Prophet Yusuf story, peace be upon him: the account and its lessons

Who is Yusuf in the Quran?

Yusuf is the name the Arabic uses. The English translation on this site renders it as Joseph, as the verses below do.

What is the order of the story?

Each row names the verses for its scene.

What did he dream, and what did his father say?

Verse 4 has Yusuf tell his father of a dream of eleven planets, the sun and the moon, and the verse has him say, "I saw them prostrating themselves to me." The verses do not say how old he was.

His father answers in verse 5, "Do not tell your brethren of your vision". The reason he gives is that his brothers might plot against him, and the verse adds that "Satan is for man an open foe".

Why did his brothers plan against him?

The verses give their words and no reason beyond them. In verse 8 they say that "Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are". Verse 9 gives one proposal, "Kill Joseph or cast him to some", and the aim they state: their father's favour for themselves, and righteousness afterwards. In verse 10 one of them says "fling him into the depth of the pit" instead. The verses do not say how the plan was settled.

What happened at the well and in the caravan?

Verse 15 says that when they put him in the well, a message came to him: "You will tell them of this deed of theirs."

In verses 16 to 18 the brothers come to their father in the evening, weeping, and say a wolf ate him. The verse says "they came with false blood on his shirt". Their father says that his course is "comely patience".

In verses 19 and 20 a caravan's water-drawer lets down his pail and calls out "Good luck! Here is a youth". Verse 20 says that "they sold him for a low price".

What happened in the ruler's house?

Verse 21 has the man who bought him in Egypt tell his wife to "Receive him honourably". Verse 22 says, "We gave him wisdom and knowledge", once he reached his prime, and adds, "Thus We reward the good".

Verses 23 to 29 are brief. The woman of the house tries to draw him in, and he answers, "I seek refuge in Allah". Verse 24 says that he would have desired her, had it not been that "he saw the argument of his Lord"; the verse does not describe that argument. Verse 25 says they raced to the door, and that the shirt was torn from behind.

Verse 26 says that "a witness of her own folk testified", and proposes a test: a shirt torn from the front shows she speaks the truth, and one torn from behind shows that "then she has lied and he is of the truthful" (verse 27). Verse 28 has her husband say, "this is of the guile of you women".

Why was he sent to prison, and what did he interpret?

Verse 35 says that after they had seen the signs, it seemed good to them "to imprison him for a time". Verses 36 to 41 give two prisoners' dreams. One says, "I dreamed that I was pressing wine", and the other says, "carrying upon my head bread whereof the birds were eating". Verse 41 has Yusuf say what each will become, and one of them will "he will pour out wine for his lord to drink".

In verse 42 he asks the one he knows will be freed to "Mention me in the presence of your lord". The verse says that "Satan caused him to forget" and that he "stayed in prison for some years". It gives no number of years.

What did the king's dream mean?

In verse 43 the king says he saw "seven fat kine which seven lean were eating". Those around him call it jumbled dreams (verse 44). In verse 45 the prisoner who was freed remembers Yusuf and comes to ask for the interpretation. Verses 47 to 49 give it in three parts: "You shall sow seven years as usual", then "seven hard years", and then "a year when the people will have plenteous crops".

How did the brothers come back, and how did he make himself known?

In verses 58 to 62 the brothers come to him, and "he knew them but they knew him not". He asks them to bring "Bring to me a brother of yours from your father" (verse 59). In verse 66 their father agrees only after they give an undertaking, and he says "Allah is the Warden over what we say". In verse 67 he advises them to enter by different gates: "Do not go in by one gate".

In verse 69 Yusuf tells his brother, "I, even I, am your brother". In verses 70 to 79 a cup is put in the brother's bag and the brothers are called thieves. Verse 76 says "Thus did We contrive for Joseph", so that Yusuf could hold his brother under the king's law only as Allah willed. Verse 77 says that Yusuf "kept it secret in his soul".

How did the story end?

In verses 84 to 87 their father turns away and says, "Alas, my grief for Joseph". In verse 86 he says he knows from Allah what they do not, and verse 87 tells them, "despair not of the Spirit of Allah".

In verses 88 to 93 the brothers return. Yusuf says, "I am Joseph and this is my brother", and the verse adds that "Allah does not lose the wages of the kindly". He tells them, "Have no fear this day" (verse 92), and asks them to "lay it on my father" (verse 93).

In verse 99 the family comes into Egypt, and he says, "Come into Egypt safe, if Allah will". In verse 100 his parents are placed on the dais, and "they fell down before him prostrate". He then says, "This is the interpretation of my dream of old".

This page gives the words only and does not rule on the prostration in verse 100. For your own question about it, ask a scholar you trust.

Verse 101 is his last speech in the surah. He asks Allah to "Make me to die muslim" and to "join me to the righteous". The verses say nothing about how or when he died.

What do the verses point to?

These are points the verses make in their own words. This page adds no reading of his character.

• Verses 18 and 83. Jacob's answer about the shirt is "comely patience" (verse 18), and the same words return in verse 83.
• Verses 22 and 90. Verse 22 ends, "Thus We reward the good". Verse 90 says that "Allah does not lose the wages of the kindly".
• Verses 51 and 53. Verse 51 has the woman say, "Now the truth is out". Verse 53 says that the soul "enjoins to evil, except that whereon my Lord has mercy".
• Verse 111. Verse 111 says "there is a lesson for men of understanding", and "It is no invented story".

Where does the Quran stop?