Tafsir of Yusuf 12:102

"ذلك" (That): This is a demonstrative pronoun referring to the aforementioned accounts of Joseph, peace be upon him. The sense of distance implied by the pronoun is used here for the same reasons mentioned repeatedly in the past. The address is directed to the Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and the pronoun serves as the subject (mubtada’).

"مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ" (from the news of the unseen): Of which no one can approach the knowledge, as it is hidden from them.

"نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ" (We reveal it to you): This is a second predicate, or it constitutes a state (hal) from the pronoun embedded in the predicate. It is also permissible for "ذلك" to be interpreted as a relative noun serving as the subject, with "مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ" as its relative clause (silah) and "نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ" as its predicate; however, this is based on a rejected school of thought that treats all demonstrative pronouns as relative nouns.

"وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ" (And you were not with them): Meaning with the brothers of Joseph, peace be upon him.

"إِذْ أَجْمَعُوا أَمْرَهُمْ" (when they agreed upon their plan): That is, their act of placing him in the depths of the well.

"وَهُمْ يَمْكُرُونَ" (while they were conspiring): Against him and seeking to inflict disasters upon him.

It is said that this entire sentence serves as evidence that this account is indeed from the "news of the unseen" revealed to him, peace and blessings be upon him. The meaning is: This news is an unseen matter that you could not have known except through revelation, because you were not present with the brothers of Joseph when they resolved to place him in the depths of the well while they were conspiring against him. It is known—and it is not hidden from those who belie you—that you did not meet anyone who heard this story from whom you could have learned it. This is a form of theological argumentation (theological dialectic), as stated by more than one scholar.

The latter part of the logical implication was omitted, even though the evidence for what was mentioned consists of both matters combined, because it is known from another verse, such as the Almighty’s saying: "You did not know it, neither you nor your people before this."

Some verifiers have said: This is a mockery directed at those who belied him. It proceeds from the fact that the Almighty treats the dubious matter—namely, his presence among the sons of Jacob, peace be upon him, while they were conspiring—as something he denies by saying: "And you were not with them." The only thing a skeptic might have doubted before this clarification was whether he had received this information from the people of this story. The plain meaning of the speech should have been to negate that, but the matter of doubt was instead treated as something that is not in doubt, because the fact that he, peace and blessings be upon him, had not met anyone nor heard [the story] was as clear as the breaking of dawn to them. Thus, extreme mockery is achieved, and the resultant meaning becomes: "You stubborn deniers, you have already known that he was not an eyewitness to the past generations, and your denial of what he has informed you of leads you to stubbornly claim that he did witness those who passed away." This is like the Almighty’s saying: "Or were you witnesses when Allah ordered you to do this?"

From this, the benefit of shifting from the style of "You did not know it, neither you nor your people" to this style becomes apparent; it is more eloquent than what was mentioned first. Another subtle point regarding this formulation is that what was mentioned was their conspiracy and what they plotted, which is something they kept secret so that no one else would know it; thus, it was impossible to learn it from others. This is an elegant aspect [of the verse].

Regardless of the interpretation, the verse serves as an indication that the aforementioned news is the truth that corresponds to reality, and that what the People of the Book convey is not as it truly occurred.