When will the loved one come? We think of it as a question but it is far more than that, filled with abundance of waiting and lighting of oneself with the fire of expression. Yes! It is more than a question. Thinking of a loved one and doing as they do, copying their actions and talking about them. In every civilization, there is a story. A story which witnesses enormous power of the lover to win the beloved one’s love. However, if lust destroyed it once, as time passed, it was replaced with pure passion - a pure love. Here I want to retell the story of Yousuf and Zulaikha. Zulaikha, the wife of Misr's chief, Potiphar, grew fonder every day of this handsome youth, Yousuf. She talked to him, she played with him, she admired him and she raised him in her eyes from a slave to a king. “A true king is always a king, with or without a throne.”

Zulaikha, so entirely won by Yousuf, forgot what is right and what is wrong. “Reason falls when love rises.” They became ever closer, day after day until a spell of lust came and separated them. When the shadow of lust fell upon the soul of Yousuf, Zulaikha tried to cover the face of her idol god in her room. Astonished Yousuf, asked her: “What are you doing?”

She said: “I am covering the face of my god that sees us with his eyes full of wrath.”

This startled Yousuf. He had a vision of his own father pointing his finger towards heaven. Yusuf said, “Stop, o Zulaikha, what have you got in your mind! The eyes of your god can be covered with a piece of cloth, but the eyes of my God cannot be covered. He sees me wherever I am.”

Zulaikha, blinded by the overwhelming darkness of lust, would not desist, and when he still refused, her lust turned into wrath. She hated him and cursed him and reminded him of his low position as a slave. Upon hearing this he began to leave the room, but she caught him by the nape of his neck and thus Yousuf's garment was torn. The chief happened to enter the room at this moment. He was amazed with what he saw, something neither Zulaikha nor Yusuf could hide. Before being asked anything she complained to him in order to hide her evident fault, saying that Yusuf had made an attempt to lay hands upon her, which naturally, enraged the chief, and he at once gave orders that Yousuf should be taken to prison for life.

“The righteous have more trials in life than the unrighteous.”

Time, which changes all things, changed the conditions of Yousuf's life. After the death of her husband, Zulaikha fell into a great misery. After many years it so happened that the Pharaoh dreamed a dream which frightened and alarmed him. Among all the soothsayers and magicians in the land there was none who could interpret his dream. Then he was told by his servants of Yousuf and his wonderful gift of interpreting dreams. He sent for Yousuf, who after having been told Pharaoh's dream gave the interpretation of it, and by his wise counsel he greatly relieved the King in his cares. Pharaoh made him chief of all his treasures, and bestowed on him the honor and the power that raised him in the eyes of the world.

Meanwhile, miserable and mad with desire for Yousuf, Zulaikha almost lost her sight, crying for Yousuf, waiting for him to come and save her from this sorrow. She fired all her servants to make herself more like Yousuf, who believed in the equality of all: be it a servant or the master. Almost blind, she started going out and sitting on the route of Yousuf’s caravan, longing just for a sight of her loved one.

“And there a time came, when the wait is over, a time to meet the loved”

Yusuf, riding with his retinue, finally happened to pass by the place where Zulaikha was spending her days in misery. Upon hearing the sound of horses' hoofs many people ran to see the company passing, and they called out, “It is Yusuf, Yusuf!” When she heard this, Zulaikha wished to look at him once again. When Yusuf saw her he did not recognize her, but he halted, seeing that a woman wished to speak with him. He was moved to see a person in such misery, and asked her, “What do you desire from me?” She said, “Zulaikha has still the same desire, o Yusuf, and it will continue here and in the hereafter. I have desired you, and you alone I will desire.”

Yusuf was convinced of her constant love, and was moved by her misery. He kissed her on the forehead, and took her in his arms and prayed to God. The prayer of the prophet and the call of the long-awaited love was granted the blessing of God, and Zulaikha regained her youth and her beauty. Yusuf said to Zulaikha, “From this day you will become my beloved queen.” They were then married and lived in happiness.