Praise be to God! There is no other god except God. In Sura 12, which deals with the story of Joseph, in the beginning of the Sura, God tells us that the story in this Sura is the best story ever in this world. Now, this is not to say that this story is more important than some of the other stories. For example, the stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus are definitely more important and more fundamental, which is why they are mentioned more across the Quran, but the story of Joseph is more beautiful, which is why it is the only long story in the Quran which is told to us in the same Sura from beginning to the end. The others stories are told to us in the Quran in bits and pieces in different parts in the Quran, but the story of Joseph is told to us all in Sura 12 from the beginning to the end, because it is such a beautiful story that God did not want to ruin the flow of this story, which He calls the best story. So, why is this the best story from the compositional point of view. It’s because, it includes almost all genres. It has drama in it, it has action, it has soap opera, especially with the case of the woman who was tempted by the presence of Joseph, it’s a true story, it’s an epic story, it’s an adventure, from the perspective of Joseph and also his brothers, they go through quite an adventures journey. It’s a tragedy from the perspective of the mother of Joseph. She spent most of her life believing that her most beautiful son is dead, and there is a twist of the story at the end, and all good movies have a twist towards the end. It has fantasy, I consider the dream parts, fantasy. It has flashbacks like all good movies, when Joseph remembers his past with his brothers. It has forward hints through the dreams like all good movies. it’s also thriller, for example from the perspective Jacob, you can tell it as a thriller. He did not know what happened with Joseph, so we could make a thriller movie out of it from the perspective of Jacob, and how he tried to figure out whether Joseph was dead or not, and it’s a western in some ways, it happens in the desert, and there is some sort of final duel between the brothers in the end, like they do in westerns.
Now, the only genre which the story of Joseph does not include is comedy, and this is because had this story included comedy in it, it would be against verse 53:60 which says, “Are you laughing, instead of crying?” A believer never finds the Quran funny. It’s not a comedy. It’s not funny. So, except for the comedy genre, the story of Joseph includes all movie genres. And you can take the best movie story writers in the world, and they will never be able to write for you a very good story which includes all genres, because once you jump from one genre to another, it breaks the flow, but the story of Joseph jumps from genre to another genre while keeping the flow perfectly. Recently, with the latest movies, they have been able to combine two or three genres together in some movies, to make them more complete, but they can never include all genres and still keep it a good story. If they did, they would end up with this story actually, the story of Joseph. This story has a beginning, a middle, and an end, as all good stories should, unlike some of the modern movies where they leave the story unresolved. Of course, we enjoy these modern weird movies, only because we have watched too many movies before them, similar to how people enjoy cigarettes, only after they have smoked them many times before. In reality, it does not really taste good. Only after many times, you start enjoying it, after it has deformed your taste earlier. So, the modern movies start to feel good, because our taste has been deformed by the previous movies we have watched. But if someone watches a movie for the first time, the story of Joseph is the best movie he could possible watch. It’s the type of story which humans naturally enjoy. It’s not an acquired taste. We are naturally born with the taste for that type of story.
So, the story of Joseph is the best story which can be told, which is why we enjoy this Sura during the early years when we started reading the Quran. However, later on, once we know the story, we might have a tendency to just skip this story when we read the Quran. We might be like, “I know this story. Why should I read it again?” So, even the best story in the world eventually gets boring.
However, the reality is that the Quran never gets boring because it consists of two parts. The parts which eventually kind off get boring, but we forget those parts mostly, and when we read them again, they seem like new, and we are not bored much. The other parts of the Quran truly never get boring, even if you remember them from before. Even if you already memorized what you are about to read, you would still enjoy it again. After some thinking, we can realize, that these parts of the Quran which never get boring have to do with praising God, glorying God, asking God for forgiveness, asking God for guidance. And we see in a few verses that the angles glorify and praise God, and this is forever. They did it before Adam was created, they do it now, and they will do it after God issues the final judgment. There are angles near God, whose only job is to glorify and sing His praises, forever. That’s their only job, and they never get bored. They always do it with pleasure. So, taking this into consideration, we can see that some parts of the Quran which glorify and praise God, should never feel boring, of course, if we are perfect believers. And if we think more carefully about this, we will realize that the parts of the Quran which never get boring are exactly the parts which we say in our Contact Prayers. We glorify God in our Contact Prayers, we sing his praises, we recite Sura 1, we ask him for guidance, and these things should never bore us, if we are perfect believers. So, we can think of the Contact Prayer as the part of the Quran which never gets boring, even if we lived in this world forever. Nevertheless, because we only live about 100 years in this world, the whole Quran never gets boring. All parts of the Quran are sufficiently interesting for 100 years of life, but if we lived forever, eventually some parts of the Quran, like the story of Joseph would get boring, while the parts which have to do directly with God would never get boring, never.
After all, who wants to hear for example the story of Joseph, when we will be surrounded with beautiful mates, and pure drinks, and all kinds of tasty fruits in Heaven. So, if someone comes to us in Heaven, and tells us. Would you like to hear the story of Joseph? We would probably be like, “Let us have a good time. No offense, Joseph.” However, even in heavenly circumstances, it feels right to praise God, especially because he gave us those things. So, if someone came to us in Heaven, and told us, “Would you like to praise God together”. We would be like. “Of course, it feels like exactly the right time, especially because He gave us all those things”
So, some parts of the Quran are interesting until we go to Heaven, and other parts are interesting even after we go to Heaven, and those parts have to do with thanking God, and praising God, and glorying God. Glory be to God, here and forever!