Surah Yusuf: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Alif. Lam. Ra. We are sending down this Book as a clear address in Arabic, in words formed from the letters of the language you use, so that it may be understood and reflected on, and We are making known the stories of past peoples too, so that counsel may be taken from them. O Prophet! Before We revealed these things to you, you knew nothing of them.

Long ago Joseph said to his father: “Dear father, in my dream I saw eleven stars, the sun, and the moon bowing before me in respect.”

Thereupon his father Jacob said to him, “My dear son! Do not tell this dream of yours to your brothers, lest they grow jealous and try to lay a trap for you, for Satan watches for a chance to stir up feelings of jealousy; do not forget that Satan is an open enemy to the human being. From this dream of yours I understand that your Lord will choose you as a prophet and grant you the blessing of interpreting dreams rightly and understanding events. I believe that He will continue through you, in the line of Jacob, the prophethood He bestowed on your forefathers Abraham and Isaac. Without doubt my Lord knows everything and does everything in its proper place.”

The truth is that in the story of Joseph and his brothers there are lessons for those who reflect.

Long ago Joseph’s brothers had talked among themselves like this: “Although we do all the work and are more in number, Joseph and his brother are more precious to our father; so our father is in the wrong here.” Then one of them said: “If that is so, let us kill Joseph, or take him to some far-off place from which he can never come back to us and leave him there; then our father will love us more.” Another said, “Instead of killing Joseph, let us throw him into a deep well on the road where caravans pass; they will find him and take him far away from here, and so we will be rid of him.” And they agreed to do this.

At last, to carry out what they had agreed, they went to their father and said, “Father, although we love Joseph very much, for some reason you always keep him away from us; you do not trust us. Let him come with us tomorrow to play and enjoy himself; we will guard and look after him as we would our own lives; set your mind at rest and trust us.”

Their father Jacob said to them: “Your taking him away worries me; in a moment of carelessness you might neglect him and let him fall prey to some wolf or wild beast; that is why I am afraid.” Thereupon they said, “If, many as we are, we let a wolf carry him off, then shame on us.”

The next day they took Joseph with them and set off to throw him into the well. And We inspired him on the way: “A day will come when, at a time they least expect, and in a position in which they will not recognize you, you will tell them of what they did to you.”

After throwing Joseph into the well, they came before their father in the evening, looking tearful, and said, “Father, while we went off to race one another, we left Joseph by our belongings; but when we came back we found that he had been torn apart and eaten by a wolf; although we are telling the truth, we know you will not believe us; but sadly this is how it happened.” And they showed Jacob a piece of his shirt, on which they had smeared false bloodstains. Hearing this from his sons, Jacob said to them: “It seems your feelings of jealousy have driven you to do a very evil thing; in this situation what falls to me is to show beautiful patience and to endure. I take refuge in my Lord and ask His help, that He may give me strength to bear what you have done.”

While they were telling their father what they had made up about the trap they had laid, a caravan came and halted at the place where the well was, and one of them, lowering his bucket into the well to draw water, noticed Joseph in the well and called out to his companions: “What luck! Look, there is a boy in the well!” He drew Joseph out of the well, and they took him with them to sell in the slave market and went on their way. And Allah knew what they were doing and what they intended.

At last, when the caravan reached Egypt, they sold Joseph in the slave market for a paltry price; they were thinking that whatever they got was pure profit anyway.

The man who bought Joseph at the slave market in Egypt said to his wife: “Look after this boy well; perhaps he will be of use to us one day; who knows, if we come to like him we may even adopt him as a son.” In this way We settled Joseph firmly in that land, and We also taught him the interpretation of dreams, and what truths they point to; Allah brings about all that He wills; it is He who prevails in the end. But most people do not wish to understand this truth.

When Joseph reached maturity, We granted him strong powers of judgment, the ability to tell right from wrong, and the ability to govern people. Thus do We reward those who do not swerve into wrong while bearing the hardships that befall them, and who make no concession on what is right.

