Yusuf (Joseph)

46. “Yusuf, O truthful one! Expound to us regarding (the dream of) seven fat cows which seven lean ones were devouring, and seven green ears of corn and other (seven) dry, that I may go back to the people, that they may know.”

The Arabic term /siddiq/ refers to someone whose words and deeds as well as his beliefs and behavior correspond to each other.

As his prison companion, the cup-bearer, had heard and seen Yusuf’s words and deeds inside the prison, and he had himself actually experienced Yusuf’s accuracy of interpretation regarding his own dream and that of his friend, this is why he addressed him with the epithet /siddiq/ or ‘The Truthful One’.

Incidentally, the title /siddiq/ is one of the titles which the Prophet (S) accorded Hadrat Ali (as).¹

And so the cup-bearer went to his old cellmate still inside the prison, the friend to whom he had been very untrustworthy to ask him about the interpretation of the dream that had been obsessing the king, with the full faith that the great Yusuf would forgive him and refrain from upbraiding him. The above verse says explains this meaning.