Surah 12. Yusuf

Return to your father and say, 'O our father! Your son committed theft. We testify only to what we know. We could not guard against the unforeseen.¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 We did not know when we gave you our solemn oath that our brother was going to steal.

"Turn ye back to your father and say `O our father! behold! thy son committed theft: we bear witness only to what we know and we could not well guard against the unseen! ¹⁷⁵⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

'He stole in secret and without our knowledge. How could we in the circumstances prevent it? This may have been a good statement for the other nine brothers, but Judah was himself personally and specially pledged.

Ask 'the people of' the land where we were and the caravan we travelled with. We are certainly telling the truth.''

  - Mustafa Khattab

" `Ask at the town where we have been and the caravan in which we returned and (you will find) we are indeed telling the truth.' " ¹⁷⁵⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

To vouch for the truth of the story, the nine brothers are asked by Judah to appeal to their father to enquire at the place where they stayed and the caravan with which they came, and he would find that the facts were as they stated them. The nine brothers came back and told their father as they had been instructed by Judah.

He cried, 'No! Your souls must have tempted you to do something 'evil'. So 'I am left with nothing but' beautiful patience!¹ I trust Allah will return them all to me. Surely He 'alone' is the All-Knowing, All-Wise.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

 i.e., patience without complaining.

Jacob said: "Nay but ye have yourselves contrived a story (good enough) for you. So patience is most fitting (for me). Maybe Allah will bring them (back) all to me (in the end): for He is indeed full of knowledge and wisdom." ^{1756 1757}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Jacob was absolutely stunned by the story. He knew his darling little Benjamin too well to believe that he had committed theft. He flatly refused to believe it, and called it a cock-and-bull story, which indeed it was, though not in the sense in which he reproached the nine brothers. With the eye of faith he saw clearly the innocence of Benjamin, though he did not see every detail of what had happened.

With the eye of faith he clung to even a larger hope. Perhaps all three of his lost sons would come back,-Joseph, Benjamin, and Judah. His faith in Allah was unswerving, although alas! the present facts altogether unnerved him.

He turned away from them, lamenting, 'Alas, poor Joseph!' And his eyes turned white out of the grief he suppressed.¹

  - Mustafa Khattab

 Jacob (ﷺ) cried for so long that he became very weak-sighted. Some scholars suggest that he lost his sight completely. This does not contradict Jacob’s beautiful patience because he did not complain to anyone, but expressed his sorrow only to Allah.

And he turned away from them and said: "How great is my grief for Joseph!" And his eyes became white with sorrow and he fell into silent melancholy. ¹⁷⁵⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The old father's grief is indescribable. Yet with what master-strokes it is described here! One sorrow brings up the memory of another and a greater one. 'Benjamin is now gone! Oh but Joseph! his pretty dream of boyhood! his greatness foretold! and now how dark was the world! If he could but weep! Tears might give relief, and his red and swollen eyes might yet regain their light!' But his grief was too deep for tears. His eyes lost their colour, and became a dull white. The light became a mere blur, a white glimmer. Darkness seemed to cover everything. So it was in the outside world. So was it in his mind. His grief was unshared, unexpressed, and uncomplaining. Who could share it? Who could understand it? He bore his sorrow in silence. Yet his faith was undimmed, and he trimmed the lamp of patience, that sovereign virtue for those who have faith.

They said, 'By Allah! You will not cease to remember Joseph until you lose your health or 'even' your life.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They said: "By Allah! (never) wilt thou cease to remember Joseph until thou reach the last extremity of illness or until thou die!" ¹⁷⁵⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

A speech full of jealousy, taunting malice, and lack of understanding,-one that would have driven mad any one less endowed with patience and wisdom than was Jacob, the Prophet of Allah. It shows that the sons were still unregenerate, though the time of their repentance and reclamation was drawing nigh. The cruel heartlessness of their words is particularly out of place, as Jacob bore his sorrow in silence and complained to no mortal, but poured out his distraction and grief only to Allah, as stated in the next verse.

