The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 12. Yusuf: Joseph

Summary only - full text stays on its own separately-gated source. Read the full text at the source »

This is Surah Yusuf (Chapter 12: Joseph) from M.M. Pickthall's 1930 English translation of the Quran, *The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân* — a rendering deliberately aimed at preserving the elevated, archaic register of the original Arabic. The chapter retells the biblical story of Joseph (Yusuf): his brothers' jealousy leads them to cast him into a pit, he is sold into slavery in Egypt, falsely accused of seducing his master's wife, imprisoned, and ultimately rises to power by interpreting Pharaoh's dream of seven fat and seven lean cows as predicting years of plenty followed by famine. A distinctive Quranic framing runs throughout — the narrator is Allah addressing the Prophet Muhammad directly, presenting the Joseph story as "the best of narratives" and an explicit sign of divine sovereignty, not merely a moral tale. The chapter emphasizes Joseph's consistent piety and self-restraint as the mechanism of divine favor, and repeatedly interrupts the narrative with theological commentary (on monotheism, predestination, and the limits of human knowledge) in ways that differ markedly from the Genesis account. The text breaks off mid-story before the brothers' full recognition scene and Jacob's reunion with Joseph.

The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 12. Yusuf: Joseph

Related pages View as graph →