سُورَةُ يُوسُفَ
Reading Tafsir al-Kashani by 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashani
Ayahs 61–70 of 111
قَالُوا۟ سَنُرَٰوِدُ عَنْهُ أَبَاهُ وَإِنَّا لَفَٰعِلُونَ
They said, "We will attempt to dissuade his father from [keeping] him, and indeed, we will do [it]."
They said, 'We will try to tempt his father away from him, that is, by purifying preparedness for the reception of his [Jacob's] effusion.
وَقَالَ لِفِتْيَٰنِهِ ٱجْعَلُوا۟ بِضَٰعَتَهُمْ فِى رِحَالِهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَعْرِفُونَهَآ إِذَا ٱنقَلَبُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰٓ أَهْلِهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ
And [Joseph] said to his servants, "Put their merchandise into their saddlebags so they might recognize it when they have gone back to their people that perhaps they will [again] return."
As for his statement, to his young men: 'Place their merchandise in their saddlebags, this is an allusion to the heart commanding its young men, the vegetative faculties, at the giving of enjoyment to the soul during [its] reassuredness, to supply the substrata for their faculties by which they are nourished and by which they are empowered to earn their perfections, since these are that merchandise of theirs from which they can seek provision. Their saddlebags represent the instruments of their perceptions and earnings; so that they may, recognise their faculties and their capacities to earn, when they return to their folk, from among all of the animal faculties, such as the irascible, the concupiscent and their like, and so they might come back', to the station of profit-making and seeking provision from the nourishment of meanings and forms of beneficial knowledge from that merchandise.
فَلَمَّا رَجَعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِيهِمْ قَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَبَانَا مُنِعَ مِنَّا ٱلْكَيْلُ فَأَرْسِلْ مَعَنَآ أَخَانَا نَكْتَلْ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَٰفِظُونَ
So when they returned to their father, they said, "O our father, [further] measure has been denied to us, so send with us our brother [that] we will be given measure. And indeed, we will be his guardians."
So when they went back to their father, having purified their preparedness and been trained by the configurations of virtues they required of him that he send forth with them the practical rational faculty to supply them permanently with virtuous character traits by means of meanings. In other words, they sought to be supplied from his effusion; that we may obtain the measure, that we may profit from him. For surely we shall not use him to actualise our goals and bring about his perdition, as we did, during the time of ignorance, with his brother [Joseph]. Rather, we will guard him well by obligating ourselves to him and being mindful of him on the path to perfection.The taking from them of a covenant and a pledge in sending him forth with them expresses the precedence given to the sound conviction of faith over deeds and obligating them to that covenant first. Otherwise their state as they embarked on the task would not have been proper and would not have had a wholesome effect.
قَالَ هَلْ ءَامَنُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ إِلَّا كَمَآ أَمِنتُكُمْ عَلَىٰٓ أَخِيهِ مِن قَبْلُ ۖ فَٱللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَٰفِظًۭا ۖ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ
He said, "Should I entrust you with him except [under coercion] as I entrusted you with his brother before? But Allah is the best guardian, and He is the most merciful of the merciful."
Explained together with ayah 63
وَلَمَّا فَتَحُوا۟ مَتَٰعَهُمْ وَجَدُوا۟ بِضَٰعَتَهُمْ رُدَّتْ إِلَيْهِمْ ۖ قَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَبَانَا مَا نَبْغِى ۖ هَٰذِهِۦ بِضَٰعَتُنَا رُدَّتْ إِلَيْنَا ۖ وَنَمِيرُ أَهْلَنَا وَنَحْفَظُ أَخَانَا وَنَزْدَادُ كَيْلَ بَعِيرٍۢ ۖ ذَٰلِكَ كَيْلٌۭ يَسِيرٌۭ
And when they opened their baggage, they found their merchandise returned to them. They said, "O our father, what [more] could we desire? This is our merchandise returned to us. And we will obtain supplies for our family and protect our brother and obtain an increase of a camel's load; that is an easy measurement."
Explained together with ayah 63
قَالَ لَنْ أُرْسِلَهُۥ مَعَكُمْ حَتَّىٰ تُؤْتُونِ مَوْثِقًۭا مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ لَتَأْتُنَّنِى بِهِۦٓ إِلَّآ أَن يُحَاطَ بِكُمْ ۖ فَلَمَّآ ءَاتَوْهُ مَوْثِقَهُمْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ مَا نَقُولُ وَكِيلٌۭ
[Jacob] said, "Never will I send him with you until you give me a promise by Allah that you will bring him [back] to me, unless you should be surrounded by enemies." And when they had given their promise, he said, "Allah, over what we say, is Witness."
Explained together with ayah 63
وَقَالَ يَٰبَنِىَّ لَا تَدْخُلُوا۟ مِنۢ بَابٍۢ وَٰحِدٍۢ وَٱدْخُلُوا۟ مِنْ أَبْوَٰبٍۢ مُّتَفَرِّقَةٍۢ ۖ وَمَآ أُغْنِى عَنكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ مِن شَىْءٍ ۖ إِنِ ٱلْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ ۖ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ ۖ وَعَلَيْهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلْمُتَوَكِّلُونَ
And he said, "O my sons, do not enter from one gate but enter from different gates; and I cannot avail you against [the decree of] Allah at all. The decision is only for Allah; upon Him I have relied, and upon Him let those who would rely [indeed] rely."
