The object of the essay is prophecy in the Qur’ān, through the stories of the prophets and the language they use. Specifically, the Qur’ānic narrative and Joseph’s speeches have been systematically examined, with the intention of introducing a symmetrical reading of the story between incidents and the specific language. Emphasis has been placed on the philological aspects, by focusing the analysis on the Arabic version of the Qur’ān, in order to try to draw up a personal profile of Joseph and, at the same time, to attempt to counter an approach that claims to see all the Qur’ānic envoys only in their instrumental function in the mission of Muḥammad.

The paper exemplifies chosen textual variants extant in Qur’an versions in the Islamic world, focusing on printed readings according to Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim and Warš ʿan Nāfiʿ, against the historical background of Ibn Muǧāhid’s qirā’āt reform (10th century C.E.). The studied issue is part of and sheds light on a broader problem – the quest after elaborating a critical text edition of the Qur’anic text based on the oldest and best manuscripts. The preliminary conclusion is that neither Ibn Muǧāhid nor the oldest, surviving works by Muslim scholars devoted to the Qur’anic qirā’āt did actually record the factual state of the oral tradition from the 7th century, but that the variants of the oral tradition as codified in the 10th century have their origin only in the late written tradition (probably also only from the 10th century, possibly not much older).