Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
your souls have made a matter seem decorous to you.
Yet patience is graceful,
and Allah is my resort against what you allege.’
19 And there came a caravan,
and they sent their water-drawer,
who let down his bucket.
‘Good news!’ he said. ‘This is a young boy!’
So they hid him as [a piece of] merchandise,
and Allah knew best what they were doing.
20 And they sold him for a cheap price,
a few dirhams,
for they set small store by him.
21 The man from Egypt who had bought him said
to his wife,
‘Give him an honourable place [in the household].1
Maybe he will be useful to us,
or we may adopt him as a son.’
Thus We established Joseph in the land
and that We might teach him
the interpretation of dreams.
Allah has [full] command of His affairs,
but most people do not know.
22 When he came of age,
We gave him judgement and [sacred] knowledge,
and thus do We reward the virtuous.
23 The woman in whose house he was solicited
him.
She closed the doors
1 Or ‘Keep him in a respectable manner.’
