THE JEW THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD ADORED

THE JEW THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD ADORED   He loved Joseph.  No, I am not referring to Jacob, who adored his son Joseph, but to the Prophet Muhammad, who, when asked, "Who is the most honorable amongst the people?" replied, "The most honorable among them is the one who is most Allah fearing." They said, "O Allah's Prophet! We do not ask about this." He said, "Then the most honorable person is Joseph, Allah's Prophet, the son of Allah's Prophet, the son of Allah's Khalil." This is related in Sahih al-Bukhari, a collection of Hadith [quotes by the Prophet] complied by Imam al-Bukhari, whose work is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world to be the most authentic reports of the Sunnah [teachings] of the Prophet. Joseph and his brothers by Giovanni Battista Gauli (1669) Descendent from distinguished ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph is one of the most revered men in Islamic theology. Islam believes that he, too, was gifted with prophetic visions. As Al-Kisai by Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Hamzah, one of the foremost writers on the lives of the Qurʾānic prophets, states that Joseph was given a staff of light with five branches. On the first branch was written "Abraham, a friend of God," on the second, "Isaac, pure of God," on the third, "Ishmael, the sacrifice of God," on the fourth, "Jacob, Israelite of God," and on the fifth, "Joseph, Righteous of God. Among the most influential Sunni scholars of the Shafi School Ismail ibn Kathir, in his celebrated commentary, maintains that touched by God, "Joseph was the greatest, the noblest and most exalted" among Jacobs's sons. In Islam, Joseph is so revered that although the stories of other prophets are mentioned in Suras [various passages], the complete narrative of Yusuf [Joseph] is revealed in Chapter XII which has 111 verses concerning the Islamic interpretation of Genesis 37-50. "The most significant difference between the two accounts," wrote John Kaltner in Joseph in the Qur'an, "is the more active role God plays" in Islam's Holy Book as compared to Genesis. Although the deity is referred to in the Old Testament in connection with the trials and tribulations of Joseph, in the Qur'an, the Almighty is actively involved in the affairs of Yusuf. In moments of crisis," Kaltner stated, "the characters in the Qur’an rely upon God to come to their assistance. God reassures Joseph, after his brothers throw him into the pit, that he will survive the ordeal and confront them about what they have done." In the Islamic interpretation of Joseph's journey of faith, God assumes no responsibility for the evil visited on him by his brothers tempted by Shaytan [Devil]. However, in both cases, as Joseph bears his fate with dignity, suffering, meekness, and humility, God responds by transforming him from a slave to a prince of righteousness and compassion. The prophetic statue of Joseph in the Qur'an has also been recognized by  Marylyn Robinson Waldman in New Approaches to 'Biblical' Materials in the Qur'an, published in The Muslim World 75, no. 1 (Jan 1985). She writes that "the person of Yusuf in the Qur'an fits seven characteristics common to prophets. In short, these are people who have a message, are ridiculed, and then are vindicated. Someone with knowledge of Islam will instantly see the story of Muhammad in this schema." Accordingly, in the Qur'an, Joseph is a messenger of God, and an illustrious role model for Mohamed as the Patriarch's life and credo validate the mission of the Prophet and the theology of Islam. This is precisely why Muhammad saw himself as one walking on a Divine Path informed by the most profound confession of faith in the invisible, unknowable, untouchable yet undeniably real God. And this single-minded devotion to the Almighty is at the heart of Islam’s profession of faith - the Shahada: "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God." It is the Islamic counterpart of Shema Yisrael’s first verse encapsulating the monotheistic essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” Clearly, the faiths of Joseph and Muhammad converge in the idea of a supreme, omnipotent, and omnipresent deity who dwells alone in the celestial sphere. But it is in Sufi mysticism that one finds the most profound interpretation of Joseph's trials, tribulations, and triumphs as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi's perspective imparts the story with universal spiritual import transcending faith- specific interpretations. For it was Rumi who wrote: Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi "I am not from the East Or the West, I am not Christian or Jew Or Muslim. Am not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen. I