Tafsir of Yusuf 12:47

{تزرعون} (You shall sow): This is a declarative statement in the sense of a command, similar to His saying: {تؤمنون بالله ورسوله وتجاهدون} (You believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive [in the cause of Allah]). The command is expressed in the form of a statement to emphasize the necessity of bringing the commanded action into existence, as if it were already occurring, so he reports it as such. The evidence that it is in the sense of a command is His saying: {فذروه في سنبله} (Leave it in its ears).

{دأبا} (Consecutively/Diligently): Read with both a quiescent and a vocalized hamza. Both are verbal nouns (masdar) for "toil in work." It is a state (hal) for those commanded, meaning "you being diligent." It is either derived from ta’dabuna da’ban (you toil with diligence) or by using the verbal noun as a state, meaning "possessors of diligence."

{فذروه في سنبله} (Leave it in its ears): So that it does not become infested with weevils.

{يأكلن} (They will eat): This is a metaphorical attribution; the eating of the people is attributed to the years themselves.

{يحصنون} (You will store/preserve): Meaning you will guard and hide away.

{فيه يغاث الناس} (In it, people will be aided/given rain): Derived from ghawth (aid) or ghayth (rain). It is said: ghuyithat al-bilad (the land was rained upon). From this is the saying of the Bedouin woman: "We were rained upon (ghuthna) as we wished."

{يعصرون} (They will press): Read with both ya and ta. It means they will press grapes, olives, and sesame. It is also said: they will milk the udders. It has been recited as yu’sarun (passive voice), from ‘asara (to save/deliver), which corresponds to ighatha (aid). It is also possible that it is active, meaning "they will save themselves," as if it were said: "In it, people are aided, and in it, they aid themselves"—meaning Allah aids them, and they aid one another. It is also said that ya‘surun means "they will be rained upon," from a‘sarat al-sahaba (the cloud poured rain). There are two interpretations here: either a‘sarat is understood to mean mutirat (it rained), thus taking the same object, or the original was a‘sarat ‘alayhim (it rained upon them), and the preposition was omitted, making the verb transitive.

Interpretation of the Dream: He interpreted the fat cows and green ears as years of abundance, and the lean ones and dry ears as years of drought. Then, after finishing the interpretation of the dream, he gave them glad tidings that the eighth year would come blessed, fertile, full of good, and abundant in blessings; this was through revelation. Qatada said: Allah increased his knowledge by one year.

If you ask: It is known that when drought years end, they end with fertility, otherwise they would not be described as "ending." Why then did you say that this knowledge came through revelation?

I say: That is known as general knowledge, not detailed. His saying {فيه يغاث الناس وفيه يعصرون} is a detailed account of the state of that year, and that cannot be known except through revelation.

{وقال الملك ائتونى به فلما جآءه الرسول قال ارجع إلى ربك فاسأله ما بال النسوة الاتى قطعن أيديهن إن ربى بكيدهن عليم * قال ما خطبكن إذ راودتن يوسف عن نفسه قلن حاش لله ما علمنا عليه من سوء قالت امرأت العزيز اأن حصحص الحق أنا راودته عن نفسه وإنه لمن الصادقين}