33. SHIRT OF SAYYIDUNA YUSUF
When the brothers of Sayyiduna Yusuf threw him into the well and told their father Sayyiduna Ya’qoob that a wolf has eaten him, Sayyiduna Ya’qoob suffered profound sorrow and grief. He wept for many days, and due to his weeping excessively, his eyesight became weak. After years, when the brothers of Sayyiduna Yusuf went to Egypt for the second time during the days of famine in order to gather rations, they recognized Sayyiduna Yusuf and asked for forgiveness remorsefully. Whilst forgiving, Sayyiduna Yusuf said, ‘Today there is no rebuke against you. May Allah forgive you. He
is the Most Merciful.’ When Sayyiduna Yusuf enquired about his father Sayyiduna Ya’qoob , then the brothers told him that due to prolonged weeping out of your grief, he has become frail, and his eyesight has also become very weak. Upon hearing the state of his father from his brothers, Sayyiduna Yusuf was very much grieved. He then said to his brothers:
Take along this shirt of mine, and put it on my father’s face, his vision will be restored; and bring your entire family to me.
The brothers of Sayyiduna Yusuf took that shirt and left for Kin’aan from Egypt. Yahuda, one of the brothers of Sayyiduna Yusuf, said, ‘I will take this shirt to Sayyiduna Ya’qoob as I was the one who took the blood-stained shirt of Sayyiduna Yusuf to Sayyiduna Ya’qoob after throwing him into the well. And I grieved him by saying that a wolf has eaten Sayyiduna Yusuf . So because I was responsible for his grief, therefore today, I will give the shirt to him and make him happy with the good news that Sayyiduna Yusuf is still alive.’ Therefore, Yahuda took the shirt and ran bareheaded and barefoot for eighty furlongs. For the journey, he had seven breads as food, but due to his happiness and enthusiasm to reach his destination quickly, he could not even eat them. Completing his journey as quickly as he could, he reached the court of his esteemed father.
The moment Yahuda left Egypt for Kin’aan with the shirt, Sayyiduna Ya’qoob smelt the fragrance of Sayyiduna Yusuf in Kin’aan and said to his grandchildren:
Said, ‘Indeed I sense the fragrance of Yusuf, if you do not call me disorientated.’
His grandchildren replied, ‘By Allah you are still in your old state of longing. Where is Yusuf and where is his fragrance? But, when Yahuda reached Kin’aan with the shirt, and the moment he put the shirt on the face of Sayyiduna Ya’qoob the eyesight of Sayyiduna Ya’qoob restored right away. Allah has said in the Holy Quran:
Then when the bearer of glad tidings came, he laid that shirt on the face of Ya’qoob, he therefore immediately regained his eyesight; he said, ‘Did I not tell you? I know those glories of Allah which you do not know!’
As soon as Yahuda left Egypt for Kin’aan with the shirt of Sayyiduna Yusuf Sayyiduna Ya’qoob smelt the fragrance of Sayyiduna Yusuf whilst being in Kin’aan! In this connection, Shaykh Sa’di has quoted an inspiring parable which is very fascinating and eloquent.
Parable
Someone asked Sayyiduna Ya’qoob who had lost his son: O grand and wise elder!
You smelt the fragrance of Sayyiduna Yusuf from the far
and distanced land of Egypt, but when Sayyiduna Yusuf was confined in a well in the land of Kin’aan and was in the close
proximity to you, why did you not feel his fragrance? What is the
reason behind this?
Sayyiduna Ya’qoob replied:
The state of we, the friends of Allah is like a lightning thunderbolt that appears and disappears instantly. Sometimes Allah blesses us with His Divine light and we sit on the skies, and the whole universe is displayed in front of us. And sometimes we go in an extreme state of enthralling contemplation and are drowned in the depths of His Being and Attributes to such an extent that we become unaware of everything else except Allah. Such a state overcomes us that we can’t even see our feet.
This is the reason that from Egypt, I smelt the fragrance of the shirt of Sayyiduna Yusuf because at that time, I was in the state of Kashf (spiritual intuition). But I could not feel the fragrance of Sayyiduna Yusuf from the well of Kin’aan because at that time, I was in the state of extreme meditation and my state was as if.
Moral:
There are two main lessons for us in this event:
1. There are many hidden blessings and virtues associated with the clothes and belongings of the chosen people of Allah. Therefore, preserving the clothes and other souvenirs of the holy saints as a sacred thing, seeking blessings and bounties by virtue of them, as well as using these as a Wasilah (intermediary) to Allah is a proven tradition for harvesting the blessings and for acceptance of supplications.
2. The spiritual condition of the beloveds of Allah does not always remain the same. Sometimes, by virtue of Divine light in their souls, they enter in such a state that, they start observing each and every particle of the universe. And sometimes, they are engrossed in the Divine light of Allah to such an extent that they are drowned in the meditation of the light and lose their attention away from the entire universe. At that time, they are in such a state that they can’t see anything. And it happens to such a great extent that they even forget their own names. These two states of Sufism i.e. Kashfi (intuition) and Istaghraqi (meditation) are beyond the understanding of the common people. Only those people who have spiritual affiliations and the Islamic scholars or those who have experienced such things can understand. It is true.
For such spiritual excellence, in addition to Zikr (remembrance of Allah and meditation, revival of heart by spiritual inspiration invoked by perfect Shaykh is necessary. The king of Sufism, Maulana Roomi. has pointed towards this aspect as.
And another mystic has mentioned that.It means that only reading ‘Kanz-ud-Daqaaiq’ and ‘Hidayah’ is not sufficient to seek Allah, in addition read the chapter of heart because there is no book better than this. But in this age of materialism, the flag-bearers of Sufism have badly harmed and deformed the noble concept of Sufism. Such people are fulfilling their worldly desires in guise of sainthood. They pose that one can only become a Shaykh by wearing multi-coloured and torn clothes and carrying rosary and staff.
Source: (QURANIC WONDERS) by ‘ABDUL MUSTAFA A’ZAMI.
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