The woman in whose house he was living, carried away one day by her desire for Joseph, closed the door of the room to seduce him and wanted to take Joseph to her bed; whereupon Joseph said: “I take refuge in Allah from doing such a thing; when my Lord has given me so many blessings, and your husband, moreover, has trusted me and entrusted to me his honor, his wealth, and his property, I will never betray him either; those who betray the trust placed in them never prosper.”

The woman had set her mind on getting what she wanted from Joseph and was determined to do it. Had Allah not inspired Joseph’s heart with the ugliness of doing such a thing and made him firm, Joseph too would almost have given in to the woman and ruined himself. Thus did We protect him from indiscretion and indecency. For Joseph was a sincere servant of Ours, striving to keep himself pure of evil.

When Joseph ran for the door to escape the woman who had assailed him, the woman ran after him, caught hold of his shirt, and tore it as she pulled at it; just then the woman’s husband appeared before them, and the woman at once tried to save herself by saying to her husband, “Do not let this man who has set his eyes on your honor and wanted to harm it go unpunished; his punishment must be to be thrown into the dungeon or put to torture.” Taken aback by this, Joseph tried to defend himself, saying, “It was she who tried to seduce me.” Then a woman who had witnessed the argument, a relative of the lady of the house, said, so that the guilty party might be found out: “If Joseph’s shirt is torn from the front, the woman is telling the truth; but if the shirt is torn from behind, what Joseph says is true.”

Then, when it came to light that Joseph’s shirt had been torn from behind, it was understood that the one telling the truth was Joseph. Her husband, realizing the truth, turned to the woman and said, “This is one of the snares that women like you set; your snares are formidable indeed”; and turning to Joseph he said, “Joseph, you too, say nothing of this to anyone,” and then, turning to his wife, he said, “O woman! You too repent of what you have done and ask forgiveness; it is plain that the fault is yours.”

Some time later, when the affair became known in the city, the women of the city began saying to one another, “The vizier’s wife has fallen in love with her slave and tried to seduce him; it seems her passion for her slave has driven her out of her mind; the woman has gone off the rails and gone astray.”

When the vizier’s wife heard what was being said about her, she prepared a splendid banquet in her house and invited those women too; after the meal she had a plate of fruit and a knife set before each of them, and then called Joseph there to serve them; the women, seeing Joseph, were so lost in admiration and astonishment at his beauty that they cut their hands with the knives instead of the fruit, and said, “My God! This cannot be a human being; he must be an angel!” Thereupon the vizier’s wife turned to the women and said, “This is the young man over whom you kept reproaching me; the truth is that I wanted to seduce him and tried very hard, but he always refused me; now I swear that he will either do what I desire, or go into the dungeon and rot there.”

Hearing this, Joseph prayed to himself, saying, “O my Lord! To be thrown into the dungeon is better for me than doing what these women want; my Lord, if You do not protect me from their snares, I may perhaps incline toward them and become one of the ignorant who cannot control themselves.” And Allah accepted Joseph’s prayer and protected him from the women’s snares, for Allah hears everything and knows the inner nature of everything.

Although Joseph had been slandered by the woman and his innocence had come to light, they threw him into the dungeon to put a stop to the gossip and to forestall events that might follow.

Two other young men had been thrown into the dungeon along with Joseph. One morning one of them told Joseph that he had seen himself in his dream pressing grapes, while the other said, “And I saw in my dream that I was carrying bread on my head and that birds were pecking at it; will you interpret our dreams for us? We see you as someone knowledgeable in these matters.”

Joseph said to them: “Before your breakfast comes, I will interpret your dreams, so that you will learn what you are going to meet. This is knowledge my Lord has granted me; but before interpreting your dreams I want to tell you this: I am not one of this people who associate partners with Allah, who do not reflect on the reason for their creation and do not believe in the Day of the Hereafter; my way is the way of tawhid of my forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who believed in Allah. This is a great favor our Lord offers to people, but most people do not understand it, nor live by it and give thanks.

O my fellow prisoners! Tell me now: which better befits a human being and makes him happy, to take many lords and gods, each very different from the other, and live following them all at once? Or to live taking as Lord and God Allah, the One, who knows the truth of everything, has power over everything, created the universe and all that is in it, and endowed the human being with so many blessings?

