He had already pledged to himself a “beautiful patience,” and there is no doubt that he lived up to that promise. His words, “I only complain of my anguish and sorrow to Allah” (12:86), do not conflict with this, for directing one’s complaint to Allah does not negate patience; what negates it is complaining to other human beings.

There is also no doubt that Allah raised him, through that very ordeal, to lofty degrees and exalted stations that can only be reached by trials of this sort.

• Another lesson: relief arrives at the very point when distress is at its most intense. Once the various hardships had heaped upon one another and the servant could scarcely endure their weight, the Remover of worry, the Lifter of grief, the Answerer of the desperate, granted deliverance. Such are His gracious ways—especially toward His close friends and chosen servants—so that the outcome may be felt more deeply, occupy a higher station, and endow the servant with a knowledge of and love for Allah that so outweighs and surpasses what befell him as to make the suffering negligible. (1)

• Another lesson: it is permissible for a person to speak of what he is experiencing—illness, poverty, or the like—so long as he does not do so in a spirit of resentment. Jacob said, “Alas for Joseph!” (12:84), and Joseph’s brothers said, “Hardship has afflicted us and our family” (12:88); Joseph accepted their words.

• Another lesson: the merit of piety and patience. Every good in this world and the next flows from piety and patience, and those who possess them enjoy the finest outcome, as in His saying, “Allah has indeed favored us. Whoever is mindful of Allah and patient—surely Allah does not allow the reward of those who excel to be lost” (12:90).