Symmetry in Sura al-Yusuf

The story of Joseph in the Qur’an is arranged symmetrically.

It is to be noted that the Qur’an says that the story of Joseph is “the most beautiful of stories” (12:3).

Here is a rhetorical analysis by Dr. Michel Cuypers, a non-Muslim scholar from Belgium, as published in the Journal of Qur’anic Studies, volume 13, issue no. 1 (2011), page 16:

Here is a rhetorical analysis by Dr. Neal Robinson (a non-Muslim scholar), as published in Discovering the Qur’an (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1996), page 149:

Here is another rhetorical analysis from page 43 of Dr. Raymond Farrin’s book Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation: A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam’s Holy Text (Ashland: White Cloud Press, 2014):

a (4-7)

b (8-19)

c (20-22)

d (23-35)

e (36-49)

d' (50-53)

c' (54-57)

b' (58-98)

a' (99-101)

In addition to this overlying symmetry, smaller chiastic structures in Sura al-Yusuf have also been found. Dr. Farrin details some such structures in pages 33-43 of his book. Jawad Anwar Qureshi, from the University of Chicago Divinity School, has recently written an award-winning paper on his discovery of even more chiastic structures embedded in Sura al-Yusuf.