Our Sidekick Yusuf
In our Sulayman and the Green Lamp novel Yusuf is modelled very much from his namesake the Prophet Yusuf who was bullied and despised by his big brothers for his charm and beauty. Yusuf is challenged by the sibling rivalry dynamic with our hero Sulayman and must struggle to emerge from his brother’s shadow into his own unique person. In a way it is Yusuf who suffers the most from the tragedies in our first novel and our empathy for him must become Sulayman’s empathy in order for Sulayman to progress and pass his test. A story like Sulayman and the Green Lamp can help us to see that while we are struggling and fighting external battles in our own experience that it is the small tiny voice inside us that knows the real war is with ourselves.
Yusuf’s dynamic with Sulayman shows us the nafs (the ego) of our hero and gives him his first foil. If Sulayman cannot overcome this first and most important monster within himself he will not succeed in slaying a greater dragon. Those of us who have more than one child see their rivalries all too clearly. We see which child is endowed with more strength than wisdom and more will than sense. Yusuf gives that contrast to Sulayman because Yusuf is a calm and introspective soul. He sees, he thinks and he contemplates because he is not as brave and bold in the ways his brother is.
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Yusuf and Sulayman must work together in our story to succeed in much the same way all parents want their children to cooperate and help each other through life. All parents know that one day they will be gone and so we implore our children to care for each other and to catch them when they fall. When young and willful they see each other as rivals, but if they mature they see each other as allies. It is a parent’s hope and prayer that when this alliance forms it will be strong enough to withstand the mortality of their parents and that there will be someone left to accompany them in the struggles of their life. These deep and unspoken motivations colour our childhoods as our parents and grandparents try to prepare us to meet our future.
If you would like to know more about the Yusuf character in our story please see the prequel stories to Sulayman and the Green Lamp: The Tree of Light or The Secret Blessing, both are partly fictional and partly historical and give a hint of the story at the Al Chemya school to come.
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