CONCLUSION:

(1) Human beings have learned distortion, falsification, and twisting facts since they have learned to record and register history. Since the beginning of the era of writing down history, it has been deemed a habit done by historians and scribes who were commanded by rulers/leaders to do so, and such historians and scribes in all eras obsequiously sought to please and gratify the victorious ones who rule, dominate, and reign and made them earn their living. Hence, history worldwide is never accurate 100%. Some claim that formal documents, scrolls, etc. might be nearer to the Truth, but they never fill all gaps and rarely narrate things that occurred before they were written and they never reveal what have occurred after they were written; besides, we never know the conditions and circumstances of their writing and thus, we cannot verify their being truthful and/or authentic. It is a sad fact worldwide in the history of any part of the planet that there will always be a huge gap between 'real' and 'true'  history (i.e., events that really took place overtly and covertly) on the one hand and written history passed down to us while showing the biased viewpoints and sentiments of historians of course. Hence any 'truths' or 'facts' in historical writings o all human beings remain relative: they might be true or false and cannot be verified in most cases. For instance, an Arab historian might write the following statement: (...The Sultan sent an epistle to the King...), when we analyze this statement, we may say that this historian was among the retinue of this sultan, thus knowing many of his secrets and/or decisions taken in the palace court or divan; yet, we may also say we have the right to cast doubts on the statement of the historian who might side with the sultan or be biased for him because he relied on this sultan for his living; thus, he would choose what to record and what he would not and how he would twist certain facts to serve the sultan this way. Another possibility is that this historian was away from the circles of authority and power, and what he has written might be rumors spread at the time, and this cast doubts on his accounts; the sultan might not have sent any messages to any king, or such message was indeed sent as a ploy/maneuver to trick and deceive some people, or ... or ... etc., in endless games of conjecture and surmise. Hence, no mortal can bridge the huge gap between real history and written one, and such gap widens more in cases of writing historical accounts of political conspiracies and intrigues, successful ones or otherwise. Indeed, political history is filled mostly with intrigues, plots, secret communications, clandestine relations, maneuvers, secret movements, etc. and the recorded history shows only of them what were revealed on the surface for some reason or the other, but most of their details are not known by most historians, if we indeed can imagine omniscient historians who claim to have written the whole 'truth'. All readers of historical accounts should always question the honesty of historians and their political, religious, and social stances as well as their sentiments toward certain topics and historical figures within certain historical events. This makes doubt as the basis and the foundation of any tackling of historical accounts, periodicals, chronicles, and books, and to bear in mind that 'facts' in them are, and will always be regarded as, relative ones.                 

(2) The opposite is true regarding Quranic stories as far as Quran-believing people are concerned. To real Muslims, the Quran is God's Word that represents the Absolute Truth about the unseen, the unknown, the future, and about historical events mentioned in the Quranic stories of ancient eras. Let us give some examples to illustrate this point; somewhere at some point in time, the brothers of Joseph held their secret conference to conspire against him as they envied him very much because Jacob/Israel their father loved him more. Jacob never knew about such a conference and its results, but God, the Omniscient Lord, knew all details about such conspiracy to get rid of Joseph; see 12:7-10. After telling us about the story of Joseph in the Quranic Chapter Twelve, God has addressed Muhammad by telling him the following about Joseph's brothers: "This is news from the past that We reveal to you. You were not present with them when they plotted and agreed on a plan." (12:102). This means that what the Quran tells us about these people of the past (and the conspiracy against Joseph) was unknown and Muhammad never witnessed it himself of course; God's Omnipresence and Omniscience are asserted elsewhere in the Quranic text: "Do you not realize that God knows everything in the heavens and everything on earth? There is no secret counsel between three, but He is their fourth; nor between five, but He is their sixth; nor less than that, nor more, but He is with them wherever they may be. Then, on the Day of Resurrection, He will inform them of what they did. God has knowledge of everything." (58:7). Thus, the real history of any human being, or any nation or group of people, is the one recorded by God about them. Indeed, copies of such histories for each nation and each individual will be shown to each of them on the Day of Judgment to remember what was forgotten: "On the Day when God resurrects them all, and informs them of what they did. God has kept count of it, but they have forgotten it. God is Witness over everything." (58:6). Thus, from such history recorded by God come the Quranic stories, which were part of things unseen and unknown before except to God/Allah, Our Omniscient Lord. Somewhere at some point in time, Moses' Pharaoh's wife lifted her head heavenward and implored the Almighty, saying: "..."My Lord, build for me, with you, a house in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his works, and save me from the unjust people." (66:21). Moses' Pharaoh did not know anything about this and about the innermost feelings inside the heart of his own wife, but God, the Omniscient, knows and records the feelings and words of this believing woman, immortalizing her remembrance inside the Quranic text until the end of days. This is the aspect of the Quranic stories that can never be imitated in all accounts of human historians who write only the overt things that appear on the surface.    