O my fellow prisoners! Those you take as lords and gods alongside Allah, whom you name and follow, are created beings like your forefathers and you. Allah has not given them authority to lay down rulings over people as they please. The authority to lay down rulings over His servants belongs to Allah alone. People can serve Him only by following Allah’s rulings; this alone is the right religion (system).” But most people turn their backs on this truth.

After conveying all this, Joseph told his fellow prisoners that he would now interpret their dreams; to the one who had seen himself pressing grapes he said, “You will be freed from prison and go on preparing wine for your master as before.” And to the one who had seen in his dream birds pecking at the bread he carried on his head he said, “You will be hanged, and birds will peck at your head; these are the truths your dreams, which you asked me to interpret, point to.”

Then Joseph said to the companion who he thought would be freed from the dungeon, “When you leave the dungeon, mention me to your master.” But after he got out, Satan made him forget to mention Joseph to his master, and so Joseph remained in the dungeon a while longer.

Some time later the ruler (the king), who was the master of the companion who had left the dungeon, saw in his dream seven lean cows eating seven fat cows, and also seven green ears of grain and seven dried ones; and he told his dream to the elite around him and asked them to interpret it. They said that it was a jumble of dreams, that, moreover, they had no knowledge of interpreting dreams, and that so they could not know what truths it pointed to; and just then Joseph’s fellow prisoner, who was serving them, suddenly remembered Joseph’s accurate interpretations of dreams and said to the ruler, “I can find out the true interpretation of this dream, the truth it points to, and bring you word; only send me to Joseph.”

As soon as he had permission from the ruler, he hurried to the dungeon and said to Joseph: “O my friend, true in heart and word, can you tell me what it means to see in a dream seven lean cows eating seven fat cows, and seven green and seven dried ears of grain? I will go back to the palace with your interpretation and speak of you there, and then perhaps they will realize your worth.”

Joseph said to him, “For seven years sow and reap as you always do, and after setting aside as much as you need, store the rest without separating it from the ear. These first seven years will be years of plenty; then there will be a famine lasting seven years. In these years of famine you may set aside part of what you have stored for seven years as seed and consume the rest. After that a year of abundant rain and plenty will come. So the famine too will end; in that year people will attain plenty, and they will press fruits in abundance.”

When Joseph’s interpretation reached him, the ruler said, “Bring Joseph to me.” When the ruler’s man came to take Joseph to the palace, Joseph said to him, “First tell your master to hear, as witnesses, the women who cut their hands, so as to bring out the truth about me; my Lord knows very well the snare that was laid for me.”

Upon this request of Joseph’s, the ruler summoned the women before him and said to them: “When you tried to win Joseph’s heart, what was his attitude toward you?” The women said, “Far from it! Allah is our witness that we saw in him no interest, and not even the slightest desire for evil.” Then the wife of the vizier, Joseph’s master, spoke up and confessed her guilt, saying, “There is no need for further denial; the truth has now come out. It was I who wanted to lead Joseph astray and fulfill my desire. He bears no guilt at all in this, and all he has said is true.”

When Joseph learned what had been said between the ruler and the women, he said, “My aim was that everyone should know that I did not betray my master, in whose house I lived, whose bread I ate, whose kindness I received, and who trusted me. As you see, Allah never lets the snares of the treacherous succeed, and He surely brings the truth to light.” And then he added: “Even so, I cannot declare my own self wholly pure. Had my Lord not shielded and protected me, I could not have saved myself from my own self. For the self can drag a person into evil, ugliness, and sin. But it is also true that my Lord shields, has mercy on, and forgives those who turn to Him wholeheartedly and consciously.”

When the ruler learned the truth from the women, he said to his men, “Bring Joseph to me; I will make him my special adviser, a chosen aide,” and had Joseph brought to him; and after talking with him for a while he said to Joseph, “From now on you are one who is greatly trusted among us and deserves high positions.” Joseph said to the ruler: “If so, put me in a post responsible for, and with authority over, the treasuries; you can rely on my guarding the treasuries very well, and on my ability and knowledge in this.”

Thus did We grant Joseph high position, power, and standing in Egypt. He became an administrator free to settle wherever he wished in that land and to do whatever work he wished, as he wished. We bestow Our mercy on those We deem worthy, and We do not leave unrewarded what those who submit to Us do; and yet, for those who believe in the system and morality that is Allah’s call, the reason for their creation, and do their utmost to live it and keep it alive, the reward of the Hereafter is many times greater and better than that of this world.

When Joseph had received the authority he asked for and set to work, for the first seven years he had plenty of grain sown in the land and the surplus stored; then, with the drought that followed, people from the surrounding countries affected by it began coming to Egypt to buy grain; after a while Joseph’s brothers too came to buy grain and appeared before Joseph; Joseph recognized them the moment he saw them, but they did not recognize Joseph.

After having their grain loaded, Joseph, in the course of his conversation with them, said, “Next time you come, bring your other brother too, the one by your father; as you see, I give full measure and weight and am generous to my guests; I believe you have been pleased with my hospitality,” and he went on: “If you do not bring that brother of yours and introduce him to me when you come again, I will give you not one measure of grain, nor let you come near me; be warned.” Whereupon his brothers said to Joseph, “We will do our utmost to get our father’s permission to bring him.” Meanwhile Joseph had the price they had paid for the grain put back into their packs, thinking that perhaps this would make them all the more eager to come again to buy grain.

When Joseph’s brothers returned home, they told their father what had happened, saying that unless they took their brother Benjamin with them next time, they would not be given even a single measure of grain; and they asked their father’s permission to take Benjamin the next time, saying they would guard him with their lives.

Their father Jacob said to them, “Before, you also promised to look after his brother Joseph, but you could not keep him safe; this being so, how can I trust you? The only one who should be trusted is Allah. There is no true protector and guardian other than Him, and I will never trust anyone but Allah.”

Meanwhile they opened the loads of grain they had brought, and when they saw that what they had paid had been put back in their packs, they at once turned to their father and said, “See? They have even given back what we paid for the grain. If you let Benjamin come with us, we can go with this and buy provisions again; we promise to guard our brother like the apple of our eye; and thanks to him we can get one more camel-load of provisions; what we have brought will last us only a very short time anyway.”

Thereupon their father Jacob said to his sons, “I will never send him with you unless you swear by Allah that you will bring him back to me, unless you all come face to face with death and all your strength is spent.” When his sons swore as their father asked, Jacob said, “Allah is witness to all we have said,” and consented to send Benjamin with them, and he gave his sons this advice: “My sons! Do not all enter the city you are going to by the same gate; enter by different gates. I say this only as a precaution; yet the decree belongs to Allah. If He has decreed that something shall be, no one has the power to prevent it. I trust in Allah alone and rely on Him. Let all who would trust, trust in Him alone.”

When Jacob’s sons came to the city, they entered by different gates, as their father had told them; but this precaution would not change anything that was to befall them from Allah. It was only the result of a father’s concern, said to protect his sons. For Jacob, through what We had taught him, knew that only Allah’s decree and judgment prevail; but most people are not aware of this truth.

At last, when the brothers came into Joseph’s presence, Joseph drew his brother Benjamin aside from them to another place, said, “I am your brother Joseph,” and embraced him, and told him not to grieve over what his other brothers had done in the past.

Then, after having his brothers’ provisions prepared and loaded, he had a valuable cup put in Benjamin’s pack; and as they were about to leave the city, he sent an officer after them and had him tell them that their loads would be searched over a theft; they asked the officer who had come what it was that had been stolen; the officer told them that it was the ruler’s drinking cup, that whoever brought it of his own accord would be given another camel-load of provisions, and that he himself guaranteed this; thereupon Joseph’s brothers said, “We swear by Allah that we did not come to your country to steal or to cause trouble. You must know that we are not people who would steal, for we have done business with you before.”

