بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
الٓر ۚ تِلْكَ ءَايَٰتُ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ ٱلْمُبِينِ
Aif, Lam, Ra. These are the signs of the Manifest Book.
إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَٰهُ قُرْءَٰنًا عَرَبِيًّۭا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
Indeed We have sent it down as an Arabic Quran so that you may exercise your reason.
نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ ٱلْقَصَصِ بِمَآ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَيْكَ هَٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانَ وَإِن كُنتَ مِن قَبْلِهِۦ لَمِنَ ٱلْغَٰفِلِينَ
We will recount to you the best of narratives in what We have revealed to you of this Quran, and indeed prior to it you were among those who are unaware [of it].
إِذْ قَالَ يُوسُفُ لِأَبِيهِ يَٰٓأَبَتِ إِنِّى رَأَيْتُ أَحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوْكَبًۭا وَٱلشَّمْسَ وَٱلْقَمَرَ رَأَيْتُهُمْ لِى سَٰجِدِينَ
When Joseph said to his father, ‘Father! I saw eleven planets, and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrating themselves before me,’
قَالَ يَٰبُنَىَّ لَا تَقْصُصْ رُءْيَاكَ عَلَىٰٓ إِخْوَتِكَ فَيَكِيدُوا۟ لَكَ كَيْدًا ۖ إِنَّ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنَ لِلْإِنسَٰنِ عَدُوٌّۭ مُّبِينٌۭ
he said, ‘My son, do not recount your dream to your brothers, lest they should devise schemes against you. Satan is indeed man’s manifest enemy.
وَكَذَٰلِكَ يَجْتَبِيكَ رَبُّكَ وَيُعَلِّمُكَ مِن تَأْوِيلِ ٱلْأَحَادِيثِ وَيُتِمُّ نِعْمَتَهُۥ عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَىٰٓ ءَالِ يَعْقُوبَ كَمَآ أَتَمَّهَا عَلَىٰٓ أَبَوَيْكَ مِن قَبْلُ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ وَإِسْحَٰقَ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌۭ
That is how your Lord will choose you, and teach you the interpretation of dreams, and complete His blessing upon you and upon the house of Jacob, just as He completed it earlier for your fathers, Abraham and Isaac. Your Lord is indeed all-knowing and all-wise.’
۞ لَّقَدْ كَانَ فِى يُوسُفَ وَإِخْوَتِهِۦٓ ءَايَٰتٌۭ لِّلسَّآئِلِينَ
In Joseph and his brothers there are certainly signs for the seekers.
إِذْ قَالُوا۟ لَيُوسُفُ وَأَخُوهُ أَحَبُّ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِينَا مِنَّا وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ إِنَّ أَبَانَا لَفِى ضَلَٰلٍۢ مُّبِينٍ
When they said, ‘Surely Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than [the rest of] us, though we are a hardy band. Our father is indeed in manifest error.’
ٱقْتُلُوا۟ يُوسُفَ أَوِ ٱطْرَحُوهُ أَرْضًۭا يَخْلُ لَكُمْ وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ وَتَكُونُوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ قَوْمًۭا صَٰلِحِينَ
‘Kill Joseph or cast him away into some [distant] land, so that your father’s attention may be exclusively towards you, and thereafter you may become a righteous lot.’
قَالَ قَآئِلٌۭ مِّنْهُمْ لَا تَقْتُلُوا۟ يُوسُفَ وَأَلْقُوهُ فِى غَيَٰبَتِ ٱلْجُبِّ يَلْتَقِطْهُ بَعْضُ ٱلسَّيَّارَةِ إِن كُنتُمْ فَٰعِلِينَ
One of them said, ‘Do not kill Joseph, but cast him into the recess of a well so that some caravan may pick him up, if you are to do [anything].’
قَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَبَانَا مَا لَكَ لَا تَأْمَ۫نَّا عَلَىٰ يُوسُفَ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَنَٰصِحُونَ
They said, ‘Father! Why is it that you do not trust us with Joseph? We are indeed his well-wishers.
أَرْسِلْهُ مَعَنَا غَدًۭا يَرْتَعْ وَيَلْعَبْ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَٰفِظُونَ
Let him go with us tomorrow so that he may eat lots of fruits and play, and we will indeed take [good] care of him.’
قَالَ إِنِّى لَيَحْزُنُنِىٓ أَن تَذْهَبُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَأَخَافُ أَن يَأْكُلَهُ ٱلذِّئْبُ وَأَنتُمْ عَنْهُ غَٰفِلُونَ
He said, ‘It really upsets me that you should take him away, and I fear the wolf may eat him while you are oblivious of him.’
قَالُوا۟ لَئِنْ أَكَلَهُ ٱلذِّئْبُ وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ إِنَّآ إِذًۭا لَّخَٰسِرُونَ
They said, ‘Should the wolf eat him while we are a hardy band, then we will indeed be losers!’
فَلَمَّا ذَهَبُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَأَجْمَعُوٓا۟ أَن يَجْعَلُوهُ فِى غَيَٰبَتِ ٱلْجُبِّ ۚ وَأَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَيْهِ لَتُنَبِّئَنَّهُم بِأَمْرِهِمْ هَٰذَا وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
So when they took him away and conspired to put him into the recess of a well, We revealed to him, ‘[A day will come when] you will surely inform them about this affair of theirs while they are not aware [of your identity].’
وَجَآءُوٓ أَبَاهُمْ عِشَآءًۭ يَبْكُونَ
In the evening, they came weeping to their father.
قَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَبَانَآ إِنَّا ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقُ وَتَرَكْنَا يُوسُفَ عِندَ مَتَٰعِنَا فَأَكَلَهُ ٱلذِّئْبُ ۖ وَمَآ أَنتَ بِمُؤْمِنٍۢ لَّنَا وَلَوْ كُنَّا صَٰدِقِينَ
They said, ‘Father! We had gone racing and left Joseph with our things, whereat the wolf ate him. But you will not believe us even if we spoke truly.’
وَجَآءُو عَلَىٰ قَمِيصِهِۦ بِدَمٍۢ كَذِبٍۢ ۚ قَالَ بَلْ سَوَّلَتْ لَكُمْ أَنفُسُكُمْ أَمْرًۭا ۖ فَصَبْرٌۭ جَمِيلٌۭ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ ٱلْمُسْتَعَانُ عَلَىٰ مَا تَصِفُونَ
And they produced sham blood on his shirt. He said, ‘No, your souls have made a matter seem decorous to you. Yet patience is graceful, and Allah is my resort against what you allege.’
وَجَآءَتْ سَيَّارَةٌۭ فَأَرْسَلُوا۟ وَارِدَهُمْ فَأَدْلَىٰ دَلْوَهُۥ ۖ قَالَ يَٰبُشْرَىٰ هَٰذَا غُلَٰمٌۭ ۚ وَأَسَرُّوهُ بِضَٰعَةًۭ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌۢ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ
There came a caravan, and they sent their water-drawer, who let down his bucket. ‘Good news!’ he said. ‘This is a young boy!’ So they hid him as [a piece of] merchandise, and Allah knew best what they were doing.
وَشَرَوْهُ بِثَمَنٍۭ بَخْسٍۢ دَرَٰهِمَ مَعْدُودَةٍۢ وَكَانُوا۟ فِيهِ مِنَ ٱلزَّٰهِدِينَ
And they sold him for a cheap price, a few dirhams, for they set small store by him.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Sources present for this passage: Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ al-Bayān; Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān; Baḥrānī, al-Burhān; al-Qummī, Tafsīr al-Qummī; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān; An Enlightening Commentary. All six speak to these verses.
The frame: "the best of narratives" (1–3). All the philological sources note that Alif Lām Rāʾ is not counted a separate verse (only two letters, unlike Ṭā Hā), and that "the Manifest Book" is the Arabic Qurʾān that "makes manifest" God's lawful and forbidden (Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, citing Mujāhid and Qatāda). al-Mīzān supplies the governing theme that organizes the whole sūra: it is the disclosure of God's guardianship (wilāya) over the servant who has purified his faith for Him — God Himself takes charge of Joseph, "giving him life from the very causes that drove him toward ruin." Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī add that "the best of narratives" is so called for its unmatched eloquence and because Joseph's story alone is told in full; al-Mīzān stresses it recounts "a tale of love in the chastest, most veiling way." Both Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī draw from the verse the theological point that God's speech is originated (muḥdath), since it is described as "sent down" and "Arabic."
The dream (4–6). The four narrative and Arabic sources agree the eleven stars are the brothers and the sun and moon the parents (Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī; al-Qummī and al-Burhān, via Abū al-Jārūd from al-Bāqir, identify the sun as Joseph's mother Rāḥīl and the moon as Jacob, the brothers prostrating "in thanksgiving to God"). al-Mīzān notes the prostration is rendered with the form proper to rational beings, signaling it was "by knowledge and will," and reads it — with the interpreters who call it honoring, not worship — as the family taking Joseph only as a qibla, intending God alone. On ijtibāʾ ("your Lord will choose you"), al-Mīzān explains it as God's "gathering" the servant and reserving him for Himself, and treats taʾwīl al-aḥādīth as broader than dream-reading: the interpretation of the realities to which events return. Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, al-Qummī, and al-Burhān all transmit that Joseph saw the dream at about nine years old.
The envy and the plot (7–10). On "our father is in manifest error," Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, and al-Mīzān converge: the brothers meant error of worldly judgment, not religion — for they were believers (shown by "you will be a righteous people"). al-Mīzān argues this at length and, with Ṭūsī ("this is our doctrine"), holds the brothers were not prophets but sons of prophets who later repented — citing Ibn Bābawayh's report from al-Bāqir, which al-Burhān also carries. al-Qummī and al-Burhān name Lāwī (Levi) as the one who forbade killing ("let us remove him, not kill him"); Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī add the alternatives Reuben and Judah.
Deceiving Jacob; the well; the sale (11–20). The narration sources give the passage its color. al-Burhān and al-Mīzān both transmit the long Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn report that Jacob's trial began when he failed to feed a fasting stranger at his door — God warning that "trial comes faster to My friends than to My enemies." al-Qummī and al-Burhān recount Joseph stripped of his shirt, his cry in the well ("O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have mercy on my weakness"), and Gabriel's descent teaching him the supplication for relief; al-Burhān adds Gabriel's threefold rescue of Abraham, Ishmael, and Joseph. al-Mīzān reads the omitted apodosis of "when they… put him in the well" as an eloquent silence over a deed too dreadful to utter, and expounds "you shall surely inform them" as Joseph's future disclosure (12:89) — "while they do not perceive" that he is Joseph. On the false-blood shirt, al-Qummī and al-Burhān (Abū al-Jārūd) report the brothers slaughtered a kid; Jacob's remark that the "wolf" was strangely tender to the shirt recurs across Ṭabarsī, al-Qummī, and al-Burhān. al-Mīzān draws from the whole the principle that "falsehood does not prosper," for the unbroken shirt betrayed their lie. On Jacob's "comely patience," al-Mīzān distinguishes patience (inner steadfastness) from reliance (tawakkul), noting he named his Lord rather than himself. On the price (v 20), al-Qummī and al-Burhān transmit, from al-Riḍā and al-Bāqir, eighteen or twenty dirhams — "the value of a hunting dog" — while the Enlightening Commentary supplies the published English narrative of these events.