وَقَالَ ٱلْمَلِكُ إِنِّىٓ أَرَىٰ سَبْعَ بَقَرَٰتٍۢ سِمَانٍۢ يَأْكُلُهُنَّ سَبْعٌ عِجَافٌۭ وَسَبْعَ سُنۢبُلَٰتٍ خُضْرٍۢ وَأُخَرَ يَابِسَٰتٍۢ ۖ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلْمَلَأُ أَفْتُونِى فِى رُءْيَٰىَ إِن كُنتُمْ لِلرُّءْيَا تَعْبُرُونَ
[One day] the king said, ‘I saw [in a dream] seven fat cows being devoured by seven lean ones, and seven green ears and [seven] others [that were] dry. O courtiers, give me your opinion about my dream, if you can interpret dreams.’
قَالُوٓا۟ أَضْغَٰثُ أَحْلَٰمٍۢ ۖ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَأْوِيلِ ٱلْأَحْلَٰمِ بِعَٰلِمِينَ
They said, ‘[These are] confused nightmares, and we do not know the interpretation of nightmares.’
وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِى نَجَا مِنْهُمَا وَٱدَّكَرَ بَعْدَ أُمَّةٍ أَنَا۠ أُنَبِّئُكُم بِتَأْوِيلِهِۦ فَأَرْسِلُونِ
Said the one of the two who had been delivered, remembering [Joseph] after a long time: ‘I will inform you of its interpretation; so let me go [to meet Joseph in the prison].’
يُوسُفُ أَيُّهَا ٱلصِّدِّيقُ أَفْتِنَا فِى سَبْعِ بَقَرَٰتٍۢ سِمَانٍۢ يَأْكُلُهُنَّ سَبْعٌ عِجَافٌۭ وَسَبْعِ سُنۢبُلَٰتٍ خُضْرٍۢ وَأُخَرَ يَابِسَٰتٍۢ لَّعَلِّىٓ أَرْجِعُ إِلَى ٱلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
‘Joseph,’ [he said], ‘O truthful one, give us your opinion concerning seven fat cows who are eaten by seven lean ones, and seven green ears and [seven] others dry, that I may return to the people so that they may know [the truth of the matter].’
قَالَ تَزْرَعُونَ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ دَأَبًۭا فَمَا حَصَدتُّمْ فَذَرُوهُ فِى سُنۢبُلِهِۦٓ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا مِّمَّا تَأْكُلُونَ
He said, ‘You will sow for seven consecutive years. Then leave in the ear whatever [grain] you harvest, except a little that you eat.
ثُمَّ يَأْتِى مِنۢ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ سَبْعٌۭ شِدَادٌۭ يَأْكُلْنَ مَا قَدَّمْتُمْ لَهُنَّ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا مِّمَّا تُحْصِنُونَ
Then after that there will come seven hard years which will eat up whatever you have set aside for them—all except a little which you preserve [for seed].
ثُمَّ يَأْتِى مِنۢ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ عَامٌۭ فِيهِ يُغَاثُ ٱلنَّاسُ وَفِيهِ يَعْصِرُونَ
Then after that there will come a year wherein the people will be granted relief and provided with rains therein.
وَقَالَ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱئْتُونِى بِهِۦ ۖ فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُ ٱلرَّسُولُ قَالَ ٱرْجِعْ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَسْـَٔلْهُ مَا بَالُ ٱلنِّسْوَةِ ٱلَّٰتِى قَطَّعْنَ أَيْدِيَهُنَّ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى بِكَيْدِهِنَّ عَلِيمٌۭ
The king said, ‘Bring him to me!’ When the messenger came to him, he said, ‘Go back to your master, and ask him about the affair of women who cut their hands. My Lord is indeed well aware of their stratagems.’
قَالَ مَا خَطْبُكُنَّ إِذْ رَٰوَدتُّنَّ يُوسُفَ عَن نَّفْسِهِۦ ۚ قُلْنَ حَٰشَ لِلَّهِ مَا عَلِمْنَا عَلَيْهِ مِن سُوٓءٍۢ ۚ قَالَتِ ٱمْرَأَتُ ٱلْعَزِيزِ ٱلْـَٰٔنَ حَصْحَصَ ٱلْحَقُّ أَنَا۠ رَٰوَدتُّهُۥ عَن نَّفْسِهِۦ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَمِنَ ٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ
The king said, ‘What was your business, women, when you solicited Joseph?’ They said, ‘Heaven be praised! We know of no evil in him.’ The prince’s wife said, ‘Now the truth has come to light! It was I who solicited him, and he is indeed telling the truth.’
ذَٰلِكَ لِيَعْلَمَ أَنِّى لَمْ أَخُنْهُ بِٱلْغَيْبِ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِى كَيْدَ ٱلْخَآئِنِينَ
[Joseph said], [‘I initiated] this [inquiry], that he may know that I did not betray him in his absence, and that Allah does not further the schemes of the treacherous.’
