Юсуф

Alif lām rā’: God knows best what He means by these [letters]. Those, verses, are the verses of the Book, the Qur’ān (the genitive annexation carries the meaning of [partitive] min, ‘from’) that makes plain, the one that manifests truth [distinguishing it] from what is falsehood.

We have revealed it as an Arabic Qur’ān, in the language of the Arabs, so that you, O people of Mecca, might understand, comprehend its meaning.

We will relate to you the best of narratives in what We have revealed, in Our revealing, to you this Qur’ān, though (wa-in: in is softened, in other words [understand it as] wa-innahu) prior to it you were of the heedless.

Mention, when Joseph said to his father, Jacob: ‘O my father (read yā abati to indicate the omitted yā’ of genitive annexation [sc. of yā abī]; or read yā abata to indicate that an alif, originally a yā’, has been omitted) I saw, in my sleep, eleven planets and the sun and the moon, I saw them ([repeated] for emphasis) prostrating themselves before me’ (sājidīn: this plural form is used to describe [the act of] ‘prostration’, which is an attribute associated with rational beings).

He said, ‘O my son, do not relate your vision to your brothers, lest they plot against you some plot, [lest] they scheme to kill you, out of envy, knowing that the interpretation [of the dream] is that they represent the [eleven] planets, your mother, the sun and your father, the moon. Truly Satan is to man a manifest foe, [one] of evident enmity.

Thus, in the way that you have seen, will your Lord prefer you, choose you, and teach you the interpretation of events, the interpretation of visions, and perfect His grace upon you, with prophethood, and upon the House of Jacob — [upon] his sons — as He perfected it, with prophethood, formerly on your fathers Abraham and Isaac. Truly your Lord is Knower, of His creatures, Wise’, in what He does with them.

Verily in, the tale of, Joseph and his brethren — who were eleven — are signs, lessons, for those who inquire, about their tale.

Mention, when they, that is, [when] some of Joseph’s brothers, said, to some of the others: ‘Surely Joseph (la-Yūsufu is the subject) and his brother, his full brother Benjamin, are dearer (ahabbu is the predicate) to our father than we are, though we be a [hardy] band, a group. Lo! our father is in plain aberration, in manifest error, for preferring those two to us.

Kill Joseph or cast him away into some land, that is, into some distant land, so that your father might be solely concerned with you, so that he might turn [his attention] to you and not be distracted by anyone else, and that thereafter, that is, after killing Joseph or casting him away, you might be a righteous folk’, by repenting.

One of them, namely, Judah, said, ‘Do not kill Joseph, but cast him, throw him, into the bottom of a well (ghayābat al-jubb is the darkest recess of a well; a variant reading has the plural [ghayābāt]), so that some caravan might pick him up, if you are to do anything’, of what you desire, in the way of separating [Joseph from us]: so content yourselves with this [solution].

They said, ‘O father, what is wrong with you that you do not trust us with Joseph? We are indeed his well-wishers, we are indeed only looking out for his best interests.

Send him forth with us tomorrow, to the desert, to frolic and play (read [first person plural] narta‘ wa-nal‘ab, ‘that we might frolic and play’, or [third person plural] yarta‘ wa-yal‘ab, ‘that he might frolic and play’), in other words, so that we might be spirited and roam freely. Surely we shall take good care of him’.

He said, ‘Lo! It grieves me that you should go with him, that is, your departure [with him grieves me], because I would be separated from him, and I fear lest the wolf devour him (al-dhi’b here represents the genus, for their land had many wolves in it), while you are heedless of him’, distracted [by something else].

They said, ‘Truly if (la-in: the lām here is for oaths) the wolf were to devour him, when we are [so hardy] a band, a group, then we indeed are losers!’, incapable [of anything]. Thus, he sent him off with them.

So when they went off with him, and agreed, resolved, to put him into the bottom of the well (the response of lammā, ‘when’, has been omitted, in other words [understand it as being] fa‘alū dhālika, ‘they did [just] that’) by taking off his shirt — after having beaten him, humiliated him and desiring to kill him — and lowering him in a bucket [into the well]. When he reached half-way down the well, they flung him [from the bucket] so that he would [fall and] die, but he fell into the water and took refuge near a rock. They then called to him and he responded, thinking that they had [decided to have] mercy on him. They then wanted to smash his head with a rock, but Judah prevented them. And We revealed to him, in the well, through true revelation (wahy haqīqa) — he was 17 years of age or just under — in order to reassure his heart: ‘Truly you shall inform them, after this day, of this affair, [this] deed, of theirs when they are unaware’, of [who] you [are] (wa-hum lā yash‘urūna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the action of ‘informing’).

And they came to their father in the evening, weeping.

They said, ‘O father, we went competing, shooting, and left Joseph by our things, our clothes, and the wolf ate him. But you would never believe us, even though we speak the truth’, before you, you would still have accused us [of lying] in this story, because of your adoration of Joseph, so how much more so when you think ill of us?

And they came with false blood on his shirt (‘alā qamīsihi has the status of an accusative [of the verb], because it is an adverbial qualifier, meaning fawqa [qamīsihi]): they slaughtered a lamb and dabbed it [his shirt] with its blood — but they forgot to tear it [the shirt] — and they said that it was his blood. He, Jacob, said, when he saw that it [the shirt] was undamaged and realised that they were lying: ‘Nay, but your souls have beguiled you into something, and so you did it to him. Yet comely patience!, without any anxiety! (fa-sabrun jamīlun is the predicate of a missing subject such as amrī, ‘my course]’). And God is the One Whose succour is sought in that [predicament] which you describe’, that which you mention of Joseph’s affair.

And there came a caravan — travellers going from Midian to Egypt, who stopped near to Joseph’s well — and they sent their water-drawer, the one who goes down to the water [source] to draw from it, and he let down his bucket, into the well and Joseph clung to it and he pulled him out, and when he saw him: he said, ‘Good news!’ (a variant reading [of yā bushrā] has yā bushrāya: this [vocative] call is figurative, in other words [it is to be understood as] ‘Come [O good news], now is your time!’) ‘This is a young boy’. His brothers became aware of this and came to him, and they hid him, that is, they disguised his real status, claiming that he was, as [a piece of] merchandise, by saying, ‘This is a slave of ours: he is a runaway’; but Joseph did not say anything, fearing that they might kill him. But God knew well what they were doing.

Then they sold him — they [the caravan] purchased him from them — for a very low, a diminished, price, a handful of dirhams, 20 or 22; for they, that is, his brothers, set small store by him. So the caravan brought him to Egypt, where the one who had bought him sold him for 20 dinars, two pairs of sandals and two robes.

And he of Egypt who purchased him, Potifar, the Court Officer (Qitfīr al-‘azīz), said to his wife, Zulaikha (Zulaykhā), ‘Give him an honourable place, [an honourable] residence with us. Maybe he will be useful to us, or we may adopt him as a son’ — for he was chaste. Thus, just as We delivered him from being killed and from the well, and softened the Court Officer’s heart for him, We established Joseph in the land, the land of Egypt, until he attained what [status] he attained, that We might teach him the interpretation of events, the interpretation of visions (wa-li-nu‘allimahu min ta’wīli’l-ahādīth is a supplement to an implied [missing part] connected to makkannā, ‘We established’, in other words, [an implied] li-numallikahu, ‘so that We might give him kingship’; or else the wāw [of wa-li-nu‘allimahu, ‘that We might teach him’] is [to be understood as being] extra). God’s way [always] prevails, exalted be He, nothing being beyond Him, but most people — and they are the disbelievers — do not know, this.

And when he reached his prime — which was at 30 or 33 years of age — We gave him [power of] judgement, wisdom, and knowledge, understanding in [matters of] religion, before his call to prophethood. Thus, just as We rewarded him, We reward those who are virtuous, to [the good] of their souls.

And she, in whose house he was — namely Zulaykhā — attempted to seduce him, that is, she asked him to lie with her, and she closed the doors, of the house. And she said, to him: ‘Come!’ (hayta laka: the lām [of laka] is for clarification; a variant reading has hīta laka or haytu laka). ‘God forbid!’, I seek refuge with God from this, he said. ‘Truly he, who bought me, is my lord, my master, who has given me an honourable place, [an honourable] residence, and so I cannot betray him with regard to his family. Truly, evildoers, fornicators, never prosper’.

And she certainly desired him, she sought sexual intercourse with him, and he would have desired her [too], he would have sought the same, had it not been that he saw the proof of his Lord: Ibn ‘Abbās said, ‘Jacob was made to appear before him, and he struck his [Joseph’s] breast, whereupon his [sexual] desire withdrew [from his body] through his fingernails (the response to lawlā, ‘had it not been’, has been omitted: [understood to be] la-jāma‘ahā, ‘he would have lain with her’). So it was, that We made him see the proof, that We might ward off from him evil, betrayal, and lewdness, [the act of] fornication. Truly he was of Our devoted servants, in terms of obedience (mukhlisīn: a variant reading has mukhlasīn, in other words, ‘chosen/purified [servants]’).

And they raced to the door: Joseph making for it in order to escape, while she, in order to grab hold of him, caught hold of his garment and pulled him towards her, and she tore his shirt from behind, whereupon they encountered her master, her husband, at the door. She, composed herself and then, said, ‘What is to be the requital of him who intends evil, [who intends] fornication, against your folk, but that he should be imprisoned, locked up in a jail, or [suffer] a painful chastisement?’, by having him beaten.

He, Joseph, said, declaring himself innocent [of the charge]: ‘It was she who attempted to seduce me’. And a witness of her own folk testified, her paternal cousin — it is reported that he was still [a child] in the cradle — and he said: ‘If his shirt has been torn from the front, then she speaks the truth, and he is of the liars;

but if his shirt has been torn from behind, then she has lied, and he is of the truthful’.

So when he, her husband, saw that his shirt was torn from behind, he said: ‘Indeed this — that is, your saying: ‘What is to be the requital of him who intends …’ to the end [of the verse, Q. 12:25] — is of the guile of you, O, women. Verily your guile is great.

Then he said: O, Joseph, ignore this, matter and do not mention it [to anyone], lest it be broadcast; and you, O Zulaykhā, ask forgiveness for your sin: surely you have been of the erring’, the sinful; but the tale was reported and became public.

And some of the women in the city, the city of Egypt, said, ‘The Court Officer’s wife has been seducing her boy, her servant. Indeed he has smitten her heart with love, (hubban is for specification, in other words, ‘[her] love of him has entered her heart’s pericardium (shaghāfa qalbihā), that is, its inner casing). Lo! we see her to be in plain aberration’, that is, in error evident, in her love of him.

And when she heard of their machinations, their backbiting of her, she sent for them and prepared for them a repast (muttaka’ is food that requires cutting with a knife, since one leans upon it (ittikā’): this [repast] was utruj, ‘citron’). She then gave each one of them a knife and said, to Joseph: ‘Come out before them!’ And when they saw him, they were in awe of, they exalted, him and cut their hands, with the knives, without feeling any pain, because their hearts were so engrossed by Joseph, and they exclaimed: ‘God preserve us! — in exaltation of him — This, namely, Joseph, is no human being: this is but a noble angel!’, on account of his all-encompassing beauty, which is [a characteristic] not usually found among humankind. In the Sahīh [of al-Bukhārī], it is [reported] that one half of all beauty was given to him.

She, the wife of the Court Officer, said, when she saw what happened to them, ‘This is he on whose account, for the love of whom, you blamed me (alladhī lumtunnanī fīhi is an explication of her excuse). Indeed I did attempt to seduce him, but he withheld himself, he refused. Yet if he does not do what I bid him, he verily shall be imprisoned, and verily shall be of those brought low’, those abased. The women said to him: ‘Obey your mistress!’.

