Tafsir of Yusuf 12:20

"And they sold him": The nominative pronoun refers either to the brothers, in which case "sharu-hu" (sold him) signifies selling (bay'), or it refers to the caravan, in which case it signifies buying (ishtara), as in the saying: "I bought (sharaitu) a cloak, would that after the cloak I were a traveler," and his saying: "If this death would accept a ransom, I would buy (sharaitu) Abu Zayd with everything my hands possess." It is also permitted, in this interpretation, to mean "sold" on the premise that they sold him after they had found him among one another for a "meager price," meaning naqs (a deficiency). It is a verbal noun meant to signify the passive participle, i.e., "deficient." Al-Raghib permitted it to mean bakhis—that is, diminishing from the true value with an obvious diminution. Muqatil said: "Counterfeit, lacking in weight." Qatadah said: "Bakhis means injustice, for they wronged him in selling him." Ibn Abbas, Al-Dahhak, and others said: "The bakhs is the unlawful." It was unlawful because it was the price of a free man, and the unlawful is called bakhs because its blessing is "diminished" (mabkhus).

His saying, Exalted is He: "dirhams" is a substitute for "price," meaning: not counted dinars, i.e., they were few. Counting was used as a metonym for scarcity because, for them, a large amount was weighed. The count of these dirhams, in many narrations, was twenty, while in one narration from Ibn Abbas it was twenty-two; in another, it was twenty, a garment, and two sandals. It is also said: thirty, a garment, and two sandals; others say: eighteen, with which they bought shoes and sandals; others say: ten. It is reported from Ikrimah that it was forty dirhams. This does not refute the observation of more than one scholar that their custom was only to weigh what reached an uqiyyah, which is forty dirhams, as this does not deny that forty could be counted.

"And they were concerning him"—that is, concerning Yusuf, as is the apparent meaning—"of those who are indifferent" (zāhidīn).

This means they had no desire for him. If the pronoun in "they were" (kānū) refers to the brothers, it is obvious. If it refers to the company (the caravan) and they were the sellers, their indifference toward him was because they had merely found him; one who finds an object is careless with it, not minding for what price he sells it, and because he fears that a rightful owner might appear and seize it from his hand, so he sells it to the first bidder for the lowest price. If the pronoun refers to them as buyers—having bought him from one another or from the brothers—their indifference was because they believed him to be a runaway slave, so they feared risking their wealth on him. It is also said that the pronoun "concerning him" (fīhi) refers to the price, and their indifference was due to its poor quality, or because their only intention was to remove Yusuf, peace be upon him.

This is clear on the premise that the pronoun "they were" (kānū) refers to the brothers. Regarding the prepositional phrase, as reported from Ibn Malik, it is connected to an implied word indicated by "the indifferent ones" (al-zāhidīn); that is: "They were indifferent toward him, [being] of the indifferent ones." This is because the lam in "al-zāhidīn" is a relative pronoun, and the contents of a relative clause cannot precede the relative pronoun itself, and because what follows the prepositional phrase cannot govern what precedes it. Is "of the indifferent ones," in this case, an appositive to the implied "indifferent" acting as an intensifier—like saying "a scholar among the scholars"—or is it a descriptive attribute? That is, they were indifferent to such a degree that they were counted among the indifferent, for the indifferent person might not be deeply established in indifference to be counted among them. Or is it a second predicate? All of this is possible; it is not a substitute for the implied word because of the presence of "of" (min) with it. Some have interpreted the implied word as: "I mean, I am concerning him of the indifferent."

Ibn al-Hajib said in his Amali: It is connected to the relative clause, and the meaning is based on it without doubt. They only fled from this when they understood that the relative clause cannot govern what precedes the relative pronoun absolutely. Yet there is a difference between the relative al- and others; for this one is in the form of a particle placed as a part of the word, so there is no prohibition against its governed element preceding it. Thus, there is no need to say that its connection to the mentioned [word] is only the school of Al-Mazini, who considered al- in such cases a definite article, and he seemingly does not view the precedence of the governed element of a genitive as prohibited; otherwise, the removal of the impediment [as mentioned] would not be complete. Some have claimed that the governed element of an active participle, without reliance [upon a preceding word], is a place of error, but they are in a place of negligence, for the place of dispute is its governing the subject or direct object, not the prepositional phrase, for which the mere "scent" of a verb suffices. Some later scholars have said: The attribute here is reliant upon the noun of "they were" (kānū), which is originally a subject. Reliance on that is considered valid by them. In Al-Radi, regarding the statement of Ibn al-Hajib: "And reliance on its possessor," he means by its possessor the subject, either in state, like Zayd is his brothers' hitter, or originally, like Zayd was his brothers' hitter. Upon this, there is no need in the answer to remove the prepositional phrase from the rule of the subject or direct object, even if it has a valid aspect, contrary to those who denied it. Some people hold to the generality of the expansion regarding adverbial phrases and prepositional phrases, which is not expanded upon in other things, to refute what is brought against the connection of the prepositional phrase here to the attribute [which is] the genitive occurring as a relative clause for al-. And so, understand.