He replied, 'I complain of my anguish and sorrow only to Allah, and I know from Allah what you do not know.

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "I only complain of my distraction and anguish to Allah and I know from Allah that which ye know not... ^{1760 1761}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Jacob's plaint to Allah is about himself, not about Allah's doings. He bewails the distraction of his mind and his occasional breaking out of those bounds of patience which he had set for himself.

He knew of Allah's merciful and beneficent dealings with man in a way his shallow sons did not. And his perfect faith in Allah also told him that all would be well. He never gave up hope for Joseph, as his directions in the next verse show. They may be supposed to have been spoken after a little silence of grief and thought. That silence I have indicated in punctuation by three dots.

O my sons! Go and search 'diligently' for Joseph and his brother. And do not lose hope in the mercy of Allah, for no one loses hope in Allah's mercy except those with no faith.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"O my sons! go ye and enquire about Joseph and his brother and never give up hope of Allah's Soothing Mercy: truly no one despairs of Allah's Soothing Mercy except those who have no faith." ^{1762 1763}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The word is rauh, not ruh as some translators have mistakenly construed it. Rauh includes the idea of a Mercy that stills or calms our distracted state, and is particularly appropriate here in the mouth of Jacob.

Jacob ignores and forgives the sting and malice in the speech of his sons, and like a true Prophet of Allah, still wishes them well, gives them sound advice, and sends them on an errand which is to open their eyes to the wonderful ways of Providence as much as it will bring consolation to his own distressed soul. He asks them to go again in search of Joseph and Benjamin. Perhaps by now he had an idea that they might be together in Egypt. In any case their stock of grain is again low, and they must seek its replenishment in Egypt.

When they entered Joseph's presence, they pleaded, 'O Chief Minister! We and our family have been touched with hardship, and we have brought only a few worthless coins, but 'please' give us our supplies in full and be charitable to us. Indeed, Allah rewards the charitable.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then when they came (back) into (Joseph's) presence they said: "O exalted one! distress has seized us and our family; we have (now) brought but scanty capital: So pay us full measure (we pray thee) and treat it as charity to us: for Allah doth reward the charitable." ¹⁷⁶⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The nine brothers come back to Egypt according to their father's direction. Their first care is to see the Wazir. They must tell him of all their father's distress and excite his pity, if perchance he might release Benjamin. They would describe the father's special mental distress as well as the distress which was the common lot of all in famine time. They had spent a great part of their capital and stock-in-trade. They would appeal to his charity. It might please so great a man, the absolute governor of a wealthy state. And they did so. Perhaps they mentioned their father's touching faith, and that brought Joseph out of his shell, as in the next verse.

He asked, 'Do you remember what you did to Joseph and his brother in your ignorance?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "Know ye how ye dealt with Joseph and his brother not knowing (what ye were doing)?" ¹⁷⁶⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Joseph now wants to reveal himself and touch their conscience. He had but to remind them of the true facts as to their treatment of their brother Joseph, whom they pretended to have lost. He had by now also learnt from Benjamin what slights and injustice he too had suffered at their hands after Joseph's protection had been removed from him in their home. Had not Jospeh himself seen them but too prone to believe the worst of Benjamin and to say the worst of Joseph? But Joseph would be charitable,-not only in the sense which they meant when they asked for a charitable grant of grain, but in a far higher sense. He would forgive them and put the most charitable construction on what they did,-that they knew not what they were doing!