He said, ‘My Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they are urging me. And if You do not fend off their wiles from me, then I shall tend, I shall incline, towards them and become of the ignorant, the sinful: this is intended as a supplication, which is why God, exalted be He, then says:

So his Lord answered him, his supplication, and He fended off their wiles from him. Truly He is the Hearer, of words, the Knower, of deeds.

Then it seemed, it appeared, [good] to them, after they had seen the signs, indicating Joseph’s innocence, that they should imprison him for a while, until such time as people ceased to talk of him. He was thus imprisoned.

And there entered the prison with him two youths, two young men [servants] of the king, one of whom was his cup-bearer, the other, his food-taster. They noticed that he interpreted dreams and so they said, ‘Let us try him’. One of them, the cup-bearer, said: ‘I dreamed that I was pressing wine’, that is, grapes. The other, the food-taster, said: ‘I dreamed that I was carrying on my head bread whereof the birds were eating. Tell us, inform us [of], its interpretation, for indeed we see you as being among the virtuous’.

He said, to them both, in order to inform [them] that he knew how to interpret dreams: ‘The food, with which you are provided, shall not come to you, while you are asleep, but I shall tell you the interpretation thereof, while you are conscious, before it, the interpretation thereof, comes to you. This is from that which my Lord has taught me — herein is an incitement for them to believe, which he reinforces with the following words: Lo! I have forsaken the creed, the religion, of a folk who do not believe in God and who moreover (hum, ‘they’ [is repeated] for emphasis) are disbelievers in the Hereafter.

And I follow the creed of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It never was, right, for us to associate anything (min shay’in: min is extra) with God — on account of our [God-given] immunity [from error]. That, affirmation of [God’s] Oneness, is from God’s bounty to us and to mankind; but most people — and these are the disbelievers — do not give thanks, to God, and so they associate others with Him.

He [Joseph] then explicitly calls them to faith, saying: O my two fellow-prisoners!, inmates [of the prison]: Are several lords better, or, is, God, the One, the Almighty, better? (an interrogative meant as an affirmative).

You do not worship, apart from Him, that is, other than Him, anything but [mere] names that you have named, that you have named for idols, you and your fathers. God has not revealed any warrant, any definitive argument or proof, regarding them, regarding worship of them. Judgement, decree, belongs only to God, alone. He has commanded that you worship none but Him. That, affirmation of [God’s] Oneness, is the upright, the straight, religion, but most people — and these are the disbelievers — do not know, the punishment in which they shall end up, and so they ascribe partners [to God].

O fellow-prisoners! As for one of you, that is, the cup-bearer, he will depart after three [days] and, he shall serve his lord, his master, wine to drink, as usual; and as for the other, he will depart after three [days] and, he will be crucified so that the birds will eat from his head: this is the interpretation of both your dreams. They said, ‘We never dreamed a thing!’; he said, decided, concluded, is the matter regarding which you sought opinion’, about which you enquired, whether you spoke truthfully or were lying.

Then he said to the one whom he deemed, [whom] he was certain, would be saved of the two — and this was the cup-bearer: ‘Mention me to your lord’, your master, and say to him, ‘There is a young man in jail who has been wrongly imprisoned’. So he [the cup-bearer] departed, but Satan caused him, that is, the cup-bearer, to forget the mention, of Joseph, before his master, so that he, Joseph, stayed, he remained, in prison for some years: it is said [that he remained] for seven years, or for twelve.

And the king, the king of Egypt — al-Rayyān b. al-Walīd — said, ‘I saw in [a dream] seven fat kine being devoured, being swallowed up, by seven lean ones, of kine (‘ijāf is the plural of ‘ajfā’), and seven green ears of corn and others, that is seven [other] ears of corn, dry, that had wound themselves around the green ones and risen above them. O courtiers! Give me [your] opinion about my vision: expound for me its interpretation, if you can interpret visions’, then interpret it for me.

