Yusuf: The Most Beautiful of Stories

Yusuf dreams that the sun, the moon, and eleven stars are bowing down to him. He tells his father Yaqub, who understands immediately what the dream means: God has chosen this boy. Yaqub warns him not to tell his brothers — envy is a knife that cuts before it is drawn.

The brothers are not subtle. They arrange to take Yusuf on an excursion and throw him into a well. They bring his shirt, stained with sheep's blood, to their father. Yaqub weeps until his eyes go white, but he says: God is the best of helpers.

From the well, Yusuf is pulled up by a caravan and sold in Egypt. He enters the household of al-Aziz, a great official, and God is with him in everything he does. Then the wife of al-Aziz — called Zulaykha in the exegetical tradition — desires him. She locks the doors. Come to me. Yusuf refuses: God forbid! He is my lord who has given me a good home. Those who do wrong do not prosper. She pursues him; he runs toward the door; she tears his shirt from behind.

Al-Aziz arrives at the door. The evidence of the torn shirt — torn from behind, not the front — exonerates Yusuf and convicts the wife. But she spreads the story through the city anyway: the Hebrew slave has attempted to seduce her. When the women of the city hear this and mock her, she invites them to a banquet and gives each a knife and an orange. When Yusuf enters the room, they cut their own hands, staring. God forbid, they say. This is no mortal man. This is none but a noble angel.

Al-Aziz has him imprisoned anyway — it is easier. In prison, Yusuf interprets dreams. Word reaches Pharaoh's court. He is summoned, interprets seven years of plenty followed by seven of famine, and is elevated to oversee Egypt's grain stores. His brothers come, needing grain. They bow before him. The sun, the moon, and the stars have aligned exactly as the dream said.

Yusuf does not immediately reveal himself — he tests his brothers, watching for signs of the change his suffering required. When it comes, he weeps and says what he must say: I am Yusuf. God has been gracious to us. Whoever is God-fearing and patient — God does not allow the reward of those who do good to be lost.