Prophet Yusuf
I think it was not just about losing a son. It was much more, and much worse which was difficult to reconcile and absorb, humanly. Besides losing Yousuf, possibly his favorite child, it was also about betrayal and being lied to by one’s own offspring, when you know it but can’t do anything and are helpless. This is not easy to live with. You can’t even talk your heart out to your children for support after such a devastating incident, as they are the reason of your grief. If you talk to others about your grief, it will be like scandalizing your own family and children. The anger, the anguish, and the pain of this betrayal compounded with despair about not just losing Yousuf but being unaware of his fate! What happened to him! Did he survive or not? If not, how was he killed? How could his own brothers do this to him? May be they slit his throat!! How can his own brothers kill him like that. Which one of them must have killed him?? These endless thoughts about the worst of possibilities would have played in his mind on repeat, again and again. The thoughts and the unanswered questions would keep on sending endless shudders to him at nights and keep him awake. His eyes would refuse to stop shedding tears !! Only if he could know about the final fate of his son, even the confirmation of his death would have given him some peace. But this despair was worst then not knowing what happened to him. At the end it was not just love of Yousuf and grief of losing him , but his despair and helplessness in getting the answers, the shock of betrayal by his own sons. He was totally devastated! Who wouldn’t be?