INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS THE SCHOOL OF YUSUF? " ... And he
languished in prison for a number of years more." (Surah Yusuf,
42) According to an exegesis of this verse, Joseph (Peace be
upon him) is the patron of prisoners, and prison is a sort of
School of Joseph. (Madrasa-i Yusufiya)1 This interpretation was
offered by one of the greatest Islamic scholars of the 20th
century, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, who devoted much of his life to
the teaching of the morality of the Qur’an, and because of that
earned the animosity of certain circles. Ultimately, he spent 30
years of his life in prison and exile. The reason for
Bediuzzaman referring to prison as “the school of Yusuf” and our
using this phrase as the title of this book is the following for
certain sincere Muslims, who call the people to serve Allah
alone, and to be of good character, prisons are places they are
confined to from time to time, without any wrongdoing on their
part. These places of confinement become for them classrooms
(madrasah) by which they learn