(3) The Quranic stories tell us about deeds, events, and words, and feelings that were never expressed verbally by the characters/figures of the Quranic stories. For instance, the Quran follows the development of the sentiments of the Potiphar's wife: when her husband saw her at the gate of the house, she was torn between 1) the desire to revenge her being repulsed by Joseph, which hurt her pride, 2) her fear of her husband, and 3) her desire/love for Joseph by saying to her husband: "...What is the penalty for him who desired to dishonor your wife, except imprisonment or a painful punishment?" (12:25); this shows that she loved Joseph very much, as she asked for his being imprisoned or punished, not put to death. Of course, she wanted to take revenge for her being rebuffed and her hurt dignity, femininity, and pride, and she said to the affluent women she had invited in her palace: "... Here he is, the one you blamed me for. I did try to seduce him, but he resisted. But if he does not do what I tell him to do, he will be imprisoned, and will be one of the despised." (12:32). Eventually, she repented in the best possible manner by declaring the truth before the gathering of the affluent ones and the retinue members inside the palace court of the Hyksos king who investigated the matter to know about Joseph and verify the truth about his being innocent: "...The Potiphar's wife then said, "Now the truth is out. It was I who tried to seduce him, and he is telling the truth." "This is that he may know that I did not betray him in secret, and that God does not guide the scheming of the betrayers." "Yet I do not claim to be innocent. The soul commands evil, except those on whom my Lord has mercy. Truly my Lord is Forgiving and Merciful."" (12:51-53).      

(4) The Quranic stories have another unparalleled quality: that of the meticulous choice of words or diction. For instance, when Joseph as the governor of Egypt made a play to accuse his younger brother of stealing to make him remain with him, the elder brothers commented on that accusation by saying: "...If he has stolen, a brother of his has stolen before..." (12:77); this statement of theirs refer to Joseph, of course, and it shows (by the choice of words) that they felt deep-seated hatred toward Joseph even after many years of forcing him to get out of their sight; they even liked very much to speak ill of him to tarnish his memory. Another example from the same Quranic Chapter is when the brothers in the same situation told Joseph –  without knowing his real identity yet – the following: "...he has a father, a very old man, so take one of us in his place. We see that you are a good person. He said, "God forbid that we should arrest anyone except him in whose possession we found our property; for then we would be unjust."" (12:78-79), we see the choice of diction in words of Joseph when he asserted his intention not to arrest except the one in whose possession he found the lost item; he did NOT say to arrest ''the thief'' or ''the one who stole'', because actually his brother did not steal anything, of course. The deep-seated hatred and envy of the other brothers toward Joseph went on until shortly before the end of the story when reconciliation occurs, as they rebuked their father, Jacob, who remembered his long-lost son Joseph in 12:95 as follows: "...their father said, "I sense the presence of Joseph, though you may think I am senile." They said, "By God, you are still in your old errant ways."" (12:94-95). Hence, they uttered such harsh rebuke addressed to their blind, grieved father. This means that whenever Jacob expressed love to the long-lost son, Joseph, their hatred and envy toward Joseph increased. Even when they conspired secretly to get rid of Joseph as a boy, they had described their father as being astray in errant ways: "...Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are, although we are a whole group. Our father is obviously in the errant ways." (12:8). This means that their negative view of their father persisted until shortly before the reconciliation, which comes in these verses: "Then, when the bearer of good news arrived, he laid it over his face, and he regained his sight. He said, "Did I not say to you that I know from God what you do not know?" They said, "Father, pray for the forgiveness of our sins; we were indeed at fault." He said, "I will ask my Lord to forgive you. He is the Forgiver, the Most Merciful."" (12:96-97). Another wisdom behind the choice of diction is in many cases understood between the lines; we read the following about Joseph feigned accusation of theft leveled at his brother: "So he began with their bags, before his brother's bag. Then he pulled it out of his brother's bag. Thus We devised a plan for Joseph..." (12:76); hence, this devised plan of Joseph seem to be part of the divine intervention in the course of events to make the Israelites come to Egypt, and this plan of joseph included feigning and playing a trick by making his brothers (see 12:70) face an accusation of theft leveled at them, though they did not steal anything.

(5) The choice of diction and Quranic precise, concise style by God emerge in the Quranic stories also when there are stylistically omitted ideas or words that can inferred from the Arabic context of certain verses by certain words found in these verses. To illustrate this point, let us quote the example of this verse: "And when she heard of their gossip, she invited them, and prepared for them a banquet, and she gave each one of them a knife. She said, "Come out before them." And when they saw him, they marveled at him, and cut their hands. They said, "Good God, this is not a human, this must be a generous angel."" (12:31). We read here that the Potiphar's wife surprised the affluent women of her class when she invited them to her palace; this verse depicts concisely this surprise as she made them see Joseph, and the element of surprise is heightened and maintained in this verse by successive scenes that do not mention useless details that can be inferred from the context. We read in 12:31 the she gave each one of them a knife, leaving the readers of the Quran to imagine the scene of a banquet with those affluent women of the Egyptian high class sitting at a large table, chatting, laughing, and eating while unaware of the great surprise waiting for them. The scene that comes next is inside the palace where the Potiphar's wife commands Joseph to move before their sight. The scene that comes next at once is the affluent women marveling at the physical beauty of Joseph, while omitting to mention Joseph walking before them, so as not to lessen the effect of the surprise. The very next scene depicted with words is how the affluent women were amazed by the beauty of Joseph to the extent that the knives, instead of cutting the fruit, cut their soft hands, and the women expressed verbally their feelings by saying that Joseph was like an angel. Hence, details of the scene never mentioned in 12:31 are left to the imagination of the readers. Indeed, there are so many examples of such style in many Quranic verses, and our explaining them would entail a whole book filled with many pages to show the rich style in which the Quran is written and phrased by Almighty God. We urge readers to read the Quran if they please, so that they attain the Mercy of God!

Signature:

Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour