being descendants of Jacob, peace be upon his soul, and his son Joseph, prophet of God and the secretary of the store houses of the land in ancient Egypt?! How could anyone in his right mind ignore Joseph or be ignorant of him or his accurate divination?! We all know this, and the whole world knows him. He was tomorrow’s predictor, interpreter of visions and dreams, truthful and trustworthy and chosen by his Lord who taught him how to interpret stories and events.
His attractive appearance was well-known and so desirable that the wife of the Aziz of Egypt in her passionate desire, tried to seduce him and tore his shirt at the back which proved that she was a liar. He was extolled by the city Ladies who, in their amazement, cut their hands with the knives they happened to be holding and said, “God preserve us! This can’t be mortal! This is none other than a noble angel!” He nearly felt inclined towards them.
In addition, he foretold how the fortunes of Egypt would fare, its dreadful years after its prosperous ones and the period of arid countryside after the period of green meadows.
Therefore, Jacob’s offspring have every right to be proud and feel honoured. They are descendants of a great and blessed family whose father was melancholic, Jacob and her distinguished son Joseph. So don’t they deserve to be honoured and revered? And aren’t they entitled to be treated as celebrities at airports, at weddings and other several occasions … even at conferences, if so it happened, and to be pointed out as Joseph’s brothers with admiration?! What a great honour conferred by God as a favour upon this family! This much we know about Jacob’s family, which makes it worthy to win our respect and be held in higher esteem …! But we should also know that this family is cursed and is neither noble nor blessed. This aura of holiness in which it is vested has been faked; and it does not deserve the veneration accorded to it. May the family of Jacob be cursed even though Joseph had been their son and Issac their grandfather. It is one of the basest families and the worst in unbelief and hypocrisy, and as such, they deserve disgrace and contempt. Didn’t they lie about protecting Joseph from the wolves, pretend to be his sincere wishers and falsely promise to take every care of him? Didn’t their father say to them, “I fear lest the wolf should devour him while ye attend not to him “.
They said, “If the wolf were to devour him while we are (so large) a party, then should we indeed (first) have perished ourselves!” May the family of Jacob be cursed! They contrived a vicious plan inspired by their guilty souls. They engaged in intrigue against Joseph, God’s prophet. They said, “Slay ye Joseph or cast him out to some (unknown) land.” They argued among themselves, squabbled and had different views on how to intrigue against Joseph and be unfaithful to their father, Jacob, may peace be upon his soul.
One of them said, “Slay not Joseph, but if ye must do something, throw him down to the bottom of the well ” But Joseph knew about this affair while they (Knew him not) “They stained his shirt with false blood” The cursed family of Jacob are traitorous, treacherous and liars. They (I mean its sons) stripped Joseph off his shirt which they stained with false blood and took Joseph away from the attention of people and threw him to the bottom of the well. They did all this while Joseph saw and heard all that was going on around him but he did not shout at them or said, “You, filthy traitors …!
How can you be my brothers?!” Joseph was quite patient as God put into his heart this message. “Of a surety thou shalt (one day) tell them the truth of this, their affair” He was as innocent as was the wolf of his blood; rather, he was smiling at them in a joking mood while they were lowering him into the well.
He knew all this and was sure of their failure and that was why he did not say to them, “You’re being unfaithful to your father when you treat me like this!” Neither did he say to them, “Do you worst but I will tell you of this affair of yours one day when your faces will turn black with shame, guilt and transgression and you will be the laughing stock of the whole world!” But in an attempt to give their treason and unsuccessful trick full force, they too were smiling back at him while in actual fact they were intriguing against him. “They plot and plan, and God too plans, but the best of planners is God” May the family of Jacob be cursed! And may the caravan be blessed! Yes, it was the caravan who got Joseph out of the well. They came soon after his brothers had cast him into the bottom of the well. The caravan let down their bucket and when they hauled it up, they found Joseph in it.
The blessed caravan saved him and the city treated him kindly. May the family of Jacob be cursed and may the caravan be blessed! Which of us, after this scandal, will have any respect or reverence for the family of Jacob? Who can trust them with Joseph any more? On the other hand, Joseph’s brothers did not kill him when they could have done so, because they were entrusted to take good care of him. It is true that they did not kill him, perhaps because they argued his death but failed to come to a decision about it, as is mentioned in the Koran; or because they lacked the courage to do it; or because being his brothers, they could not bear in their hearts the sight of his real blood and found out that they could endure the sight of false blood other than his; or perhaps they preferred that he should gradually die in the well, or perhaps being his brothers, they had not planned his death in the first place by any means and simply wanted to leave him to his fate with the caravan which they seemed to know that it would come and pick him up.
One of them said, “Slay not Joseph, but if ye must do something, throw him down to the bottom of the well: He will be picked up by some caravan of travellers” It is most probably that the fear of their father and others was the real deterrent. May the family of Jacob be cursed and may the caravan be blessed! And how deceived we were when we honoured the family of Jacob because Joseph was their son … and we were so dazzled by the awesome procession of stars, the sun and the moon kneeling to Joseph that we said, “What a great halo surrounding Joseph’s family!” And we preferred, or rather we were made to admire the scene at a distance with open mouths, which if we closed, we would vehemently applaud and inwardly repeat, “I did see eleven stars and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrate themselves to me”.
“Verily in Joseph and his brethren are signs (or symbols) for seekers (after truth) ” But what if this family was exposed … when Joseph’s brothers began to plan this abominable treason at which hearts recoil in terror, “The skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin “, and a shudder of violent revulsion possesses the people who hear it?
Indeed the family of Jacob “have put forth a thing most monstrous ” What if the family saved their honour and stood distinguished among the other people, and Joseph’s brothers lived to serve him as apostles, taking good care of him, managing his affairs and listening to what he had to say to them?! However, Joseph implored God to forgive them in spite of what they had done! And “he provided a home for his parents with himself, and said, “Enter Ye Egypt (all) in safety if it please God “, and raised his parents high on the throne (Of dignity) and they fell down in prostration, (all) before him.
He said, ‘O my father, this is the fulfillment of my vision of old. God hath made it come true! He was indeed good to me when he took me out of prison and brought you (all here) out of the desert.”. However, it was good the way Jacob’s family had behaved, because, but for this abominable scandal, or scandalous abomination; or in other words, the family of Jacob is notoriously detestable, even though we used to think of them as a blessed and respectable family, not because they had a glorious history in the past, abundant resources, constantly flowing water, a much frequented fane, or a ” canopy raised high”; it is quite the contrary because, originally, it was an unknown, detested, debased and dependent family living in the desert – as is mentioned in the Koran – and by the nature of their living circumstances, they were mere shepherds; and the biggest victory Joseph’s brothers could have achieved, would have been to kill a fox or a wolf and could have never dreamt of victory over imperialistic or retrograde regimes.
This great universal glory had never occurred to any member of Jacob’s family, who have never as much as dreamt of the glory of Egypt and its storehouses, except Joseph who could see the future and specialised in the interpretation of visions. But for this shameful act what could Jacob’s family be like now? or rather, how would the whole world treat this family? People could have carried them on their shoulders in sincere reverence! Hadn’t they begotten Joseph, who received revelation from God, who made him prophet, secretary of the store-houses of the land, interpreter of visions and passionately desired by women? Thank God who showed us in the Glorious Koran what Jacob’s family were really like and explained that they were not guardians of Joseph, rather, “they were plotting a scheme” for him in a hellish slow way.
In other words, they were digging up a well to cast him in when he was endeavouring to create a glorious history for them. The sons of Jacob’s family were, in fact wicked as well as insipid: Joseph tried to erect a fane of fame and renown for them which they sought to destroy by their own hands. However, it is only fair to give justice to any member of Jacob’s family who deserved it – if there were any who deserved it, of course. Yes, it seems that the eldest and youngest – who, as the Koran mentions, was their half brother on their father’s side – of them were. The eldest brother was the one who suggested to the rogues of the treacherous family of Jacob not to kill Joseph but to throw him into the well from where he would be picked up by some passing caravan.
As for the youngest brother, who was their brother on their father’s side, he was on the side of Joseph, and hence he was unpopular with the other sons of the cursed family who tried to make trouble for him as well and finally got rid of him as they had done to Joseph before him when they left him as a pledge in Egypt where they sought their measure of grain from Joseph whom they did not recognize.
