'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted and glorious is He: ﴿My Lord, You have given me of the kingdom and taught me of the interpretation of dreams. Creator of the heavens and the earth, You are my protector in this world and the Hereafter. Cause me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous.﴾ ﴿That is from the news of the unseen, which We reveal to you. And you were not with them when they conspired their affair, and they were scheming.﴾ Ibn Mas'ud read: 'You have given me' and 'You have taught me' by omitting the 'ya' for ease. Ibn Dharr alone read: 'My Lord, You have given me' without 'You have'. Many of the commentators mentioned that when Yusuf, peace be upon him, enumerated in this verse the blessings of Allah upon him, he longed for the meeting with his Lord and the meeting with the great ones among the righteous of his predecessors and others from the believers. He saw that the entire world is little, so he wished for death in his saying: ﴿Cause me to die as a Muslim and join me with the righteous.﴾ Ibn Abbas said: 'No prophet wished for death except Yusuf.' Al-Mahdawi mentioned another interpretation - which is stronger in my view - that there is no wishing for death in the verse. Rather, Yusuf, peace be upon him, enumerated the blessings of Allah upon him, then he prayed that Allah complete the blessings upon him for the rest of his life, meaning: Cause me to die - when my time comes - upon Islam, and make my joining with the righteous. He only wished for the meeting upon Islam, not for death. It has been reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he said: 'None of you should wish for death due to a harm that has befallen him...' the hadith in its entirety. It has also been narrated from him, peace be upon him, that he said in some of his supplications: 'And if You intend a trial for the people, then take me to You without being tried.' It has been narrated from Umar ibn al-Khattab that he said: 'O Allah, my bones have become weak, and my desire has diminished, so cause me to die without being deficient or incapable.' Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: It seems that the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: 'due to a harm that has befallen him' refers to worldly harm such as poverty and illness and the like. The wishing for death out of fear of corruption in religion remains permissible. This is indicated by the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: 'There will come a time upon the people when a man will pass by the grave of another man and say: I wish I were in his place, not because of religion, but because of what he sees of trials and tribulations.' His saying: 'not because of religion' implies the permissibility of that if it were due to religion. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, mentioned the state of the people and how it would be. And his saying: ﴿You have given me of the kingdom﴾, it was said: 'of' is for partitive, and it was said: for indicating the type. Likewise, in his saying: ﴿of the interpretation of dreams﴾, the intended meaning of his saying: 'the dreams' refers to the dreams, and it was said: the stories of the prophets and nations. And his saying: 'Creator' is in the vocative, and his saying: ﴿You are my protector﴾ means the one who is responsible for my affairs, the one who is capable of supporting me and having mercy on me.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿That is of the news of the unseen﴾. "That" is a reference to what has preceded from the story of Yusuf. This verse is an allusion to Quraysh and a reminder of the truth of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and within that is a criticism of his deniers. The pronoun in "with them" refers back to the brothers of Yusuf, and likewise the pronouns in the rest of the verse. "They agreed" means: they resolved and determined, and "the matter" here is throwing Yusuf into the well, and "the plot" is to devise a plan against a person that harms and hurts him. The deceit is to act towards a person and say to him what necessitates that he does an action that brings him harm. Al-Tabari reported from Abu Imran al-Jawni that he said: "By Allah, Allah did not narrate their story to disgrace them with that. Indeed, they are prophets from the people of Paradise, but Allah narrated their story to us so that His servants do not despair."