who fear Him, as the Most High said:

“Thus it was, so that We might turn evil and immorality away from him. Indeed, he was one of Our chosen servants.”

He was thus among Allah’s chosen servants, of whom Allah Most High said:

“Indeed, you have no authority over My servants.”

For this reason, Joseph, the man of unwavering truthfulness, committed no sin whatsoever. Even the inclination he felt was recorded for him as a good deed when he abandoned it for Allah’s sake. This is why Allah, glorified be He, did not mention any repentance or seeking of forgiveness on his part, as He mentioned the repentance of prophets such as Adam, David, Noah, and others. Yet He did not mention any indecent act on the part of those prophets either—all praise belongs to Allah. Rather, they repented of other matters that would count as good deeds in the case of others.

Thus, no one is known to have equalled Joseph in the inducements to immorality with which he was tested, or in his fear of Allah and steadfastness amid that trial. What is known of others falls short of this, as in the report in the two Sahīh collections, in which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Seven will be shaded by Allah beneath the shade of His Throne on the Day when there is no shade but His: a just ruler; a young man who grew up worshipping Allah; a man whose heart remains attached to the mosque from the time he leaves it until he returns; two men who love one another for Allah’s sake, meeting and parting upon that love; a man whom a woman of rank and beauty invites to herself, but who says, ‘I fear Allah’; a man who remembers Allah in solitude and whose eyes overflow with tears; and a man who gives charity so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand spends.”

If his patient endurance of harm in order not to commit an indecent act was greater than his patient endurance of his brothers’ wrongdoing, then what of the messengers’ patient endurance of the harm inflicted by those who rejected them, so as not to abandon their appointed task of calling them to worship Allah alone, enjoining what is right upon them, and forbidding them from