['O my sons] do not enter by one gate, that is, do not wayfare along the path of a single virtue, such as munificence for example but not bravery; or do not conduct yourselves according to one of God's descriptions only, exalted be He, for the presence of the [inclusive] unity is the source of all virtues and the essence of the [exclusive] unity is the principle of all the attributes. Thus wayfare along the path of all of the separate virtues until you have acquired the attribute of justice whereafter you can turn to the presence of the [inclusive] unity, and onduct yourselves according to all of the attributes until the essence is unveiled to you. It is related in a ḥadīth that on the Day of Resurrection, God, exalted be He, discloses Himself to the various religious groups according to the belief of each [one of them] and so they recognise Him. But He then undergoes a transmutation into another form and they deny Him. Yet I cannot avail you against God anything, in other words, I cannot ward off anything from you should He withhold from you the granting of success or veil you with certain veils from your perfections, for the intellect can only effuse knowledge, not bring a preparedness into existence or remove a veil.
وَلَمَّا دَخَلُوا۟ مِنْ حَيْثُ أَمَرَهُمْ أَبُوهُم مَّا كَانَ يُغْنِى عَنْهُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ مِن شَىْءٍ إِلَّا حَاجَةًۭ فِى نَفْسِ يَعْقُوبَ قَضَىٰهَا ۚ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَذُو عِلْمٍۢ لِّمَا عَلَّمْنَٰهُ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
And when they entered from where their father had ordered them, it did not avail them against Allah at all except [it was] a need within the soul of Jacob, which he satisfied. And indeed, he was a possessor of knowledge because of what We had taught him, but most of the people do not know.
And when they entered, that is, [when] they obeyed the command of the intellect to wayfare along the path of all of the virtues, it did not avail them from the direction of God, anything, in other words, their being veiled by the veil of Majesty and privation from the pleasure of arrival did not avert anything from them, because the intellect is only guided to primordial nature and only itself guides to gnosis. As regards being illumined by the light of the Beauty and delighting in the pleasure of yearning by seeking contact, and tasting of fervent love from the perfection of the Majesty and the Beauty, nay, the Majesty of the Beauty and the Beauty of the Majesty, that is something that can only be facilitated by the light of guidance that comes from the Truth [Himself]; it was but a need in Jacob's soul, to make them perfect by means of virtues. And verily he was possessed of knowledge, because God had taught him, not because he enjoyed eyewitness or presential vision; but most of mankind do not know, that, and so they suppose that perfection is how much knowledge the intellect possesses; or [it could be understood as] mankind of the senses who do not know the knowledge of the universal intellect;
وَلَمَّا دَخَلُوا۟ عَلَىٰ يُوسُفَ ءَاوَىٰٓ إِلَيْهِ أَخَاهُ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّىٓ أَنَا۠ أَخُوكَ فَلَا تَبْتَئِسْ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
And when they entered upon Joseph, he took his brother to himself; he said, "Indeed, I am your brother, so do not despair over what they used to do [to me]."
he [Joseph] took his brother into his arms, by virtue of the correspondence between them in terms of disengagement;
فَلَمَّا جَهَّزَهُم بِجَهَازِهِمْ جَعَلَ ٱلسِّقَايَةَ فِى رَحْلِ أَخِيهِ ثُمَّ أَذَّنَ مُؤَذِّنٌ أَيَّتُهَا ٱلْعِيرُ إِنَّكُمْ لَسَٰرِقُونَ
So when he had furnished them with their supplies, he put the [gold measuring] bowl into the bag of his brother. Then an announcer called out, "O caravan, indeed you are thieves."
he put the drinking-cup into the saddlebag of his brother, the drinking-cup with which he distributes the measure to people, in other words, his faculty for comprehending forms of knowledge from which he can then derive the knowledge of divine precepts and infer the canons of justice. For the practical rational faculty becomes more able to comprehend rational concepts after disengaging from the garments of estimation and imagination, as does the considerative one, which is the faculty that manages the affair of livelihood, and the one tarnished with illusion in its initial state.The attribution of theft to him is because of his habituation, in the locus of estimation, to comprehending [only] the particulars of those meanings attached to substrata, and [because of] his remoteness from comprehending universals. So when he became better enabled to [comprehend] them after being taken into his brother's arms and drawing from him that faculty by means of disengagement, it was as though he had stolen [something] whereas he had not stolen. As for the crier who accused them of theft, he is illusion and because of the presence of something illusory [ḍ] the state of all changed from what it had been; their [the cameleers] non-compliance with him and his supposing that to be the case was a deficiency on their part [ḍ].The load [of one camel] promised for whoever brings [back] the goblet represents the obligations of the divine law (taklīf) which come about by means of the practical intellect when it draws that knowledge from the heart. The goblet is the faculty of preparedness by which his knowledge is actualised. The one missing it who searches their saddlebags and the one who pulls it out of his [Joseph's] brother's saddlebag is reflection, whom the heart had sent for that task.
Commentary: Tafsir al-Kashani by 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashani. Qur'an text and translation via AlQuran Cloud.
