The Final Episode of Life: Reunion After Separation

And hearts grew calm, and souls were stilled; the sparrows singing out and the nightingales warbling, "and the splendid sun, the sun has risen, and the world is a wedding feast." The sky! Even the sky adorned itself with the colors of the rainbow and put on the hours of the full moon, and the clouds turned away

Look: Yusuf meets his father; he receives the caravan, and before that he was reunited with his brothers, and before that with his brother.

Severe separation, the scattering of the family, and the network cut off — that is the first episode of life: they threw him into the bottom of the well, with bitter episodes and tearful nights (And they came to their father at night, weeping), and the soul grew weary and was spent, and the days and nights turned and fled, and the caravans headed home — what more are we waiting for!

Wait! The episode isn't over yet,

Then the family is gathered together bit by bit: he is reunited with his brother Benjamin (he took his brother to himself; he said, "Indeed, I am your brother, so do not despair over what they used to do [to me].").

And this was a signal to Yusuf that if he could be reunited with his relative, then his greatest love, his father, he would meet too — but in the final minutes; when the blessing is complete, and with the old age that devours the morsel.

Then he is reunited with his brothers: (He said, "No blame will there be upon you. Today Allah will forgive you; and He is the most merciful of the merciful.") as in the recitation of Warsh from Nafi', where the pause is at ʿalaykum ("upon you"). So the meaning is: the day they are reunited is the day of pardon, of forbearance, and of the forgiving of sins.

Then he meets his greatest beloved: his father (he took his parents to himself)

A small return is a sign of the greater Eid al-Adha

(And when they entered upon Joseph, he took his brother to himself; he said, "Indeed, I am your brother, so do not despair over what they used to do [to me].")

(And when they entered upon Joseph, he took his parents to himself and said, "Enter Egypt, Allah willing, safe [and secure].")

[Scene Two: Silent, No Script]

She casts him into the river, a nursing infant... From where will he face it? The darkness of the pitch-black night, or the darkness of the perilous sea, or the harshness of fate, that took him far from his mother's tender bosom.

On the shore of safety, he meets his enemy.

Safety and tenderness were lost.

She wept, her heart cracked, and it trembled with fear at parting from him (And the heart of the mother of Moses became empty [of all else]. She was about to disclose [the matter concerning] him had We not bound fast her heart that she would be of the believers)

There is a good promise, of the kind that promises reunion after separation, and it is a true promise with no doubt in it

And like Yusuf, the infant was first reunited with his sister (And she said to his sister, "Follow him") so that the meaning is: just as I was able to bring you someone close to you (when your sister went and said, "Shall I direct you to someone who will be responsible for him?"); I am the One able to bring you the dearest of hearts to you, the nearest to you in closeness and in nearness (So We restored him to his mother that she might be content and not grieve and that she would know that the promise of Allah is true. But most of them do not know) The very words of the mother, the words of the father! (And when the bearer of good tidings arrived, he cast it over his face, and he returned [once again] seeing. He said, "Did I not tell you that I know from Allah that which you do not know?")

What did the old man Yaqub (peace be upon him) know? And what did the mother know?

They knew that Allah's promise of reunion is true, even if in the Gardens of Paradise when lifespans and hopes are cut off — true, with no doubt in it (Indeed, you are to die, and indeed, they are to die. Then indeed you, on the Day of Resurrection, before your Lord, will dispute)

It may be a dispute over wrongs, or the reproaches of loved ones.

[Scene Three / The Hardest Plot]

He falls ill until he is on the verge of death

And all his loved ones and children part from him,

Does he face it from an illness that imprisoned his body? Or from parting with his own flesh and blood!

He suffers until it towered over him (samāhu) and he named it (sammāhu) (adversity) (And [mention] Job, when he called to his Lord, "Indeed, adversity has touched me")

And it was adversity because everyone was lost to him; and he remained in a meeting with the first Beloved: my Lord and his Lord, Allah (And when adversity touches you, lost are [all] those you invoke except for Him)

And relief came, and the reunion, and an army in number (So We responded to him and removed what afflicted him of adversity. And We gave him [back] his family and the like thereof with them as mercy from Us and a reminder for the worshippers) (And We granted him his family and a like [number] as mercy from Us and a reminder for those of understanding)

A reminder for the people of reason!

And a reminder for the worshippers!

That the ends of separation are the beginning of reunion.

It is Allah's way in His creation; but you are hasty.

(The Parting of the Angry One)

He left his people in anger at them, so he left land and sea and earth and sank into distress, until his people thought he would never return,

And he returned

The same story as Ayyub: illness and separation (But We threw him onto the open shore while he was ill) — but here it is separation and illness!

The order doesn't matter, for we all pass through these decrees... but the knowledge and the wisdom depend on which of them passed first; what matters is, tell me whom you resemble: Dhun-Nun or Ayyub?

Then came the healing and the reunion (And We caused to grow over him a gourd vine. And We sent him to [his people of] a hundred thousand or more).

And when the reunion came, it was loftier than the separation

For they were better in faith and character than he had left them

And had this separation not happened, faith would not have made a difference for them

And perhaps a separation brought about repentance, and perhaps a parting made knowledge plain.

(Two or Three Partings, Maybe More / Viewer Warning: Not for the Faint of Heart)

The hardest separation is to be driven away by the one you love,

And for the One you love to command you to part from the one you love,

His father drove him out ([His father] said, "Have you no desire for my gods, O Abraham? If you do not desist, I will surely stone you, so avoid me a prolonged time.")

He left his home, his homeland, and his land

Then Allah commands him to kill his son with his own hand!

A separation that happens without your hand

And a separation that happens by your hand

These are unavoidable in life (Indeed, this was the clear trial)

As for the separation that happens without your hand, it is decree

And the separation that happens by your hand is choice: to choose the righteous and part from the wicked; not because you're perfect, of course! But a person barely manages to hold on to his own righteousness, so we have no time for debate on a path we've chosen.

(The Parting of the Coerced and the Reunion of the Compelled / A Sad Scene)

(and made its people into factions) Pharaoh cut the Children of Israel apart and tore them into groups so they would not come together, by coercion and force, and so they would have no dominion or sovereignty.

And in the verse there is iḥtibāk! That is, omitting the latter because the former points to it: the end of the matter, their reunion, is omitted, and its beginning, their separation, is mentioned (and made its people into factions).

Meaning that what is outwardly separation is inwardly the mercy of reunion (So We restored him to his mother that she might be content and not grieve)

(A Scene That May Be Merged with the Previous One)

Enmities, grudges, anger, hatred, and a face that cannot bear to see the other face; whoever has insight perceives the ending: (Perhaps Allah will put, between you and those to whom you have been enemies among them, affection. And Allah is competent, and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful)

Every "perhaps" (ʿasā) in the Quran is binding: that is, bound to happen and be realized. Whether the mind or the soul denies it, it is happening, happening, because it is recompense (And indeed, the recompense is to occur).

Competent to mend after the rupture

And Forgiving and Merciful, He forgives what is between those in dispute, so He turns to them that they may repent, then reconciles them; (and settlement is best) and is there any good except from Allah?

(O Prophet, when you [Muslims] divorce women…) until He said (You know not; perhaps Allah will bring about after that a [different] matter)

You do not know the unseen, O veiled one, nor the decrees within it, nor what has been hidden from the eyes and behind the curtains; so perhaps a taking-back after a divorce, and perhaps a reunion after a parting.

Because the matter belongs entirely to Allah.

— Shoroog Almehmadi