yet their affair eventually culminated in sincere, wholehearted repentance and full confession(1), complete pardon from both Joseph and their father, and prayers that Allah forgive them and show them mercy.

When a servant himself waives his right(2), Allah is even more entitled to do so; He is the best of those who show mercy and forgive. Hence, according to the soundest view, Allah elevated them to the rank of prophets, wiping out what had preceded as though it had never been, in keeping with His words: “and what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes” (2:136)—the Tribes being Jacob’s twelve sons and their descendants. Supporting this, too, is Joseph’s dream in which they appeared as stars that emit light and guidance, traits characteristic of prophets. Should they not have been prophets, then they were at least scholars devoted to worship.

• Among the lessons is what Allah granted Joseph of knowledge, forbearance, flawless character, his call to Allah and to His religion, and his pardoning of his erring brothers with a forgiveness he offered them proactively—then perfecting it by telling them, “There will be no reproach(3) on you today.” Added to this are his profound devotion to his father and mother, his generosity toward his brothers, and his beneficence to people at large, all of which is plain from his conduct and life story.

• Another lesson is that some evils are lighter than others, and that choosing the lesser of two harms is preferable to committing the greater. When Joseph’s brothers said, “Kill Joseph or cast him away to some distant land” (12:9), but one of them proposed, “Do not kill Joseph; throw him into the bottom of the well so that some travelers may pick him up—if you are going to do anything” (12:10), his suggestion was better and less serious than theirs. Because of it, his brothers were spared the greater sin, and it became one of the causes Allah had decreed for Joseph to attain the goal he sought.