Yusuf · Makki · ayah 46 of 111

Yusuf 12:46

يُوسُفُ أَيُّهَا ٱلصِّدِّيقُ أَفْتِنَا فِى سَبْعِ بَقَرَٰتٍ سِمَانٍ يَأْكُلُهُنَّ سَبْعٌ عِجَافٌ وَسَبْعِ سُنۢبُلَـٰتٍ خُضْرٍ وَأُخَرَ يَابِسَـٰتٍ لَّعَلِّىٓ أَرْجِعُ إِلَى ٱلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

“[He said], "Joseph, O man of truth, explain to us about seven fat cows eaten by seven [that were] lean, and seven green spikes [of grain] and others [that were] dry - that I may return to the people [i.e., the king and his court]; perhaps they will know [about you]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The cupbearer returns to the cell and calls Yusuf by a title no one has given him before: O ṣiddīq, true through and through.

A reflection

Not flattery: a title earned in a cell

Read quickly, the opening sounds like a man buttering up someone he needs. He has forgotten Yusuf for years, and now he arrives with a compliment.

The commentaries read it as something firmer. He called him this, one says, because he had tasted Yusuf's ways and known his truth. Both dreams had come out exactly as he had read them. Another gives two reasons: he had never caught him in a lie, and his interpretation had proved true. A third adds that he had seen it over the whole time they were in prison together.

So this is not a compliment. It is testimony.

The word is an intensive form. The root's oldest picture is a spear shaft that is sound and straight through, that does not snap when it is put to the test. A ṣiddīq is not someone who tells the truth when convenient. It is someone who is true all the way through, habitually.

In a small town there is a corner shop that everyone calls the honest shop. Ask why, and people tell the same story. Years ago the owner ran down the street after a child who had left without his change. Nobody gave the shop that name. It was earned, one act at a time, and it stuck.

In the Qur'an this exact title is given to three individual men. Ibrahim and Idris are called ṣiddīq by Allah (19:41, 19:56). Yusuf is called it by a cupbearer.

What Yusuf was in that prison, a servant who had every reason to forget him could not deny.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.