Tafsir of Yusuf 12:11

They said, "O our father" — they addressed him with this to stir the bonds of lineage and remind him of the ties of brotherhood, so that they might thereby cause him to relent from his opinion regarding keeping him away from them, as he had sensed their envy. It is as if they said, "What is the matter with you" — meaning, what thing is it that prevents you — "that you do not trust us with Joseph," meaning, do not entrust us with him, "when you are our father, we are your sons, and he is our brother, and indeed we are for him well-wishers."

We desire good for him and feel compassion for him; there is nothing in us that would contradict that. The sentence "that you do not trust us" is in the position of a circumstantial qualifier (hal), as is the sentence "and indeed we are for him well-wishers." The interrogative in "What is the matter with you" carries a sense of astonishment, and the discourse clearly indicates that they had previously asked that he (peace be upon him) go out with them, and their father had not consented to that.

The majority read "la ta’manna" (do not trust us) with assimilation (idgham) and ishmam—which is explained as rounding the lips while slightly parting them, signaling the vowel sound along with the explicit assimilation, as occurs in pausing; this is what is known to them, though it is difficult in this instance. It is also applied to imbuing the kasra with a portion of the damma, as they said in "qila," and to imbuing one of two letters with a portion of another, as they said in "al-sirat." Zayd ibn Ali (may Allah be pleased with them both), Abu Ja'far, al-Zuhri, and Amr ibn Ubayd read it with assimilation without ishmam, and the intent of negation is manifest. Ibn Hurmuz read it with the damma on the mim along with assimilation; this damma is transferred to the mim from the first nun after stripping the nun of its vowel. Ubayy, al-Hasan, Talha ibn Musarrif, and al-A'mash read "la ta’manuna" (do not trust us) with explicit articulation (izhar) and damma on the nun, according to the original root; this contradicts the script of the Mushaf, as it is written with only one nun. Ibn Waththab and Abu Razin read "la ta’imuna" with a kasra on the prefix letter (of the imperfect verb) according to the dialect of Tamim; Ibn Waththab softened (sahhala) the glottal stop (hamza) after the kasra, while Abu Razin did not soften it.

Ibn al-Mundhir and Abu al-Shaykh reported from Asim that he read it in the presence of Ubayd ibn Fadala, who said to him, "You have committed a grammatical error." Abu Razin replied, "He who reads according to the dialect of his people has not committed an error."