43 – Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-Qurashī related to me; he said: My father narrated to us; he said: Zāfir ibn Sulaymān informed us, from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, from a man, from Anas ibn Mālik, who traced it back to the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

“Jacob had a brother in faith. The brother asked him, ‘O Jacob, what has taken away your sight and bent your back?’ Jacob replied, ‘What has taken away my sight is my weeping over Joseph, and what has bent my back is my sorrow for my son Benjamin.’

Allah then revealed to him: ‘O Jacob, are you not ashamed to complain about Me to anyone other than Me?’ Jacob responded, ‘I only complain of my anguish [12:86] and my grief to Allah.’ He then supplicated: ‘My Lord, have mercy on this old man; You have taken away my sight and curved my back. Return to me my fragrant blossom Joseph so that I may smell him, then do with me as ⦗54⦘ You will.’

Gabriel came to him and said, ‘Allah sends you His greetings of peace and says: Rejoice, and let your heart be glad! By My might, even if the two of them were dead I would bring them back to life for you. Therefore, prepare food for the poor, for the most beloved of My servants to Me are the prophets and the poor. What took away your sight and bent your back, and what led Joseph’s brothers to do what they did, was that you slaughtered a sheep and a fasting man came to you but you did not feed him.’

After that, whenever Jacob wanted lunch he would command his herald to announce: ‘Whoever among the poor wishes to have lunch, let him eat with Jacob.’ And if he was fasting he would order a herald to proclaim: ‘Whoever among the poor is fasting, let him break his fast with Jacob.’”