They replied 'in shock', 'Are you really Joseph?' He said, 'I am Joseph, and here is my brother 'Benjamin'! Allah has truly been gracious to us. Surely whoever is mindful 'of Allah' and patient, then certainly Allah never discounts the reward of the good-doers.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They said: "Art thou indeed Joseph?" He said: "I am Joseph and this is my brother: Allah has indeed been gracious to us (all): behold he that is righteous and patient never will Allah suffer the reward to be lost of those who do right." ¹⁷⁶⁶

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Their father's words, the way events were shaping themselves. Joseph's questionings, perhaps Benjamin's manner now, not a slave kept in subjection but one in perfect love and understanding with this great Wazir,-perhaps also a recollection of Joseph's boyish dream,-all these things had prepared their minds and they ask the direct question, "Art thou Joseph?" They get the direct reply, "Yes, I am Joseph; and if you have still any doubt of my identity, here is Benjamin: ask him. We have suffered much, but patience and right conduct are at last rewarded by Allah!"

They admitted, 'By Allah! Allah has truly preferred you over us, and we have surely been sinful.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They said: "By Allah! indeed has Allah preferred thee above us and we certainly have been guilty of sin!" ¹⁷⁶⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The scales fall from the eyes of the brothers. We may suppose that they had joined Judah at this interview, and perhaps what Judah had seen when he was alone helped in the process of their enlightenment, They are convicted of sin out of their own mouths, and now there is no arrier pensee, no reserve thought, in their minds. They freely confess their wrong-doing, and the justice of Joseph's preferment.

Joseph said, 'There is no blame on you today. May Allah forgive you! He is the Most Merciful of the merciful!

  - Mustafa Khattab

He said: "This day let no reproach be (cast) on you: Allah will forgive you and He is the Most Merciful of those who show mercy? ¹⁷⁶⁸

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Joseph is most generous. He is glad that they have at last seen the significance of what happened. But he will not allow them at this great moment of reconciliation to dwell on their conduct with reproaches against themselves. There is more urgent work to do. An aged and beloved father is eating out his heart in far Canaan in love and longing for his Joseph, and he must be told all immediately, and "comforted in body, mind, and estate," and so he tells the brothers to hurry back immediately with his shirt as a sign of recognition, as a proof of these wonderful happenings.

Go with this shirt of mine and cast it over my father's face, and he will regain his sight. Then come back to me with your whole family.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"Go with this my shirt and cast it over the face of my father: he will come to see (clearly). Then come ye (here) to me together with all your family." ¹⁷⁶⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

It will be remembered that they had covered their crime by taking his shirt, putting on the stains of blood, and pretending that he had been killed by a wolf: see above, xii. 17-18. Now that they have confessed their crime and been forgiven, and they have joyful news to tell Jacob about Joseph. Joseph gives them another shirt of his to prove the truth of their story. It is rich shirt, befitting a ruler of Egypt, to prove his good fortune, and yet perhaps in design and many colours (xii. 18, n. 1651) were reminiscent of the lost Joseph. The first shirt plunged Jacob into grief. This one will now restore him. See the verses following.

When the caravan departed 'from Egypt', their father said 'to those around him', 'You may think I am senile, but I certainly sense the smell of Joseph.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

When the caravan left (Egypt) their father said: "I do indeed scent the presence of Joseph: nay think me not a dotard." ¹⁷⁷⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Literally, I feel the scent, or the air, or the atmosphere or the breath of Joseph; for rih has all these significations. Or we might translate, 'I feel the presence of Joseph in the air'. When a long-lost friend is about to be found or heard of, many people have a sort of presentiment of it, which they call telepathy. In Jacob's case it was more definite. He had always had faith that Joseph was living and that his dream would he realised. Now that faith was proved true by his own sons; they had been undutiful, and hard, and ignorant; and circumstances had converged to prove it to them by ocular demonstration. Jacob's soul was more sensitive. No wonder he knew already before the news was actually brought to him.

They replied, 'By Allah! You are definitely still in your old delusion.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

They said: "By Allah! truly thou art in thine old wandering mind." ¹⁷⁷¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

"They" must be the people around him, before the brothers actually arrived. These same brothers had sedulously cultivated the calumny that their father was an old dotard, and everybody around believed it, even after its authors had to give it up. Thus lies die hard, once they get a start.