O Yūsuf, Man of Truth

The servant was there — the one who poured the king's wine. When the subject of dreams came up, whom did he remember? After a few years, he remembered Yūsuf. Now he remembered.

Then the man who had been released, now at length remembering, said: I will tell you its interpretation, so send me forth. I will tell you the interpretation; let me go, and I will bring you the answer.

So he went to Yūsuf (peace be upon him) and said: Yūsufu ayyuhā al-ṣiddīq — O Yūsuf, man of truth. Glory be to Allah: Allah gave the prophets the quality of truthfulness, and the people knew it. He was called al-Ṣiddīq, the man of truth.

Here this man is narrating the dream to Yūsuf, and Allah relates his narration to us — and he narrates it exactly as the king saw it in the dream. That is important with dreams: if you want a dream interpreted, it has to be narrated exactly as it was seen. So here the man tells the dream exactly as the king told it in the ayah before: seven fat cows devoured by seven weak ones, seven green ears of corn, and seven dry. Tell us its interpretation, so that I may go back and let the people know.