Commentary on the verse “Thus did We plan for Yoosuf” [Yoosuf 12:76] and what this plan brought of goodness and blessings to him and to his father and his brothers

Firstly:

Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, is the most truthful
of speakers. He, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And who is truer in statement
than Allah?”

[an-Nisa’ 4:87]

“and whose words can be truer
than those of Allah?”

[an-Nisa’ 4:122].

So it is not permissible to attribute any kind of lie to
Allah, may He be exalted, for Allah is majestic, exalted and holy, and He is
far above any such thing. The Prophet of Allah Yoosuf (peace be upon him)
was a Prophet and a siddeeq (one who is strong and true in faith); the word
siddeeq is an intensive form of noun and comes from a root meaning true and
sincere. ar-Raazi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

Siddeeq is a word that describes anyone whose habit and
custom is to be truthful. End quote.

Tafseer ar-Raazi
(10/133).

Al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

The siddeeq is the one whose actions confirm his words. End
quote.

Tafseer al-Qurtubi
(5/272)

Secondly:

Allah, may He be exalted, says in the story of Yoosuf (peace
be upon him) and his brothers (interpretation of the meaning):

“So when he had furnished them
forth with their provisions, he put the (golden) bowl into his brother’s
bag, then a crier cried: ‘O you (in) the caravan! Surely, you are thieves!’

They,
turning towards them, said: ‘What is it that you have missed?’

They said:
‘We have missed the (golden) bowl of the king and for him who produces it is
(the reward of) a camel load; I will be bound by it.’

They said:
‘By Allah! Indeed you know that we came not to make mischief in the land,
and we are no thieves!’

They (Yoosuf’s
(Joseph) men) said: ‘What then shall be the penalty of him, if you
are (proved to be) liars?’

They (Yoosuf’s
(Joseph) brothers) said: ‘The penalty should be that he, in whose bag it is
found, should be held for the punishment (of the crime). Thus we punish the
Zalimoon (wrong-doers, etc.)!’

So he
began (the search) in their bags before the bag of his brother. Then he
brought it out of his brother’s bag. Thus did We plan for Yoosuf (Joseph).
He could not take his brother by the law of the king (as a slave), except
that Allah willed it. (So Allah made the brothers to bind themselves with
their way of ‘punishment, i.e. enslaving of a thief.’) We raise to degrees
whom We please, but over each one who is possessed of knowledge is one more
knowing.

They ^[1] who did steal before (him).’ But these things did Yoosuf (Joseph)
keep in himself, revealing not the secrets to them. He said (within
himself): ‘You are in worst case, and Allah knows best the truth of what you
assert!’”

[Yoosuf 12:70-77].

Shaykh as-Sa‘di (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

“So when he had furnished them forth with their provisions”
that is, when he had weighed out provisions for each of his brothers,
including this brother,

“he put the (golden) bowl” which was a vessel from
which he drank, and also used for measuring “into his brother’s bag,
then” they loaded up their luggage, but when they set out, “then a crier
cried: ‘O you (in) the caravan! Surely, you are thieves!’” Perhaps this
caller did not know what was really going on. 

They namely the brothers of Yoosuf “turning towards them”
– they had no concern except to dispel the accusation that had been made
against them, so they said: “What is it that you have missed?’” And
they did not say, “What have we stolen?” because they were certain that they
were innocent of theft. 

“They said: ‘We have missed the (golden) bowl of the king
and for him who produces it is (the reward of) a camel load” that is, as
a reward for finding it

“I will be bound by it” that is, I guarantee it – this
was said by the caller who was looking for it. 

“They said: ‘By Allah! Indeed you know that we came not to
make mischief in the land” by committing all kinds of sins

“and we are no thieves”, for stealing is one of the
worst kinds of making mischief in the land. They only swore because they
were confident that the Egyptians were aware that they were not making
mischief and were not thieves, as they knew them very well and were aware
that they were people of dignity and piety, who could not have committed
this theft; those who accused them knew that they could not have done that.
This is a more eloquent way of refuting the accusation than saying “By Allah
we did not make mischief in the land and we did not steal anything.” 

