The story of Joseph in the Quran is very similar to that in the Bible. Joseph is the son of Jacob, and has 11 brothers who grow jealous of him. They leave him in a pit, where he is eventually sold into slavery in Egypt. He uses his ability as a dream-interpreter to gain repute, and eventually makes his way as the pharaoh’s advisor, after he interprets the king’s dream. Eventually, he encounters his brothers, and forgives them. One thing that struck me greatly was the compassion of Joseph. While Joseph is clearly a character that Muslims are supposed to aspire to be, he is incredibly different from Muhammad, who “exemplifies” Muslim life, according to Islam: The Straight Path. While Muhammad unified Arabia by conquering and converting its nomadic tribes (i.e. Meccans), and while he took revenge on those who “betrayed” his cause (the Jews living in Medina, with whom he had peacefully coexisted, for example), Joseph was very forgiving of his brothers. Another concept I found interesting throughout my readings was the role of women in the Qur’an. While the wife of Joseph’s master plays a significant role in the story of Joseph (the story of the seduction is much more elaborate than that in the Bible), her name is never mentioned. This is the same in the story of Adam, where Eve’s name is never mentioned (at least not in Readings in the Qur’an). In both cases, they are simply referred to as X’s wife. Again, going back to Muhammad, the exemplar of Muslim life (who had a polygamous marriage after is first wife died), I find it hard to understand the seemingly incredibly sexist Muslim attitude towards women – they are not important enough to merit names in the Qur’an? While I understand that Muhammad significantly improved the life of women living in Arabia, it seems that the reoccurring theme of masculinity plays an overpowering and reoccurring theme