۞ وَمَآ أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِىٓ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلنَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌۢ بِٱلسُّوٓءِ إِلَّا مَا رَحِمَ رَبِّىٓ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ
‘Yet I do not absolve my [own carnal] soul, for the [carnal] soul indeed prompts [men] to evil, except inasmuch as my Lord has mercy. Indeed my Lord is all-forgiving, all-merciful.’
وَقَالَ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱئْتُونِى بِهِۦٓ أَسْتَخْلِصْهُ لِنَفْسِى ۖ فَلَمَّا كَلَّمَهُۥ قَالَ إِنَّكَ ٱلْيَوْمَ لَدَيْنَا مَكِينٌ أَمِينٌۭ
The king said, ‘Bring him to me, I will make him my favourite.’ Then, when he had spoken with him, he said, ‘Indeed today [onwards] you will be honoured and trustworthy with us.’
قَالَ ٱجْعَلْنِى عَلَىٰ خَزَآئِنِ ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ إِنِّى حَفِيظٌ عَلِيمٌۭ
He said, ‘Put me in charge of the country’s granaries. I am indeed fastidious [and]well-informed.’
وَكَذَٰلِكَ مَكَّنَّا لِيُوسُفَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ يَتَبَوَّأُ مِنْهَا حَيْثُ يَشَآءُ ۚ نُصِيبُ بِرَحْمَتِنَا مَن نَّشَآءُ ۖ وَلَا نُضِيعُ أَجْرَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
That is how We established Joseph in the land that he may settle in it wherever he wished. We confer Our mercy on whomever We wish, and We do not waste the reward of the virtuous.
وَلَأَجْرُ ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ خَيْرٌۭ لِّلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَكَانُوا۟ يَتَّقُونَ
And the reward of the Hereafter is surely better for those who have faith and are Godwary.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
What the passage says. The king of Egypt dreams of seven lean cows swallowing seven fat, and seven dry ears choking seven green. His courtiers are baffled; the freed cupbearer remembers Yūsuf, who reads the dream as seven years of plenty followed by seven of famine, then a year of relief — and counsels storing grain in the ear. Summoned, Yūsuf first clears his name, then is set over the storehouses of Egypt.
The dream and the interpretation. The present sources agree on the substance. Ṭūsī and Ṭabarsī identify the dreamer as the king (al-Walīd b. al-Rayyān, with the ʿAzīz his minister) and the courtiers' verdict as "confused dreams (aḍghāth aḥlām)." All four commentaries note that Yūsuf's foretelling of the year of relief — absent from the king's dream — is knowledge of the Unseen and thus a proof of prophethood; al-Balkhī (in Ṭūsī and Ṭabarsī) draws from this that a dream does not simply "follow" whatever interpretation is first offered. On "wa fīhi yaʿṣirūn," Ṭūsī records three readings (pressing grapes/olives, being given milk, being delivered), while al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī's narrations (recorded with the previous passage) preserve Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī's correction to "yuʿṣarūn — they are rained upon," citing "We sent down from the rain-clouds pouring water." The published Enlightening Commentary treats the dream as a lesson in prudent stewardship.
Clearing the name before the throne. Every source dwells on Yūsuf's refusal to leave prison until "the women who cut their hands" are questioned. Ṭabarsī cites the Prophet's own marvel — "had I been in his place I would have hurried out and not sought the excuse; he was truly forbearing." When the women exonerate him and the ʿAzīz's wife confesses, "Now the truth has come to light (ḥaṣḥaṣa al-ḥaqq); I solicited him, and he is truthful," the commentators divide the following words. Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān (with most) read "that he may know I did not betray him in secret… I do not absolve my soul; the soul commands to evil" as Yūsuf's speech; al-Jubbāʾī assigns them to the wife. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī makes this the passage's spiritual center: because Yūsuf is of the sincere (mukhlaṣīn) who see no power but God's, he at once disclaims self-reliance and refers his virtue to his Lord's mercy — "as Shuʿayb said, my success is only through God" — and the thrice-repeated "my Lord" marks that confession; he also argues the summoning king is a person distinct from the ʿAzīz.
Establishment in the land. "Set me over the storehouses of the land; I am a knowing keeper." Ṭūsī derives the ruling that one may take office even under an unjust ruler in order to deliver rights and enact the religion's judgments, since Yūsuf sought authority only to guard wealth and channel it rightly; Ṭabarsī and al-Mīzān frame the appointment as the fulfilment of "thus did We establish Yūsuf in the land." Ṭabarsī and al-Qummī add the concrete aftermath — Yūsuf building granaries, gathering grain through the seven plentiful years and selling through the famine — and Ṭabarsī preserves the narration from al-Riḍā that all Egypt's wealth and people passed into his hand and he then freed them, together with his saying, "I fear that if I eat my fill I shall forget the hungry," and the later reunion with Zulaykhā. The passage closes: "the reward of the Hereafter is better for those who believe and are God-fearing."