This is the case, and the common view is that the sellers were his brothers, and they were the indifferent ones. In some traditions, it is said that when they sold him, they said to the merchant: "He is a runaway thief," so he shackled him and put a black slave in charge of him. When the time for their departure came, he—peace be upon him—wept. The merchant said to him: "What makes you weep?" He replied: "I wish to reach those who sold me to bid them farewell and greet them with the greeting of one who will not return to them." The merchant said to the slave: "Take him and go to his masters so he may bid them farewell, then bring him back to the caravan. I have never seen a boy more dutiful to his masters than this one, nor a people more callous than them." The slave went forward with him to his brothers, and one of them was awake guarding the sheep. When Yusuf reached him, stumbling in his shackles, he threw himself upon him and wept. He said to him: "Why have you come?" He replied: "I have come to bid you farewell and greet you." The brother shouted to them: "Rise for him who has come to you to bid you farewell with the greeting of one who never hopes to see you again. Woe to you for this farewell!" They rose, and Yusuf began to throw himself upon each of them, kissing and embracing them, saying: "May Allah protect you, even though you have wasted me; may Allah give you shelter, even though you have driven me away; may Allah have mercy upon you, even though you have not had mercy upon me." It is said that the sheep aborted what was in their bellies from the terror of this farewell.

Then the slave took him and sought the caravan. While he was on his mount, he passed by the grave of his mother, Rachel, in the cemeteries of Canaan. When he saw the grave, he could not restrain himself; he threw himself upon it, embraced it, and began to weep, saying: "O mother, lift your head from the soil that you may see your son in shackles! O mother, my brothers cast me into the pit, and from my father they separated me, and for the meagerest of prices they sold me. They did not soften to my young age, nor did they have mercy upon me. I ask Allah, the Exalted, to gather me and my father in the dwelling of His mercy, for He is the Most Merciful of the merciful." The slave turned around and did not see him, so he returned and saw him on the grave. He said: "By Allah, your masters spoke the truth; you are a runaway slave!" Then he struck him a severe blow, and he fainted. Then he recovered, and he said to him: "Do not blame me; this is the grave of my mother; I descended to greet her, and I will never return to what you dislike." Then he lifted his eyes to the sky, having rolled in the dust with tears on his face, and said: "O Allah, if I have a sin that has tarnished my face before You, then by the sanctity of my noble ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, forgive me and have mercy upon me, O Most Merciful of the merciful."

The angels then clamored to Allah, the Exalted, at that. The Blessed and Exalted said: "O My angels, this is My prophet and the son of My prophets, and he has cried out to Me for help, and I am his Helper and the Helper of those who cry for help. O Gabriel, reach him." Gabriel, peace be upon him, descended and said: "O friend of Allah, your Lord sends you peace and says to you: 'Go gently; you have made the angels of the seven heavens weep. Do you wish that I collapse the sky upon the earth?'" He said: "No, O Gabriel, be gentle with the creation of my Lord, for He is Forbearing and does not hasten." He struck the earth with his wing, and a red wind blew, the sun was eclipsed, and the earth darkened; the people of the caravan could not see one another. The merchant said: "Dismount before you perish; I have traveled this road for many years, but I have never seen the like of today. Whoever among you has committed a sin, let him repent, for this has only befallen us due to a sin we have committed." The slave told him what he had done to Yusuf, saying: "O my master, when I struck him, he raised his eyes to the sky and moved his lips." The merchant said to him: "Woe to you! You have destroyed us and yourself." The merchant went forward to him and said: "O boy, we have wronged you when we struck you; if you wish to exact retribution from us, here we are before you." Yusuf replied: "I am not of a people who, when wronged, exact retribution, but I am of a family that, when wronged, pardons and forgives. I have pardoned you in the hope that Allah may pardon me." Then the darkness cleared, the wind subsided, the sun shone, and the easts and wests of the earth lit up. They traveled until they entered Egypt in safety. This merchant, it is said, was Malik ibn Dhu'r, who brought him out of the pit, though others say someone else.