How reasonable is it for a prophet to accuse his brothers of theft and defame them—as mentioned in Surat Yusuf—and was this action necessary to achieve his goal, or could another method have been followed? And does a noble goal justify the means in Islam, such as killing innocent people to establish an Islamic state?

The end and the means must both be legitimate; for means are subject to the same rulings as their ends. Islamic law (Sharia (definition)) is built upon achieving benefits and averting harms. When there is a conflict, the greater of two benefits is attained, or the greater of two harms is averted. An example of this is the action of Al-Khidr when he scuttled the ship to avert a greater harm. The action of Yusuf (peace be upon him) in placing the drinking-cup in his brother's saddlebag was to achieve the benefit of keeping his brother with him. Some exegetes considered this to be a form of ma'areed (ambiguous speech) or an allusion to his brothers' theft of him from his father. Others considered it a sin for which he was punished. There is no connection between this action and the killing of innocent people to achieve certain goals.