Yusuf (Joseph)

83. “He (Ya‘qub) said: ‘No, but your (guilty) selves have made a matter fair for you, so patience is good. Maybe Allah will bring them to me all together; verily He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise’.”

The brothers departed from Egypt, leaving the youngest and the oldest behind, they returned to Kan‘an in frustration and shame. On this occasion, contrary to other times, their father found them deeply disturbed and depressed and that Benjamin and the oldest brother were not with them, thus he realized that something unpleasant had taken place.

In order to remove their father’s suspicions and increase his confidence in them, this time they told the truth of the matter as it had appeared to them, calling him to inquire from the people of Egypt and the caravan to verify their story.

Ya‘qub was not impressed, he became angry, and staring at them, he told them that it was their souls that had made something appealing to them that had led to this disaster.

The verse says:

“He (Ya‘qub) said: ‘No, but your (guilty) selves have made a matter fair for you...”

On his part Ya‘qub had no other choice than to take recourse in sweet patience and trust in Allah to return all his sons to him, if He willed, because He is aware of them inside of all as well as whatever happened and will happen. Moreover, He is Wise and never does anything undue.

The holy verse continues saying:

“…so patience is good. Maybe Allah will bring them to me all together; verily He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise’.”

Explanations

1- When the brothers, feigning sadness, brought Yusuf’s bloody shirt to their father, they said that Yusuf had been eaten by a wolf. Hadrat Ya‘qub (as) said that their souls had made up something which they had found attractive.

Now, with his next two sons taken away from him, he repeats the same sentence. Perhaps, this question may be raised that: in Yusuf’s affair the brothers committed treason and planned conspiracies, while in the Benjamin’s affair, such was not the case.

Then, why does Ya‘qub say the same thing in both cases? Tafsir Al Mizan, provides the answer. ‘Allamah Tabataba’i says that Ya‘qub meant that the facts surrounding these two other brothers remaining in Egypt is an extension of their previous conduct with regard to Yusuf (as).

That is, all these occurrences, even though they were not directly responsible for the last one, were the consequences of their previous unethical behaviour.

It may be said that the purpose of Ya‘qub was that even then they thought themselves as innocent and that they had acted well, however, they had still behaved unethically in the crisis.

Firstly why were they quick to assume that their brother was guilty once they saw the cup among his load? Couldn’t it be possible that someone else had hidden it there?

Secondly, why did they return so quickly without any research? And thirdly, why did they choose servitude as a penalty of the thief?

2- One’s selfish ego seeks to present evil acts as beautiful to itself in order to justify guilt.

3- Maintaining patience is a practice prevalent among the men of Allah and a good patience in a believer is the kind that one surrenders oneself to Allah without complaining about His Will.

4- One must never despair of Allah’s omnipotence.

“Maybe Allah will bring them to me,”

5- Solving old and new problems are both alike once the issue in question is Allah’s will. Allah is able to bring together in one place yesterday’s Yusuf and today’s brother after many years.

6- A devout believer regards bitter events as having their origin in Allah’s Providence as well.