This time the man Joseph had appointed asked them, “If you are lying and it was you who committed the theft, what is the penalty for it under your laws?” They said, “Under the laws of our country, the thief becomes the slave of the owner of the goods, whoever is found with the stolen goods; that is how theft is punished among us,” and they were brought into Joseph’s presence. Joseph had the search of their loads begin with his other brothers, and then had the cup found among Benjamin’s things. It was We who taught Joseph such a way, such a means, so that he could keep his brother with him; otherwise, under the laws of the ruler’s religion, he could not have kept his brother with him. We teach whom We will what We will, and raise them in rank. Do not forget that above everyone who has knowledge, the One who knows everything is Allah alone.

When the water cup was found in Benjamin’s pack, the other brothers at once said: “Yes, he may well have stolen it, for his full brother, his elder brother, did something like this before.” Having listened to what was said, Joseph was saying to himself: “Allah knows very well what you are making up; your situation is truly wretched.” Then the half-brothers went on: “O mighty and honored governor! Benjamin’s father is very old; his heart cannot bear his being held here; he will grieve greatly; keep someone else from among us in his place; from what we have seen, you are one who loves to do good.”

Joseph answered them: “I seek refuge in Allah from detaining anyone other than the one with whom we found our property; we detain the one with whom we found our property; otherwise we would be no different from the wrongdoers.”

So, despairing of saving Benjamin, Jacob’s sons withdrew to a corner and began to talk among themselves; the eldest of them said, “Our father made us swear by Allah and took a pledge from us concerning Benjamin, and before this we had betrayed his trust over Joseph too; this being so, with what face are we to go back to him and tell him of this? For my part, I will not leave this land until my father tells me that I may return without my brother, or until Allah passes His judgment on me; Allah is the most just of those who judge; I will wait here, trusting in Him alone; and you, go to our father and say: ‘Your son has committed theft, but we did not see him steal; we only saw the water vessel said to have been stolen come out of his pack; we swore to you and promised to protect him, but we could not protect him against a danger of this kind that we could not foresee, so we are not responsible for this situation; if you do not believe us, ask those who went there and came back with us; they too are witnesses to this event. So you will learn that what we say is true, and believe us.’”

The other brothers returned home and told their father what had happened. As he listened to them, Jacob turned his head away and said, “No, I do not believe you; it seems your feelings of jealousy have once again driven you to do a very evil thing. In this situation what falls to me is to be patient; my hope is that one day Allah will bring them back to me; without doubt Allah knows the truth of everything, every judgment of His is sound, and He does everything in its proper place.”

Then Jacob, in his grief, withdrew to one side and sighed, “Alas, my Joseph, alas!”; and from grief over his sons a white film came over his eyes, and he could no longer see around him; yet he mastered his anger and buried his sorrow within. Seeing him in this state, his sons said to their father: “Father, by going on and on about Joseph you will end up wearing yourself out, take to your bed, and die.” Jacob said to them: “I lay my sorrow and grief before Allah alone, and by Allah’s grace I know what you do not know. My sons, now go and search and gather news about Joseph and his brother, and never despair of Allah’s mercy; do not forget that only those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth despair of Allah’s mercy.”

After a while, when the provisions they had bought ran out, Jacob’s sons came to Egypt again, appeared before Joseph, and said, “O noble governor, O mighty one! When our food ran out we fell into hardship again, but we have very little left with which to pay for the grain we want to buy; if you treat us generously and give us plenty, you will be doing us a kindness. And Allah loves and rewards those who are generous.” Joseph said to them: “Do you remember what you did to Joseph and his brother in your ignorance?” Hearing this, his brothers said in great astonishment, “Can it be that you are Joseph?” Joseph said, “Yes, I am Joseph, and this is my brother; Allah has been gracious to us and bestowed His favor on us. The truth is that whoever trusts in Allah, fulfills his responsibilities toward Him, and in this cause bears with steadfastness the hardships he meets without compromising his faith, Allah does not leave unrewarded what such people do.”

His brothers, in astonishment and guilt, said, “Woe to us! Because of the wrongs we did to you and your brother, Allah has raised you above us, and we have sunk in sin.”

Joseph said to them: “Today I will not reproach you for what you did and make you blush with shame any further; may Allah forgive you. He forgives, with mercy and compassion, those who repent of what they did and turn to what is right.

