Trauma, Resilience, and Narrative Healing: A Psycho-Hermeneutic Reading of Surah Yūsuf

Abstract

This study explores Surah Yūsuf through a psycho-hermeneutic lens, examining how the Qur’anic narrative dramatizes trauma, models resilience, and offers pathways of narrative healing. While classical tafsīr has traditionally emphasized theological, moral, and legal lessons, and modern literary studies have highlighted structure and coherence, limited attention has been paid to the psychological dimensions of suffering and recovery embedded in the surah. Drawing on hermeneutic philosophy, particularly Gadamer’s fusion of horizons and Ricoeur’s concepts of narrative identity and surplus of meaning, alongside trauma and resilience theory (Herman, Caruth, Pennebaker, Masten), this research analyzes how motifs of betrayal, displacement, imprisonment, and reconciliation reflect the dynamics of trauma and recovery. The analysis demonstrates that Surah Yūsuf encodes experiences of betrayal and displacement as traumatic ruptures, yet simultaneously frames resilience through ṣabr jamīl (beautiful patience), taqwā (God-consciousness), and forgiveness. Narrative symbols such as the recurring motif of the shirt are shown to transform across the surah from markers of deceit to instruments of truth and healing, illustrating how traumatic experiences can be integrated into a redemptive arc. Imprisonment, initially a site of deprivation, emerges as a space of testimony and meaning-making, while Yūsuf’s rise to authority and his reconciliation with his brothers model the re-authoring of suffering into wisdom and communal service. The study contributes to three domains. In Qur’anic studies, it expands hermeneutic approaches by situating Surah Yūsuf within trauma discourse. In psychology and linguistics, it demonstrates how sacred narratives function as frameworks of resilience, linking theological motifs with psycholinguistic models of healing. In practice, it highlights the surah’s potential for trauma-sensitive pedagogy, interfaith dialogue, and counseling, particularly in contexts of displacement, injustice, and grief. Ultimately, the research affirms that Surah Yūsuf is not only a sacred narrative of prophecy but also a model of psycho-spiritual resilience that continues to provide meaning and healing across generations.