This Surah was also revealed in
Makkah. According to some traditions, some Jews had asked the Prophet (peace be
upon him) why the people of Israel who were the inhabitants of Palestine went
to Egypt and settled there. They thought that because you had no means of
knowing the history of the Israelites, you would not be able to answer that
question. Moreover, in this way, they will have the opportunity to propagandize
against you that you (God forbid) are not a prophet. 

In answer to this
question, Allah Almighty revealed this whole Surah Yusuf. In which the incident
of Hazrat Yusuf (as) is narrated in full detail and explanation. In fact, the
ancestor of the children of Israel was Hazrat Yaqub (as); his other name was
also Israel. They had twelve sons, from whose descendants came the twelve
tribes of Israel. In this surah, it is stated that Hazrat Yaqub (as) was living
in Palestine with his sons. Among them were Joseph and his brother Benjamin.
The stepbrothers of these two brothers conspired and threw Hazrat Yusuf (as)
into a well, from where a caravan picked him up and sold him to an Egyptian
chief. In the beginning, they lived a life of slavery.

However, under the incident,
which is described in this surah, the chief’s wife Zulaikha arrested him and
sent him to jail. What did God do, that the king was kind to Joseph for
interpreting a dream of the king of Egypt, and not only released him from
prison but honorably acquitted him, but made him his minister of finance, and
later He handed over all the powers of the government to Hazrat Yusuf (as).
After that, Hazrat Yusuf (as) called his parents from Palestine to Egypt. Thus,
the Israelites migrated from Palestine. 

One of the features of Surah Yusuf
is that the whole incident of Prophet Yusuf (as) is mentioned in detail in a
sequence, and almost the entire Surah is devoted to it. Moreover, it did not
appear in any other surah. By narrating this incident in such detail, Allah
Almighty has established an argument against the disbelievers who denied the prophethood
of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

It was also clear to them that you
had no means of knowing about this event, so you could not get this description
by any means other than revelation. In addition to the hardships that the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions were facing from the
infidels of Makkah in Makkah, there was a great consolation for you in this
incident that Hazrat Yusuf The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) went through great hardships as a result of the conspiracy of his
brothers, but in the end, Allah gave them honor, glory, and pride, and all
those who persecuted him had to bow down before him. 

In the same way, although the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has to suffer in Makkah, in the end, these
conspiratorial people will bow before him, and the truth will prevail. Other than that, this incident has
many lessons for Muslims, and perhaps that is why Allah Almighty has called it
the best story. 

Second Summary: 

The main reason for the revelation
of this surah and the description of the condition of Prophet Yusuf (as) in it
is that when the news of the Prophet’s claim of prophethood reached the Jews of
Madinah, they mischievously misled the polytheists of Makkah based on Torah
information. He started asking questions, which he kept asking the Holy
Prophet. 

One of the important questions in these questions was that you are
narrating these incidents about the children of Israel that Pharaoh oppressed
them in Egypt and they were living a life of slavery there. Then Moses took
them out of there. However, the ancestors of the children of Israel, Hazrat
Ibrahim, Hazrat Ishaq, and Hazrat Yaqub (as) lived in Palestine. Tell us about
them, how did these people reach Egypt from there? This was a question of
history, in response to which Allah Almighty not only narrated this whole
incident in a very beautiful way in this Surah. 

He even applied this story to the behavior of the
Quraysh. The way they treated the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him) as the brothers of Yusuf.