If your name is Yusuf, or Joseph, here's who you're named after.
His surah opens with Allah saying: "We relate to you the best of stories." Then it tells his, from beginning to end. (Quran 12:3)
As a boy, Yusuf dreamed that eleven stars, the sun and the moon bowed down to him. His father, Yaqub, told him not to tell his brothers. (Quran 12:4–5)
His brothers were jealous of how much their father loved him. They threw him into the bottom of a well, and travellers who found him sold him for a few coins. (Quran 12:8–20)
In Egypt he was wronged again, and he chose prison over doing wrong: "My Lord, prison is dearer to me than what they invite me to." (Quran 12:33)
Years later, he was in charge of the storehouses of Egypt when his brothers came asking for food. He knew them. They didn't know him. (Quran 12:55–58)
When at last he told them, "I am Yusuf," and they admitted what they had done, he said:
"No blame on you today. May Allah forgive you. He is the most merciful of the merciful." (Quran 12:90–92)
And the dream came true. (Quran 12:100)
The last verse of his surah is where our name comes from: "In their stories there is truly a lesson for people of understanding." (Quran 12:111)
