Tafsir of Yusuf 12:89

{He said, "Do you know..."} He approached them from the perspective of religion, being forbearing and divinely guided. He spoke to them, inquiring about their realization of the ugliness [of their actions], which is a prerequisite for the repentant.

He said: {...what you did with Yusuf and his brother when you were ignorant?} Meaning: You did not know the ugliness of it, and that is why you proceeded with it. He meant: Have you realized its ugliness so that you might repent to God for it? For the knowledge of ugliness invites one to deem it ugly, and deeming it ugly leads to repentance.

His words were an expression of compassion and religious counsel toward them, not a rebuke or a reproach. He preferred the right of God over his own right, in that very situation where the distressed usually sighs, the aggrieved vents, the enraged and resentful seeks vengeance, and the bereaved seeks retribution. How gentle and easy are the morals of the prophets! How steady and profound are their intellects!

It is said: He did not intend to deny their knowledge, for they were knowledgeable men. But because they did not act according to what knowledge demands—an act only a "jahil" (ignorant person) would commit—he called them "ignorant."

It is also said: It means, "when you were children in the stage of foolishness and recklessness, before you reached the age of maturity and composure."

It is narrated that when they said, "Hardship has touched us and our family," and pleaded with him, his eyes welled up with tears, and then he said these words.

It is said: They delivered to him a letter from Ya'qub: "From Ya'qub, the Israel of God, son of Ishaq, the sacrifice of God, son of Ibrahim, the friend of God, to the Aziz of Egypt. To proceed: We are a household upon whom trials are appointed. As for my grandfather, his hands and feet were bound, and he was thrown into the fire to be burned, but God saved him and made the fire cool and peaceful for him. As for my father, the knife was placed upon his neck to be slaughtered, but God ransomed him. As for me, I had a son who was the most beloved of my children to me. His brothers took him to the wilderness, then came to me with his shirt stained with blood, saying a wolf had eaten him, so my eyes went blind from weeping for him. Then I had another son, his brother from his mother, and I found solace in him. They took him away, then returned saying he had stolen, and that you have imprisoned him for that. We are a household that does not steal, nor do we beget a thief. If you return him to me, [it is well]; otherwise, I shall invoke a curse upon you that will reach the seventh generation of your descendants. Peace."

When Yusuf read the letter, he could not restrain himself, and his patience failed him, so he said to them what he said. It is narrated that when he read the letter, he wept and wrote a reply: "Be patient as they were patient, and you shall triumph as they triumphed."

If you ask: What did they do to his brother? I say: They exposed him to grief and bereavement by separating him from his brother (who shared the same father and mother), treated him harshly, to the point where he could not speak to any of them except with the speech of the lowly to the mighty, and they harmed him with various forms of injury.

{They said, "Are you indeed Yusuf?" He said, "I am Yusuf, and this is my brother. God has certainly favored us. Indeed, he who fears God and is patient, then indeed, God does not allow to be lost the reward of those who do good." They said, "By God, certainly has God preferred you over us, and indeed, we have been sinners." He said, "No reproach will there be upon you today. God will forgive you; and He is the most merciful of the merciful. Take this, my shirt, and cast it over the face of my father; he will become seeing. And bring me your family, all together."}