12. Yusuf

They said after coming towards them ‘What is it that you are missing?’

They said ‘By God’ ta’Llāhi is an oath entailing astonishment ‘You know very well that we did not come to work corruption in the land and we are certainly not thieves’ that is we have never stolen anything.

They the crier and his men said ‘So what shall be his requital that is the thief’s if you prove to have been liars?’ when you said ‘we are certainly not thieves’ and if it is found among your belongings?

They said ‘His requital qālū jazā’uhu the subject the predicate of which is the following man wujida fī rahlihi shall be the requital of him in whose saddlebag it is found that he be enslaved — this is then reiterated by His words He the thief shall be the requital for it that is for the stolen item and nothing else this was the customary practice of the family of Jacob. Thus with such a requital do we requite those who do evil’ through theft. They thus permitted Joseph to have their saddlebags searched.

And so he began with their sacks and searched them before his brother’s sack lest he be accused of the theft; then he pulled it the drinking-cup out of his brother’s sack. God exalted be He says Thus through such contrivance did We contrive for Joseph thus We taught him how to devise a plot to take his brother; he Joseph could not have taken his brother as a slave on account of theft according to the king’s law according to the laws of the king of Egypt — since his a thief’s requital according to his law would have been a beating and a penalty of twice the value of the stolen item but not enslavement — unless God willed for him to be taken according to the law of his father Jacob; in other words he was only able to take him with God’s will by God’s inspiring him to ask his brothers about the nature of requital and their responding according to what is decreed by their customary practice. We raise by degrees whom We will read with a genitive annexation darajāti man nashā’ or simply with nunation darajātin man nashā’ in terms of knowledge as We did with Joseph; and above every man of knowledge from among creatures is one who knows better better than him and so on until it ends with God exalted be He.

They said ‘If he is stealing a brother of his stole before’ that is Joseph — he had stolen a golden idol from his maternal grandfather and smashed it lest he worship it. But Joseph kept it secret in his soul and did not disclose it manifest it to them the suffixed pronoun in yubdi-hā ‘disclose it’ refers to the words in his following saying; he said within himself ‘You are a worse case than Joseph and his brother because of your stealing a brother of yours from your father and your wronging him. And God knows very well what you are describing’ what you are mentioning with regard to him.

They said ‘O Court officer lo! he has a father an aged man who loves him more than we do and who finds solace in him from the anguish he feels for his dead son; and it will grieve him to part with him so take one of us enslave him in his place instead of him indeed we see that you are among the virtuous’ in terms of your actions.

He said ‘God forbid ma‘ādha’Llāhi lit. ‘refuge is with God’ is in the accusative because it is a verbal noun the verb having been omitted and placed in a genitive annexation with its direct object in other words understand it as na‘ūdhu bi’Llāhi ‘we seek refuge with God’ that we should take anyone save him with whom we found our property — he did not say ‘save him who stole our property’ being careful not to lie; for then truly — if we were to take anyone other than him — we would be evildoers’.

So when they despaired of moving him they withdrew to confer privately together najiyyan is a verbal noun that can be used to refer to one person or more in other words understand it as meaning yunājī ba‘duhum ba‘dan ‘one conferring with the other’. The most senior of them in years — Reuben — or the most senior of them in opinion — Judah said ‘Are you not aware that your father has taken a solemn pledge a covenant from you by God concerning your brother and formerly wa-min qablu mā the mā is extra you failed regarding Joseph? but it the mā is also said to be relating to the verbal action in other words it is a subject the predicate of which is min qabl ‘formerly’. So I will never leave part with this land the land of Egypt until my father permits me to return to him or God judges for me through the deliverance of my brother; and He is the best the fairest of judges.