The Story Of Joseph: Comparing Two Accounts

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The Story of Joseph: Comparing two Accounts

While most people in the West know the story of Joseph as a religious text from the book of Genesis and the Tanakh, it is crucial to realize that it is also a very important part of the Islamic faith when studying Western religion. In the Koran, the story of Joseph is also told, however it yields a different meaning. The two different accounts of the story of Joseph in chapters 37 and 39 through 50 of the book of Genesis and in Surah 12 of the Koran both tell the same story of Joseph, but the significance of each telling is different for every religion. By reading the two different accounts of the story, one can gain a clear and knowledgeable understanding of what is regarded as important to the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faith.

To appreciate the profound significance of the story of Joseph to the Koran, it is necessary to understand something of the nature of the Koran itself. Although the Islamic faith accepts some of the bible and Torah to be true in some accounts, Muslims believe that the Koran is the actual spoken word of God or dialogues between Muhammad and the voice of God. The Bible and Torah are believed to be corrupted due to the many translations and alterations of the texts and therefore they are not pure and are believed to be false or untrue in many accounts. Muhammad executed the physical writing of the text, however the popular belief is that God was telling Muhammad what to write. Therefore, the Koran is the most authentic voice of God in every way, shape, and form; hence the countless number of differences in the details of the stories. Virtually every major detail is changed or twisted in the Koran's telling of the tale. This makes for a great comparison of the beliefs between Judaism and Christianity on one hand, with Islam on the other.

With the beginning of Islam in 622 C.E. the story of Joseph became a very important part of the Manifestation of God through the profit Muhammad. The story in the Islamic text is regarded as "Ahsan al-Qisas," or the "best of stories." This shows the overall importance of the story to Islam, as opposed to the Old Testament, which makes little indication of the story of Joseph being divine among the others.

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