12. Yusuf

Go back to your father and say “O our father your son has indeed stolen and we testified against him only regarding what we knew from the certainty of having seen the king’s cup in his saddlebag; we could not have guarded against the Unseen that which was hidden from us when we gave our pledge had we known that he would steal we would not have taken him with us to Egypt.

And ask the city in which we were — namely Egypt — in other words send forth someone to ask its people and the caravan the men of the caravan with which we approached — and these were a group of Canaanites. Surely we speak the truth” ’ in what we say. So they went back to him and told him as much.

‘Nay’ he said ‘but your souls have beguiled you into have adorned for you something and you did it he accused them because of what had happened with them before concerning Joseph. Yet comely patience will be my course of patience! It may be that God will bring them Joseph and his two brothers all back to me. Indeed He is the Knower of my predicament the Wise’ in His actions.

And he turned away from them no longer addressing them and said ‘Alas my grief for Joseph!’ yā asafā the final alif of asafā has taken the place of the possessive yā’ of genitive annexation sc. yā asafī in other words it means yā huznī ‘O my sorrow’. And his eyes turned white their dark colour was effaced and became white on account of his tears with grief for him such that he was filled with suppressed agony anguished and grief-stricken but not manifesting his grief.

He said to them ‘I complain of my anguish — bathth is severe grief which cannot be endured unless it is proclaimed yubaththu to others — and grief only to God not to any other than Him for it is worth complaining to Him; and I know from God what you do not know and that is that Joseph’s dream is true and that he is alive. Then he said

O my sons go and enquire about Joseph and his brother seek news of them and do not despair of God’s gracious Spirit His mercy. Indeed none despairs of the gracious Spirit of God save the disbelieving folk’ and so they departed to Egypt to look for Joseph.

And so when they entered to him they said ‘O Court officer misfortune hunger has befallen us and our family; and we have come with reject merchandise refused by any person who sees it because of its worthlessness — it consisted of counterfeit dirhams or something else — so fill up complete for us the measure and be charitable to us by overlooking the worthlessness of our merchandise; truly God requites the charitable’ He rewards them he Joseph thus took pity on them and he was overtaken by compassion for them and removed the partition between them and himself.

Then he said to them in rebuke ‘Do you realise what you did to Joseph in the way of beating him and selling him and otherwise and his brother oppressing him after having separated him from his brother while you were ignorant?’ of where the affair of Joseph will lead?

They said — after recognising him by his noble traits — cautiously inquiring ‘Is it really read a-innaka either pronouncing both hamzas or by not pronouncing the second but in both cases inserting an alif you Joseph?’. He said ‘I am indeed Joseph and this is my brother. God has truly shown favour He has been gracious to us by bringing us together. Verily if one fears if one fears God and endures what happens to him God does not waste the wage of those who are virtuous’ in this respect the overt noun al-muhsinīn ‘the virtuous’ has replaced the third person pronominalisation.