The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

قَالَ اجْعَلْنِي عَلَى خَزَآئِنِ الأَرْضِ ...

12: 55. (Joseph) said:

"Set me over the storehouses of the land:

C1716. Joseph had been given plenary authority by the king. He could have enjoyed his dignity, drawn his emoluments, put the hard and perhaps unpopular work on the shoulders of others, and kept to himself the glitter and the kudos. But that was not his way, nor can it indeed be the way of any one who wants to do real service.

He undertook the hardest and most unpopular task himself. Such a task was that of organizing reserves in times of plenty, against the lean years to come. He deliberately asked to be put in charge of the granaries and store-houses, and the drudgery of establishing them and guarding them, for the simple reason that he understood that need better than any one else, and was prepared to take upon himself rather than throw on to another the obloquy of restricting supplies in times of plenty.

... إِنِّي حَفِيظٌ عَلِيمٌ ﴿٥٥﴾

I will indeed guard them, as one that knows (their importance)."

Other versions:

12: 55 [ Yusuf asking the Egyptian King ]

Yusuf Ali (Joseph) said: "Set me over the storehouses of the land: I will indeed guard them as one that knows (their importance)."

Pickthall He said: Set me over the storehouses of the land. Lo! I am a skilled custodian.

Transliteration Wa kaza_lika makkanna_liyu_sufa fil ardi yatabawwa'u minha_ haisu yasya_'(u), nusibu bi rahmatina_ man nasya_'u wa la_ nudi'u ajral muhsinin(a).