“They (Yoosuf’s (Joseph) men) said: ‘What then shall be
the penalty, if you are (proved to be) liars?”

 “They (Yoosuf’s (Joseph) brothers) said: ‘The penalty
should be that he, in whose bag it is found, should be held for the
punishment (of the crime)” that is, the one in whose saddle-bag it is
found should become the slave of the owner of the stolen item. According to
their religion, if the thief was proven to be guilty, he would become the
property of the owner of the stolen wealth. Hence they said: “Thus we
punish the Zalimoon (wrong-doers, etc.)!’”

“So he” the inspector “began (the search) in their
bags before the bag of his brother”, so that there would be no suspicion
that it had been done deliberately. When he did not find anything in their
baggage,

“Then he brought it out of his brother’s bag”. It does
not say “he found it” or “his brother stole it”, so as to reflect the
reality of the situation.

Thus Yoosuf accomplished what he wanted to do of keeping his
brother with him in such a way that his other brothers would not realise it,
Allah says (sa): “Thus did We plan for Yoosuf (Joseph)” that is, We
made easy for him this plan which enabled him to achieve something that was
not blameworthy

“He could not take his brother by the law of the king (as
a slave)” because there was nothing in that law that allowed enslavement
of the thief; rather they had some other penalty in such cases. Therefore if
the ruling had been referred to the king’s law, Yoosuf would not have been
able to keep his brother with him. But he made the ruling come from them, so
that he might achieve his aim.

“We raise to degrees whom We please” by means of
beneficial knowledge and knowledge of ways and means of achieving desired
goals, as We raised Yoosuf in status

“but over each one who is possessed of knowledge is one
more knowing.” Above each one who has knowledge is one who is more
knowledgeable than him, until knowledge ends with the Knower of the unseen
and the seen.

When the brothers of Yoosuf saw what happened, “They said:
‘If he” – namely this brother – “steals”, there is nothing surprising about
that, because “there was a brother of his (Yoosuf (Joseph)) who did steal
before (him).”  They were referring to Yoosuf (as); what they meant by
saying this was to declare their own innocence. In other words: this one and
his brother may commit acts of theft, but they are not our full brothers.

These words implied a great deal of disparagement, but Yoosuf
kept his thoughts to himself “revealing not the secrets to them” that
is, he did not respond to their words in a way that would be displeasing to
them; rather he restrained his anger and kept it to himself.

“He said (within himself): ‘You are in worst case”
because you blamed us when you are worse than us in that regard

“and Allah knows best the truth of what you assert”
against us, that is, He knows better than others, as you are accusing us of
theft when Allah knows that we are innocent.

Tafseer
as-Sa‘di (p. 402)

This was not
any kind of lying or prohibited deceit on the part of Yoosuf (peace be upon
him); rather it was good planning that Allah planned for him so as to
complete His blessing upon him and reunite him with his parents and family,
and so that his brothers might repent, and so that He might highlight to
them the wrong that they had done towards their father and their two
brothers, and so that Allah might complete His blessing upon their father
Ya‘qoob (peace be upon him) and restore to him his son after a lengthy
absence and great suffering. So Allah, may He be exalted, ordained this good
and blessed plan for His Prophet, so that these blessings might be attained
by all concerned. This does not come under the heading of wrongdoing, enmity
and prohibited deceit – Allah forbid.

The caller
who cried out “‘O you (in) the caravan! Surely, you are thieves!’”
thought that they were the ones who had stolen the king’s bowl, so he cried
out on the basis of what he knew; so he was not lying.

What Yoosuf
(peace be upon him) meant was that they had stolen from his father, and he
spoke the truth. This comes under the heading of double entendres by means
of which the truth may be found out and proof established.

