The Quran

Preface

يا صاحِبَيِ السِّجنِ أَمّا أَحَدُكُما فَيَسقي رَبَّهُ خَمرًا ۖ وَأَمَّا الآخَرُ فَيُصلَبُ فَتَأكُلُ الطَّيرُ مِن رَأسِهِ ۚ قُضِيَ الأَمرُ الَّذي فيهِ تَستَفتِيانِ

Yusuf Ali

“O my two companions¹ of the prison! As to one of you, he will pour out the wine for his lord to drink:² as for the other, he will hang from the cross, and the birds will eat from off his head³. (So) hath been decreed that matter whereof ye twain do enquire”...

Having fulfilled his great duty, that touching the things of the spirit, Joseph now passes on, and comes to the things in which they were immediately interested-the questions which they had asked him about their dreams and what they prognosticated of their immediate future. Notice how Joseph again puts himself into sympathy with them by repeating the phrase of camaraderie, “my two companions of the prison!” For one he has good news, and for the other, bad news. He does not mince matters or waste words. He just barely tells the truth, hoping that the higher spiritual truths of which he has spoken will appear in their eyes, too, as of more importance than mere earthly triumphs or disasters? (in Kipling’s words) “both impostors all the same.”
The cupbearer had perhaps been proved innocent of the crime which had been charged against him, and was to be restored to the favour of the King. He was to carry the cup and be the king’s confidant again. How much more good he could do now, after the spiritual influence he had imbibed from Joseph, the Prophet of God! He was more fortunate in having had Joseph’s company than in being restored to his intimate position with the king! Yet he was not a perfect man, as we shall see presently.
For the baker, alas! he had bad news, and he tells it directly without tantalising him. Perhaps he had been found guilty?perhaps he had been really guilty?of some act of embezzlement or of joining in some palace intrigue, and he was to die a malefactor’s death on the cross, followed by exposure to birds of the air? vultures pecking away at his eyes and cheeks, and all that had been his face and head! Poor man! If he was guilty, Joseph had taught him repentance, and we should like to think that he lost in this life but gained in the next. If he was innocent, the cruel death did not affect him. Joseph had shown him a higher and more lasting hope in the Hereafter.