do not belong to any established religion Or any cultural system. I am neither the body, Nor the soul, For I belong to Divine Soul Of my Beloved." Endowed with such universal values, Sufis have drawn from Joseph's story lessons of mystical, ethical, and theological significance rooted in all-consuming Divine Love. As such, Rumi saw the life of Joseph as a parable of God's way, a way which a mystic should focus his journey on following the path of love. Rumi lamented that Joseph did not sleep at night for ten consecutive years, pleading with Almighty God every night on behalf of his brothers. Rumi has Joseph say, "O Lord, forgive my brothers, or I will fill the foundations of this Palace with hundred more brotherly cries and tears of mine." In Kitab al-Kafi concerning Shiites commentaries on the importance of Joseph in Islamic tradition, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qub, an 8th-century Muslim scholar and the Sixth Imam, relates that Jibril [the Arch Angel], in a fiery appearance brought Abraham a garment, a cloak of many colors, from heaven to protect him from the elements as well as evil roaming the earth. When Abraham was about to ascend to paradise, he gave the sacred cloak to Ishaq [Isaac] who, in turn, passed it on to Ya'qub [Jacob] When Joseph was born, it was given to him. When he took it out of its covering in Egypt, Ya'qub, almost blind, recognized his son in the cloaks fragrance and recovered his vision. Joseph's Coat Brought to Jacob by Giovanni Andrea Ferrari (1651) Joseph's story has spilled over the banks of its original spiritual riverbed and roamed beyond the ages reaching many distant shores. His tale is woven into the rich spiritual, artistic, and intellectual tapestry of all three Abrahamic Faiths as it is related in religious texts, miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, in paintings [who could not feel the oceans of sorrow that wash over the face of Jacob in Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari's painting], in novels such as Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, in musical works including Handel's majestic oratorio Joseph and his Brethren, in Richard Strauss' The Legend of Joseph, in musicals among which we might count Andrew Lloyd Weber's and Tim Rice's Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamboat, in DreamWorks' animation film Joseph: King of Dreams, in Iranian Farajullah Salahshur's film Yousef e Payambar [Joseph the Prophet], and Bernard Lang's book Joseph in Egypt: A Cultural Icon from Grotius to Goethe.  Where is Joseph, who left an indelible mark on the universal ethos, buried? As Richard A. Freund explains in his book Digging Through the Bible: Modern Archaeology and the Ancient Bible, "there are multiple locations that have, over the years, been seen as the patriarch's final resting place." Since we do not have archeological proof concerning Yusuf's final resting site, we have come to view the tomb in Nablus as a symbolic site where Jews and Muslims connect with the Patriarch loved dearly by Muhammad.   Muhammad must have been familiar with Joseph's death bed prophesy when he tells his brothers: "I am about to die; but God will remember you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here." In Exodus, we are told that Moses fulfilled the pledge by taking Joseph's bones with him when he left Egypt. "As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem [Nablus], in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph" (Joshua 24:32). Joseph's bones being buried in the land God swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob marks the eternal faithfulness of the eternal. It is interesting, however, in the context of current Israeli-Palestinian territorial disputes to note that Islam too teaches that the remains of Joseph were brought from Egypt to the Promised Land by Moses thus confirming the bond between the earthly remains of the Patriarch and the Land of Israel sanctified by God. But, this interpretation has been contended by many Islamic scholars. Given Islam's adoration of and the affection of the Prophet Muhammad for Joseph, a devout Muslim would be saddened that the Tomb of Joseph site has been desecrated for years by Palestinian militants who “knew not Joseph.” Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Peace is upon Him would have been profoundly dismayed by the defilement of the final resting place of the Patriarch he loved most and whom he revered as a prophet.  In the Prelude to Joseph and His Brothers, Thomas Mann, entitled Descent to Hell, writes, "Very deep is the well of the past. Should we not call it bottomless?" He might have added, "So is the well of hatred!" For this is a bottomless well endlessly filled with tears and jealously guarded by burning ghosts consummating their shame.