The Best of Stories

Sūrat Yūsuf says: We shall tell you the best of stories, the most excellent of stories.

How is Sūrat Yūsuf the most excellent of stories? For a great many reasons. It is full of so many aspects by which we may benefit. Where it has lessons it has counsel; and probably no other single story has so many things gathered in one place. No other story in the Qur'an has so many things in one place. It is so comprehensive that it treats of the following — and these may be looked for, since there is no going into detail here.

One thing about Sūrat Yūsuf is that there is no point going into the whole story in detail, since most people, down to the children, know the story of Yūsuf (peace be upon him). It is a biblical story too — except that in the biblical version he had a special coat, and that is what the jealousy is about, whereas in the Qur'an it is a different matter, as will be explained. These, at any rate, are the contrasting ideas to be found in Sūrat Yūsuf, which, if written down, may be looked for when the sūrah is read for oneself, in shāʾ Allāh.

In it, then, is the discussion of the dīn, and of the dunyā. There is the discussion of tawḥīd, the oneness of Allah; of fiqh — various points of jurisprudence are to be found in it. There is a sīrah in it, a biography of the Prophet. There is a discussion of dreams, subḥānAllāh. There is politics; there is command and rule, and there are indications towards it. Then there is a great deal of feeling in it: for one who wants a story of the emotions, there are the emotions of Yūsuf (peace be upon him) and of the ʿAzīz and Potiphar's wife — a great many emotional matters are there. There is the discussion of the social scene; of wealth; of hardship and of drought. There is beauty in it — it has its aesthetics; there is beauty, Yūsuf (peace be upon him) being the most beautiful, and people falling for him. There is the discussion of love and ʿishq. There is the discussion of abstinence from the world, and of taqwā; of prophets and of righteous people; Shayṭān is mentioned in it; human beings, plainly, are mentioned; an animal is mentioned in it, and vegetation, and leaders and kings; business people are mentioned — the traders who picked him up and sold him; the knowledgeable and the ignorant. All of that is there.

SubḥānAllāh, then there are the discussions of the womenfolk — a certain cast of mind among them, their talk among themselves, their being struck by beauty, and all of that. There is also the wish to withdraw into isolation and be unknown; and, plainly, the matter of becoming well known, of becoming a stranger, of being banished from one's city and having to leave. There is wealth, honour, ṣabr, patience, firmness and desire. All these feelings are in it.