the gravest instances of urging evil. As for Joseph, peace and blessings be upon him, if his soul was not among those shown mercy and spared from persistently urging evil, then no soul has been shown mercy. Whoever reflects on Joseph’s story knows that the mercy he received, through having evil and indecency turned away from him, was among the greatest imaginable. Otherwise, Allah would not have mentioned it in the Quran and made it a lesson. Every righteous person, great or small, has a soul that, if tested by such inducements, would be less likely to receive mercy than Joseph’s.

On this assumption, if Joseph’s soul was not shown mercy, then no soul has been shown mercy. All souls would therefore persistently urge evil, contrary to what the Quran states.

No weight should be given to the story related about Muslim ibn Yasār: a Bedouin woman invited him to have relations with her while they were in the desert. He refused and wept. His brother arrived while he was weeping and began to weep too. The woman also wept and left. Muslim then slept and saw Joseph in his dream, who said:

“I am Joseph, who entertained the thought, and you are Muslim, who did not.”

Someone hearing this story might suppose that Muslim’s spiritual state was more perfect. This is ignorance, for two reasons:

The first is that Muslim was not under the control of the woman seeking to seduce him. She had no authority over him, nor did she have the power to falsely accuse him and enlist the women’s help