Yusuf · Makki · ayah 41 of 111

Yusuf 12:41

يَـٰصَـٰحِبَىِ ٱلسِّجْنِ أَمَّآ أَحَدُكُمَا فَيَسْقِى رَبَّهُۥ خَمْرًا ۖ وَأَمَّا ٱلْـَٔاخَرُ فَيُصْلَبُ فَتَأْكُلُ ٱلطَّيْرُ مِن رَّأْسِهِۦ ۚ قُضِىَ ٱلْأَمْرُ ٱلَّذِى فِيهِ تَسْتَفْتِيَانِ

“O two companions of prison, as for one of you, he will give drink to his master of wine; but as for the other, he will be crucified, and the birds will eat from his head. The matter has been decreed about which you both inquire."”

Saheeh International

Essence

One will pour wine for his master, the other will be crucified: Yusuf gives life and death in one sentence, naming neither man.

A reflection

One of you, and the other

The familiar memory of this ayah is a verdict. One lives, one dies, as if Yusuf read out a sentence like a clerk.

Listen to how it is actually phrased. As for one of you, he will pour wine for his master. As for the other, he will be crucified.

Neither man is named. Two commentaries draw attention to this. One says Yusuf did not specify which of them would die, so that the man would not be grieved. Another says he left it unnamed, trusting the dreams to make it clear, and out of courtesy to their companionship.

Of course both men knew. Each remembered his own dream. But there is a difference between working out bad news and having it pointed at you. Yusuf left the doomed man the dignity of arriving at it himself.

And notice the order. The good news comes first. One reported version even has him beginning: how good is what you saw. Only then the other.

A football coach has to announce a squad. He reads out the names who made it, to the whole group, and finds the others afterwards, one by one, in the corridor. The facts are identical either way. The cost to a young player's pride is not.

Yusuf's tact did not soften the truth. Crucified is not a soft word, and he did not replace it with a gentler one. What he softened was the delivery. Hard truths can be told without being hurled.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.