Tafsir of Yusuf 12:57

{ And the reward of the Hereafter is better for those who believed and were God-fearing. }

The relative pronoun has been placed here in place of the pronoun referring to "the doers of good" (al-muhsinin), and both the past and future tense forms are combined, as a warning regarding that. The meaning is: "And their reward in the Hereafter is better," and the genitive construction here is for the purpose of association. Placing this sentence—which is positive—after the negative sentence implies that the pivot of the aforementioned will is the ihsan (good-doing) of those upon whom the mentioned mercy descends.

Regarding the mention of the third, emphatic sentence: it serves to dispel the illusion that the fruits of ihsan are limited to the mentioned worldly reward. It is understood from this that the meaning of "We bestow Our mercy upon whom We will" is from among Our servants who believed and persisted in piety. This has been criticized as being contrary to the apparent meaning. Perhaps the apparent meaning is to interpret "whoever" (man) in a sense more general than what they mentioned. In that case, it is not far-fetched to intend by "mercy" the blessing that is not in exchange for any deeds, and by "reward" that which is in exchange for some of them. The matter of placing the relative pronoun in place of the pronoun remains as it is, as if it were said: "We favor whomsoever We will from among Our servants, regardless of their state, and We bestow upon them kingship, wealth, and other things—not in exchange for anything—and We pay in full the rewards of the believers who persist in piety among them. We give them in this world what We give them in exchange for their faith and persistence in piety, and what We give them in the Hereafter in exchange for that—consisting of great, everlasting blessings—is better for them than what We give them in this world, due to its greatness and permanence."

It has been objected that this entails applying the term "mercy" to what befalls a disbeliever, such as kingship and wealth, even though it is not mercy, as many verses suggest and as is necessitated by the statement: "Allah Almighty has no blessing upon a disbeliever." It is answered that the statement regarding "The Most Merciful" (al-Rahman)—that He is the one who shows mercy to both the believer and the disbeliever in this world—is apparent in the correctness of applying the term "mercy" to what befalls the disbeliever. Likewise, His saying: { And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds } is apparent in the correctness of saying that the disbeliever is, in a general sense, a recipient of mercy. The matter of "implication" is trivial. As for their statement that "Allah has no blessing upon a disbeliever," some have said this only by including "that whose outcome one praises" in their definition of a blessing. If you refuse that—and I do not think so—why is it not permissible to say that He expressed what was mentioned as "mercy" in consideration of those who are included in the generality of "whoever" from among the believers?

Yes, interpreting "mercy" here as a blessing that is not in exchange for any deeds, and "reward" as that which is in exchange, is contradicted by the report from Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, who said: "The believer is rewarded for his good deeds in the world and the Hereafter, while the sinner is given his share of good early in the world, and he has no share in the Hereafter." He recited this verse, for it is apparent that what befalls the disbeliever is in exchange for a deed of his, and that there is in the verse that which indicates this, which is none other than: { We bestow Our mercy upon whom We will }. It may be answered that perhaps he interpreted "the doers of good" (al-muhsinin) in a way that includes disbelievers who perform good acts, such as maintaining kinship ties, helping the oppressed, feeding the poor, and the like; therefore, restricting the indication to what was mentioned is prohibited. Yes, this report does clearly disrupt the previous interpretation, since the verse—according to his view—contains no reference to the disbeliever at all, so there is no meaning in reciting it after that statement.

Some have generalized the times in { We bestow } and { We do not waste }, saying: "We bestow in the world and the Hereafter, and We do not waste the reward of the doers of good; rather, We pay their rewards in full, early and late." This is supported by the fact that there is no cause for restriction, and that the report of Sufyan indicates generality. It has been countered that whoever restricts this to the world does so only so that what follows it acts as an initiation (of a new idea), and that the report has no indication of that because it is derived from the verse as a whole. And therein is what is in it.

From Ibn Abbas, there is an interpretation of "the doers of good" as "the patient ones." Perhaps—may Allah be pleased with him—assuming the report is authentic, he saw this as more appropriate to the context. Regardless, there is an indication in the verse that what Allah Almighty has prepared for Yusuf, peace be upon him, of reward and recompense in the Hereafter is better than what He gave him in this world of kingship.