Ibn al-Jawzi
(may Allah have mercy on him) said:

If it is
said: How could it have been permissible for Yoosuf to accuse of theft
someone who had not stolen anything? There are four answers to this
question:

1.
That what is meant is: You stole Yoosuf when you cut him off from his father
and threw him into the well. This was the view of az-Zajjaaj.

2.
That when the caller said this, he did not know that Yoosuf had issued
instructions that the bowl be placed in his brother’s bag, so he was not
lying when he said it. This was the view of Ibn Jareer.

3.
That the caller cried out, accusing them of theft, without any instructions
from Yoosuf to do so.

4.
That what is meant is: You are thieves as it appears to one who is not aware
of the reality of your situation; this is like the verse in which Allah says
(interpretation of the meaning): “Taste you (this)! Verily, you were
(pretending to be) the mighty, the generous” [ad-Dukhaan 44:49] – i.e.,
in your own mind you were mighty and generous, but not in Our view. And the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Ibraaheem told
three untruths” i.e., he said words that seemed to be lies, but they were
not really lies.  

End quote
from Zaad al-Maseer (2/457)

Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

What Yoosuf
(peace be upon him) meant was: You stole Yoosuf from his father, and he was
telling the truth when he said that.

What the
caller meant was: You stole the bowl; he thought that they had stolen it,
and he did not deliberately intend to lie, even though what he said was
untrue. End quote.

Majmoo‘
al-Fataawa (16/451). See also: al-Fataawa
al-Kubra (6/127)

Ibn al-Qayyim
(may Allah have mercy on him) said in Ighaathat al-Lahfaan (2/118):

Allah, may He
be exalted, inspired the brothers of Yoosuf (peace be upon him) to say: “The
penalty should be that he, in whose bag it is found, should be held for the
punishment (of the crime)” – this was a plan from Allah, may He be
exalted, in support of Yoosuf (peace be upon him) that He caused to be
uttered by his brothers. It was beyond Yoosuf’s control.

They could
have avoided that by saying “There is no penalty for him unless it is proven
that he is the one who stole it”, because the mere fact that it was found in
his bag did not necessarily mean that he was a thief. But Yoosuf (peace be
upon him) was just and would not have held them responsible without proof.

They could
also have avoided that by saying “His penalty should be the same as whatever
you do to thieves according to your law.” The custom according to the law of
the king of Egypt – as was narrated – was that the thief would be beaten and
fined double the value of the stolen property. If they had said that, he
could not have imposed upon them what he did not impose upon others;
therefore Allah, may He be glorified, says: “Thus did We plan for Yoosuf
(Joseph). He could not take his brother by the law of the king (as a slave),
except that Allah willed it.”

In other
words, he could not have taken him according to the law of the king of
Egypt, because in his law there was no way for him to take him.

The words “except
that Allah willed it” may mean: except that Allah willed that he should
take him by some other means. Or it may be that what is meant is: except
that Allah brought about some other means for him to take him according to
the law of the king, other than theft. End quote.

See also:
I‘laam al-Muwaqqi‘een (3/168)

Ibn Katheer
(may Allah have mercy on him):

“Thus did
We plan for Yoosuf (Joseph)” – this comes under the heading of planning
for good and to achieve that which Allah loves and is pleased with, because
of what it involves of wisdom and achieving the desired purpose. End quote.

Tafseer
Ibn Katheer (4/401)

The point is
that none of that comes under the heading of lying whatsoever; rather it
comes under the heading of good double entendres which, among other things,
lead to: the truth becoming manifest; the wrongdoers acknowledging their
mistake and repenting from it and seeking forgiveness from the one who was
wronged; bringing about reunion of the family; fulfilling the promise of
Allah to Ya‘qoob and Yoosuf (peace be upon them both); bringing about
Allah’s support to the one who had been wronged and fulfilling His plan for
him. All of this is part of the immense blessings that they attained through
these double entendres that were not lies, even though one who did not
understand the reality of the situation might think them to be lies.

And Allah
knows best.

الحاشية السفلية

الحاشية السفلية

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