They said, this is, ‘A jumble, a mixture, of dreams! And we are not knowledgeable in the interpretation of dreams’.

And he of the two who was released, that is, of the two young men, namely, the cup-bearer, remembering (iddakara: the original tā’ [of tadhakkara] has been changed to a dāl and assimilated with the dhāl), after a time, [after] a period of time, the predicament of Joseph, said, ‘I will inform you of its interpretation; so send me forth’, so they sent him forth and he came to Joseph, and said:

‘O, Joseph, O truthful one, one given to truth, give us your opinion concerning seven fat kine that are devoured by seven lean ones, and [concerning] seven green ears of corn and [seven] others dry, that I may return to the people, that is, to the king and his courtiers, so that they might know’, its interpretation.

He said, ‘You shall sow — that is, [go ahead and] sow — seven years consecutively — and this was the interpretation of the seven fat ones — but that which you reap, leave it in the ear, lest it spoil, except for a little which you eat: thresh it.

Then after that, in other words, after the seven fertile [years], there shall come seven hard, barren and unyielding, years — the interpretation of the seven lean ones — which shall devour what you set aside for them, of grain sown during the fertile years, in other words, you shall eat [all] this during these [seven hard years], all except a little which you have preserved, stored.

Then after that, in other words, after the seven barren years, there shall come a year in which the people will be granted relief, through rain, and in which they will press [fruit], grapes, and other [seeds], because of its [that year’s] fertility.

And the king, after the messenger had come to him and informed him of its [the dream’s] interpretation, said: ‘Bring him to me!’, that is, the one who interpreted it. And when the messenger came to him, that is, [to] Joseph, and summoned him in order to depart [from the prison], he said — with the intention of manifesting his innocence — ‘Return to your lord and ask him, to inquire: “What of, [what was] the case with, the women who cut their hands?” Surely my lord, my master, has knowledge of their guile’; he [the messenger] thus returned and informed the king, who then summoned them [the women].

He said, ‘What was your business, women, when you solicited Joseph?’, did you find on his part any inclination towards you?: ‘God preserve us!’ they said. ‘We know of no evil in him.’ The Court Officer’s wife said, ‘Now the truth is out, [now] it has become clear; it was I who attempted to seduce him and he is indeed of the truthful’, in his saying, It was she who attempted to seduce me [Q. 12:26]. Joseph was then informed of this and he said:

‘That, plea of innocence, is so that he, the Court officer, may know I did not betray him, with regard to his family, in his absence (bi’l-ghayb is a circumstantial qualifier), and that truly God does not guide [to success] the guile of the treacherous; he [Joseph] then humbled himself before God and said:

Yet I do not exculpate my own soul, of slipping into error; verily the soul, as such, is ever inciting to evil, except that whereon, meaning the person [upon whom], my Lord has mercy, and so protects [from sin]. Truly my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful’.

And the king said, ‘Bring him to me, that I may use him for myself’, that I may make him mine exclusively, with none to share [him with me]. The messenger came to him [to Joseph] and said, ‘Respond to the king!’, and so he got up and bid farewell to [his] fellow-prisoners and prayed for them. He then washed himself, put on some good clothes and entered upon him. And when he had spoken with him, he said, to him: ‘Indeed you are on this day in our presence established and trustworthy’, a person of status, entrusted over our affair, so what do you think we should do? He said, ‘Gather food [stocks] and sow abundantly in these fertile years, then store the corn in its ears. People [from far and wide] will come to you and ask you to supply them [with provisions]’. He [the king] said, ‘Whom can I delegate this [task] to?’

He, Joseph, said, ‘Place me in charge of the storehouses of the land, the land of Egypt. I am indeed a skilled custodian’, one worthy of custodianship thereof, and knowledgeable in such affairs — it is also said [that he meant]: [I am indeed] a [competent] scribe and accountant.

