Joseph in Islam

Yusuf in the Quran

Yusuf has something no other prophet in the Quran has: a chapter to himself, told once, in order, from beginning to end. Surah Yusuf, the twelfth chapter, opens by calling itself ahsan al-qasas, the most beautiful of stories, and then gives the dream, the brothers, the well, the caravan, Egypt, the accusation, the prison, the famine and the reunion without interruption.

The Quranic telling is more interior than the Genesis account. It lingers on the moment the women of the city cut their hands, on Yaqub going blind from grief, and on Yusuf choosing prison over what was being asked of him. When the brothers finally stand in front of him he says only that there will be no reproach on them today.

Yusuf is also the name Islamic tradition attaches to beauty. A hadith describes him as having been given a share of it, and Persian and Urdu poetry has spent a thousand years using his name as the measure.

Using the name

The full entry for Yusuf carries the Arabic spelling, the Urdu, the pronunciation, the lucky number and the letter-by-letter Ilm ul Huroof reading, along with every romanisation the name is written in.

Open the full Yusuf page →

Questions about Joseph and Yusuf

Other names the two traditions share

Every one of these is one figure under two names.

Or start from the full list of Biblical names in Islam.