Thus when Yusuf removed it from the arm band in Egypt...

Thus when Yusuf removed it from the arm band in Egypt, Yaqoob perceived its fragrance and it is about the same thing that Allah quotes him saying: أَبُوهُمْ إِنِّي لَأَجِدُ رِيحَ يُوسُفَ ۖ لَوْلَا أَنْ تُفَنِّدُونِ “Most surely I perceive the fragrance of Yusuf, unless you pronounce me to be weak in judgment.” [^3] It is the same garment that had come down from Paradise.” I said: May I be sacrificed on you, whom did this garment reach after him? He replied, “To the one deserving of it.

And the garment is with our Qaim, when he would reappear. Then he said: All knowledge or things inherited by every prophet have reached to [the progeny of] Muhammad (S).” It is narrated that when the Qaim reappears he will reappear wearing the shirt of Yusuf (a.s.) and will also have the staff of Musa (a.s.) and the ring of Prophet Sulaiman (a.s.).

And what proves that Yaqoob (a.s.) was aware that Yusuf was alive and had disappeared as a divine test is that when the other sons returned in the evening weeping and wailing he asked them, “Why are you crying and wailing? And why don’t I see my dear Yusuf among you? قَالُوا يَا أَبَانَا إِنَّا ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقُ وَتَرَكْنَا يُوسُفَ عِنْدَ مَتَاعِنَا فَأَكَلَهُ الذِّئْبُ ۖ وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُؤْمِنٍ لَنَا وَلَوْ كُنَّا صَادِقِينَ They said: O our father!

surely we went off racing and left Yusuf by our goods, so the wolf devoured him, and you will not believe us though we are truthful. [^4] This is his shirt that we have brought back for you. Yaqoob (a.s.) told them to throw the shirt to him and they handed it over to Yaqoob (a.s.). He rubbed it on his face and immediately became unconscious.

After regaining consciousness he told his sons, “O my sons, do you think that the wolf has eaten up my dear Yusuf?” When they replied in the positive he said, “Then tell me why I cannot perceive the smell of Yusuf’s flesh? And why do I find his shirt undamaged? Even if you grant that the shirt is open from below, did the wolf not need to tear it in order to reach to the shoulders and neck of Yusuf? It is only an allegation on the wolf and indeed my son is oppressed.

Nay, your souls have made the matter light for you, but patience is good and Allah is He Whose help is sought for against what you describe. That night Yaqoob (a.s.) kept away from them and he did not speak to them. He began to recite an elegy for Yusuf (a.s.) and said again and again: O my dear Yusuf whom I preferred over all my sons; he has been taken away from me! O my dear Yusuf!

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