Yusuf and His Brothers

In a land of sheep and quiet hills, there lived a boy named Yusuf. He was a kind boy, with a gentle heart, and his father loved him very much.

One night, Yusuf had a dream. He saw eleven stars, and the sun, and the moon, all bowing down to him.

When the morning came, he ran to find his father. His father was a great prophet named Yaqub.

Yaqub listened carefully to Yusuf's dream. He did not speak for a long time. When he finally did, his voice was soft. He said, "My son, do not tell this dream to your brothers. Keep it in your heart."

Yusuf had ten older brothers. Yaqub loved them, but everyone could see that Yusuf and his youngest brother were special to him. He stayed close to them. He gave them more of his time. The older brothers noticed. And slowly, quietly, like a small thorn growing into a bigger one, jealousy began to grow in their hearts.

One day, they came to their father with smiling faces. "Let Yusuf come with us to the fields today," they said. "We will look after him. We will bring him home before dark."

Yaqub did not want to let him go. Something in his heart felt heavy. But the brothers promised, and Yusuf wanted to go with them, so Yaqub said yes.

Out in the fields, far from home, the brothers did something terrible. They took Yusuf to a deep well. And they left him there, all alone, in the cold and the dark.

Then they took his shirt. They rubbed it with the blood of an animal. And they walked home with sad faces, crying tears that were not real.

"Father," they cried, "a wolf came. A wolf took Yusuf."

Yaqub looked at the shirt. He held it in his hands. He shook his head slowly. He knew this was not the truth. But he could not prove it.

He cried, and he cried, until his eyes grew tired and his sight became weak. But he never stopped believing that Allah was watching. He whispered to himself, "I will be patient. My only comfort is in Allah."

Far away, deep inside the well, Yusuf waited.

Then a group of travelers came by, looking for water. They lowered a bucket down. And when they pulled it back up, there was Yusuf, holding on.

The travelers took him. They walked for many days across the hot desert. And they brought him to a great country called Egypt, where they sold him as a servant to a powerful man.

Yusuf was alone now, in a strange place, far from everyone he loved. But Allah was with him.

From the Quran: Surah Yusuf (chapter 12). Part 1 covers verses 4 to 20, which tell of the dream, the brothers' jealousy, and Yusuf being brought to Egypt.