Now take this shirt of mine and rub it on my father’s eyes; he will come to himself again and recover, he will begin to see those around him, and his tears will cease; then all of you come to me with your families,” and with these words he saw them off; and no sooner had they set out for home than Jacob began to say to those with him: “Do not accuse me of dotage; I truly have begun to catch the scent of Joseph.” Those with him said to him: “You have quite lost your bearings. Your longing for Joseph has flared up again; you do not know what you are saying.”

At last the brothers going ahead of the caravan ran to their father, told him that Joseph was alive, and rubbed the shirt on their father’s face; Jacob’s eyes were opened and his heart lifted, and he looked at those around him and said, “Did I not tell you that by Allah’s grace I know what you do not know?” His sons said to Jacob, “Father, pray to Allah for our forgiveness, for we have done very evil things.”

Jacob said to them: “I will pray to my Lord for your forgiveness; He is most merciful and forgiving toward those who repent and turn to Him, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”

Then Jacob, with all his family, went to Egypt and came before Joseph; Joseph embraced his mother and father and said to them: “By Allah’s leave, live here from now on in safety and peace.”

Then he rose from his place and seated his mother and father on his own throne; then they all gave thanks to Allah and prostrated themselves, and each of his brothers showed Joseph his respect and bowed his head. At this sight Joseph turned to his father and said, “Dear father, this is the interpretation of the dream I saw long ago; my Lord has made that dream of mine come true today and bestowed a great favor on me; He brought me out of the dungeon and brought me to this place. After Satan had come between me and my brothers, my Lord brought you across the desert to this place and reunited us. Without doubt my Lord brings about whatever He wills, beyond the reach of human reason and power. He is the All-Knowing (al-Alim); He knows everything fully and puts everything in its proper place.”

After all this, Joseph prayed: “My Lord, You have granted me position, rank, and power, taught me the interpretation of dreams, and developed my ability to understand and grasp events rightly. O Creator of the heavens and the earth! You are my helper, my benefactor, my protector, and my guardian in this world and the Hereafter; take my soul as one who has submitted to You (a Muslim), and join me with the servants with whom You are pleased.”

O Muhammad! All these events are things you did not know before, which We have made known to you by revelation. You were not with Joseph’s brothers when they laid their trap for him; and even though We make these things known to you and you proclaim them to people, however much you may wish it, most of them will not believe you and turn to the right path to which you invite in Allah’s name. Yet you ask no wage of them for your call and expect nothing else either; the call you make with the Quran is counsel and a warning for all humanity.

In the heavens and on the earth there are many proofs that show the perfection of Allah’s order, yet the human being passes them by and does not reflect on the perfection of the order to which Allah invites him.

Most people do not hold back from associating partners with Allah, adding things of their own to the system of life to which Allah invites, or taking things away from it; they do not believe in Allah without associating partners with Him. Are these people so sure that Allah’s punishment will not close in on them from every side at a moment they least expect, or that the Resurrection will not come upon them suddenly?

O Prophet! Say to them: “I and those who follow me call you, not blindly but with clear insight and plain verses, to fulfill your responsibilities toward Allah. There is no true god but Him. Allah is far above what you associate with Him.”

O Prophet! The prophets We sent before you were also human beings, not angels. Do those who turn away from Our call learn no lesson at all from what befell earlier communities? The truth is that the home of the Hereafter is better and more to be preferred than the life of this world for those who consciously fulfill their responsibilities toward Allah. So should one not live this worldly life so as to be among those who win the Hereafter? Will you still not use your reason?

The prophets before you too were subjected to pressure and persecution for a long time and accused of lying and sorcery, and they had begun to lose hope in their peoples; at just such hard times Our help reached them and came to their rescue, and so We saved those who believed and destroyed, with the punishment they deserved, those who associated partners with Allah and did wrong. Allah’s punishment can never be turned away from those who deserve it.

Without doubt, in the stories of the prophets and their peoples there are lessons to be learned for those who use their reason and reflect. What is made known by revelation is never an account (a saying) invented by anyone else; this Quran, made up of these verses, confirms and corroborates the truths that remain from what was revealed to the prophets before it, explains everything in detail, and is a guide and a source of mercy for those who believe in Allah’s call.