The Story of Joseph: Comparing Two Accounts

The Story of Joseph: Comparing two Accounts

While most people in the West know the story of Joseph as a religious text from the book of Genesis and the Tanakh, it is crucial to realize that it is also a very important part of the Islamic faith when studying Western religion. In the Koran, the story of Joseph is also told, however it yields a different meaning. The two different accounts of the story of Joseph in chapters 37 and 39 through 50 of the book of Genesis and in Surah 12 of the Koran both tell the same story of Joseph, but the significance of each telling is different for every religion. By reading the two different accounts of the story, one can gain a clear and knowledgeable understanding of what is regarded as important to the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faith.

To appreciate the profound significance of the story of Joseph to the Koran, it is necessary to understand something of the nature of the Koran itself. Although the Islamic faith accepts some of the bible and Torah to be true in some accounts, Muslims believe that the Koran is the actual spoken word of God or dialogues between Muhammad and the voice of God. The Bible and Torah are believed to be corrupted due to the many translations and alterations of the texts and therefore they are not pure and are believed to be false or untrue in many accounts. Muhammad executed the physical writing of the text, however the popular belief is that God was telling Muhammad what to write. Therefore, the Koran is the most authentic voice of God in every way, shape, and form; hence the countless number of differences in the details of the stories. Virtually every major detail is changed or twisted in the Koran's telling of the tale. This makes for a great comparison of the beliefs between Judaism and Christianity on one hand, with Islam on the other.

With the beginning of Islam in 622 C.E. the story of Joseph became a very important part of the Manifestation of God through the profit Muhammad. The story in the Islamic text is regarded as "Ahsan al-Qisas," or the "best of stories." This shows the overall importance of the story to Islam, as opposed to the Old Testament, which makes little indication of the story of Joseph being divine among the others. As is the case in the Old Testament, the story of Joseph was a lengthy part of the Koran, however, the points that are emphasized by the Koran are utterly different than that of the Old Testament. It is a reinterpretation of the Christian laws and beliefs which were interpreted from the Jewish laws and beliefs.

In the Koran's version of the story, Joseph acts as a guide to everyone he comes in contact with. Although this parallels the Old Testament's version, the way and direction that Joseph guides people to is different. The need to spread monotheism to everyone is the underlying theme in the Koran. This comes about in many cases of the story, one example being the interpretation of the dreams of the prisoners in the jail. This serves as one of the key differences in the two accounts. Here, Joseph takes advantage of the opportunity to spread monotheism:

Fellow prisoners! Are a sundry of gods better than God, the One who concurs all? Those you serve Him are nothing but names but you and your fathers have devised and for which God has revealed no sanction? Judgment rests only with God. He has commanded you to worship none but him. That is the true faith: yet most men do not know it (Surah 12:39).

The interpretation of the dreams of food that Joseph gives shows how one prisoner has chosen to fallow monotheism and has a spiritual death while the other decides on polytheism and does not. Joseph goes on to tell the errors of polytheism.

In the case of the Old Testament the interpretation of the two dreams deals with the prosperity. It provides little significance other than Joseph's ability to interpret dreams. This is exemplified when he predicts the butler returning his service to the Pharaoh and the baker dying. The ability for Joseph to interpret dreams is due to God's favoring of him; nothing else. He does not preach the importance to follow one God. This would provide as a detrimental example of how Islam reinterpreted the meaning of the story and how the Bible has been corrupted.

The interpretation of the Pharaoh's dreams yields the same result. In the Old Testament's version of the story, the Pharaoh dreamed first of seven fat cows and seven lean cows that came out of the river, then