Prophet Jacob (Yaqub) & Prophet Joseph (Yusuf A.S.)

Yaqub was also known as Israel (Israil). Israel's children could see that Yusuf was their father's favorite. This made them very jealous. They became so jealous, that some of them actually wanted to kill him.  
The jealous brothers finally decided to throw Yusuf into a deep well. They went to Israel, their father, to ask if they could take Yusuf out with them; they said they would teach him to be a good shepherd. Israel would not let Yusuf go because he thought the others were planning to do something bad. One day Yusuf went to Israel and said that he had had a strange dream. In the dream Yusuf had seen the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing down to him! Israel felt that the dream had a message; Yusuf was going to have a great future.

 He told Yusuf not to tell his brothers about the dream. Israel's sons were still thinking of their plan to kill Yusuf. They pestered Israil to let them take Yusuf with them to their work. At last Israil agreed, but he made them promise to look after him. They were so bad they knew they would break their promise. At the end of the day they forced Yusuf to take off his shirt. They killed a sheep and put blood all over Yusuf's shirt; then they threw Yusuf into a well. They went home and showed the shirt to Israil. Pretending to be very upset; they told their father that Yusuf had got left behind and a wolf had eaten him! Israil was very upset but he did not believe the story.  He knew that one day Allah would bring Yusuf back to him. Poor Yusuf spent the night in the well. The next morning, when someone put the bucket down the well to get water, he sat in the bucket. The man had to get help to pull the bucket up. He was very surprised to see a boy in it. The man was a merchant. The merchant decided to take Yusuf with him to Egypt and to sell him as a slave. When they arrived in Egypt, one of the noble families bought Yusuf. 
The man who bought him told his wife that they should take care of him, as he was a good-looking child and they had no children of their own. Yusuf became a member of the family.

Prophet Yusuf (A.S.) in Egypt

Pharaoh (Firawn) of Egypt had many people working for him. One of his assistants had a very wicked wife who said many things about Yusuf that were quite untrue. She loved him and told Yusuf this, but he told her that she should honor her husband. She wanted to force Yusuf but he ran away from her. She grabbed him by his rob but he fled leaving a torn piece of his rob from hind in her hands. She became very angry and persuaded her husband to have Yusuf put in prison. While he was in prison, Yusuf used to tell everyone what their dreams meant, and his interpretation of dreams always came true.  Allah

had given Yusuf this great gift.

 Firawn kept having a strange dream and none of his wise men could explain what it meant. When Firawn heard of Yusuf's great gift, he sent for him. Yusuf would not leave the prison until he had proven his innocence. Firawn had an inquiry and discovered that Yusuf was really innocent. So he was able to leave prison. Firawn's dream was very unusual. In it, he saw seven skinny cows eat seven big fat ones and there were seven skinny ears of wheat and seven fat ears of wheat.

  Yusuf explained that this meant that there would be seven years of plenty harvest, but seven years of famine would follow, when there would be no water and no food for anyone. After that there would be a year of rain. Firawn liked and trusted Yusuf, so he put him in charge of all the store houses in the land. Yusuf had worked himself up to a very powerful position. Allah always rewards good people. Yusuf worked hard; he made sure the store houses were filled with wheat and grain. Just as he had said, there were seven years of plenty. Those years passed very quickly. 
Soon the seven years of famine came. The crops failed. People were hungry. Others were starving. Yusuf had planned for this. He opened his stores and let everyone have some of the wheat. Back in Palestine, Israil too was facing a hard time with no food for his family or the animals. He sent his sons to Egypt to get grain from the famous treasurer of Egypt. When they arrived they were told that they must get permission from the governor to buy grain. They went to see him, but did not realize that the fine man, in splendid robes was really their brother. He told them they could have some grain, but if they wanted any more, they would have to come with their youngest brother and parents.  
Yusuf had recognized them straight away and he longed to see his father, mother and young brother Benjamin again. Eventually the eleven brothers returned with their mother and father. They bowed down before Yusuf. Yusuf put his father on his throne and reminded him of the dream he had had so long ago. The sun, the moon and eleven stars had bowed down before him just as his father, mother and brothers had done at this meeting. This was a great moment in his life and he thanked Allah, for all He had done for him.