Thus, in the same way that We were graceful towards Him by delivering him from prison, We established Joseph in the land, the land of Egypt, that he may settle in it wherever he wished, after [having suffered] hardship and imprisonment. According to the story, the king crowned him, gave him a signet-ring to wear, and appointed him in place of the Court officer, whom he removed from his position, and who later died; and so he [the king] made him [Joseph] take the latter’s spouse as a wife. He [Joseph] discovered that she was [still] a virgin and she bore him two children. He [Joseph] established justice in Egypt and people became subject to him. We confer Our mercy on whomever We will and We do not waste the wage of the virtuous.

Yet the wage of the Hereafter is better, than the wage of this world, for those who believe and are God-fearing. And so the years of drought arrived and afflicted the land of Canaan and Syria.

And Joseph’s brothers came — except for Benjamin — in order to secure provisions, when they found out that the [new] Court officer of Egypt was providing food at its [fair] price; and they entered to him, and he recognised them, to be his brothers, but they did not recognise him, not knowing who he was, because it had been a long time since they had seen him, and because they supposed that he had died. They spoke to him in Hebrew and he said to them, as if reproaching them: ‘What brings you to my land?’ They replied, ‘[We have come] for supplies’. He said, ‘You might be spies!’ They said, ‘God forbid!’ He said, ‘So where are you from?’ They said, ‘From the land of Canaan, our father is Jacob, the prophet of God.’ He said, ‘Does he have children other than you?’ They said, ‘Yes. We used to be twelve, but the youngest of us passed away: he perished in the wild. He was the most beloved to him [our father] from among us; only his full brother remains, and so he keeps him by his side, in order to comfort himself with him in place of the other.’ He [Joseph] commanded that they be given lodging and treated well.

And when he had equipped them with their provision, [when] he had given them the full measure [of food], he said, ‘Bring me a brother of yours from your father, namely, Benjamin, that I might know that you have been truthful in what you said. Do you not see that I give the full measure, that I complete it, without any fraud, and that I am the best of hosts?

But if you do not bring him to me, there will be no measure, that is, no provisions, for you with me; and do not come near [me]’ (wa-lā taqrabūn is [either] a prohibition, or a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of fa-lā kayla, in other words, ‘and you shall be denied [the measure] and will not [be allowed to] come near [me]’).

They said, ‘We will try to tempt his father away from him, that is, we will try our hardest to seek him from him. That we will surely do’.

And he said to his young men (li-fityatihi: a variant reading has li-fityānihi, ‘his servants’): ‘Place their merchandise, that [money] with which they bought the supplies, and these were a few dirhams, in their saddlebags, their [supply] sacks, so that they may recognise it when they return to their folk, and empty their sacks, and so come back’, to us, deeming it unlawful to retain these [monies].

So when they went back to their father, they said, ‘O father, the measure will be denied us, unless you send forth our brother to him [to the Court officer]; so send forth our brother with us, that we may obtain the measure (read naktal or yaktal, ‘that he may obtain the measure [for us’]). Surely we will guard him well’.

He said, ‘Should I — [I will] only — trust you with him like I trusted you with his brother, Joseph, before? despite [the fact] that you have done to him what you have done? Yet God is best at guarding (hifzan: a variant reading has hāfizan, ‘a guardian’, as a specification, similar to when they say li’Llāhi darruhu fārisan, ‘By God, how excellent a horseman he is!’); and He is the Most Merciful of merciful ones’, and so I hope that He will show favour [to me] by guarding him.

And when they opened their belongings, they found that their merchandise had been restored to them. They said, ‘O father, what [more] should we desire? (mā nabghī: mā is interrogative, that is to say: what greater thing than this can we ask for from the king’s generosity?’; a variant reading has mā tabghī, ‘what [more] do you desire?’, as an address to Jacob — for they had mentioned to him his [the king’s] generosity towards them). Here is our merchandise restored to us. And we shall get provisions for our family, we shall obtain supplies for them, namely, food, and guard our brother, and we shall receive an extra camel’s load, because of our brother; that will be an easy measure’, for the king [to grant us], given his munificence.