Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/133

 JOSEPH. 115

cup-bearer twice l that he should remember him, yet he had to remain two more years in prison ; for it is written, ' And it was after two years. 3 " 2 The seeking of protection from the butler is here regarded as sinful, and therefore Muhammad says : " And Satan made him (Joseph) forget the remembrance of his Lord (God)," in that he trusted not in Grod but in man. 3 In the same Sura 4 Jacob recommends his sons to enter by different gates ; in like manner we read in the Eabbinical writings 5 that Jacob said to them : " Do not enter by the same door." 6 The statement 7 that the brothers said, when they found the cup in Benjamin's sack : " If he be guilty of theft his brother hath also been guilty," is evidently an erroneous change in the words of a passage found in the Midrash quoted above, 8 according to which they said, " See a

1 Genesis, xl. 14. . 2 Genesis, xli. .1.

3 Blpherar has the following :

Swj ^ g.a Aj' ^yt> &>. .


 * /.jlLv&J\ (M oiwfcjJ o**6j &ae sU>

" Ib is said that the butler did not remember to mention Joseph to the king. The virtual meaning of this is that Satan made him forget

the mention of. him to his Lord (Pharaoh). But Ben 'Abbas and

most authorities after him say that Satan made Joseph forget the remembrance o his Lord, so that he sought help apart from Him and protection from a creature, and this was an omission to which Satan tempted Joseph." Then he quotes many other passages ,which represent this step of Joseph's as sinful.


 * Sura XII. 67. 5 Midr. Kabbah on Genesis, para. 91.

6 The same reason is given alike by the Arabic commentators and in the Midrash, viz. 0**N fib^- -*^> < pl>5} ^Q (Of. Elpherar on the verse) " For fear of envious looks," which the ancients regarded as very disastrons in their consequences.

7 Sura XII, 77. 8 Mid. Bab., para. 92.