12. Yusuf

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.

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]’).