Surah Yusuf 12:94-104 - Quran Translation Commentary

96. Then, when the bearer of the glad tidings came, he laid it on his face, and his sight came back .¹⁴⁸ He said: “Did I not tell you? surely I know from Allah, what you do not know.”¹⁴⁹

97. They said: “O our father! Pray for forgiveness of our sins, verily we were sinners.”¹⁵⁰

98. He said: “I shall pray to my Lord for forgiveness for you.¹⁵¹ Verily He is the Oft Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

99. And when they came in before Yusuf, he took his parents to him and said: “Enter Misr (Egypt), in safe if Allah wills.”¹⁵²

100. And he placed his parents high on the throne and they bowed down before him,¹⁵³ and he said: “O my father! This is the interpretation of my dream of old. My Lord has made it come true, and surely He has shown kindness to me when He took me out of the prison and has brought you from the desert after Satan had sowed the seeds of strife between me and my brethren. Verily, my Lord is a Gracious Planner for whom He wills. He is the all Knower, the all Wise.¹⁵⁴”

101. O my Lord! You have given me kingdom and have taught me interpretation of matters (events), Creator of the heavens and the earth! You are my Protecting Master in the world and the Hereafter. Cause me to die as a Muslim and join to me with (the group of) the righteous.”¹⁵⁵

102. That is of the news of the unseen which we are revealing to you, (O Muhammad) you were not present with them when they conceived their plan together and they were plotting .¹⁵⁶

103. And most of the mankind will not believe even if you desire eagerly .¹⁵⁷

104. And (O Muhammad) you ask no recompense of them for it;¹⁵⁸ it is nothing else but a reminder to the peoples of the worlds.¹⁵⁹

Commentary

146. Yusuf had stayed in Egypt for quite a long time, but so far Prophet Yaqub did not feel his scent, but now when the caravan departed from Egypt, he felt or smelt the scent of Yusuf. It shows that it must have been an inspiration from Allah which cast a shadow of the coming events.

The likely explanation of this expression is that here Yusuf’s breath or scent means the glad tidings of his whereabouts, which he might have received when the caravan started to move from Egypt for Canaan with Yusuf’s shirt. But this glad tiding was covert. The good news was received in open by him when the caravan reached Canaan.

147. These words might have been spoken by the people of his house, because they had been seeing that Prophet Yaqub was feeling lost without Yusuf; therefore, they thought that his feeling of Yusuf’s scent was nothing but an illusion. It appears that they had not properly understood the greatness of a prophet, nor did they know that the breath or scent of Yusuf was felt with Allah’s help.

148. This was an astounding manifestation of Allah’s might, and such miracles are caused to be performed by Allah at the hands of His prophets, and through these feats He helps them and provides proof of His support to them. To deny them merely on the basis of our not personally seeing or experiencing them is not right, when the happenings of such miracles are conveyed to us through a source which is above all doubts.

The pages of the holy Qur’an contain numerous extraordinary historical events in order that man may not consider his limited knowledge and experience as the source of all knowledge, but that he should have in view the fact that this universe has a God who is running its affairs and He is showing the miracles of His might in the way He likes.

149. From this statement of Prophet Yaqub it appears that he knew from the information received through revelation that Yusuf was alive, and therefore, the desire to meet his beloved son was never absent from his heart. But since on this occasion Allah also wanted to test the patience of Prophet Yaqub, He had not given full information to him about Yusuf’s exact condition.

150. In this way the sons admitted their guilt in the presence of their father, and they requested him to pray for them for forgiveness, from Allah. This is man’s life, first he goes straight, then he strays and again reforms. Therefore, efforts to reform him should always be continued, for no one knows when his conscience may wake up.

151. The reason for delaying the prayer for his sons might be that Prophet Yaqub might have wanted to see the conduct of his sons whether they have really accepted the reform, and secondly because the whole matter concerned Yusuf, and he might have thought the time when all gathered round Yusuf as the most suitable moment for praying.

152. Yusuf had gone to the border of Egypt to receive his parents, where he welcomed them and most respectfully made them sit with him on a raised dais, and invited them to enter Egypt, where he hoped, by God’s grace they would enjoy peace and comfort.

153. That is: When all of them reached the capital of Egypt, and the court of Yusuf was in session, Yusuf, pushing aside the usual formalities paid immense respect to his parents and made them sit on the throne. At this time Yusuf had attained full powers and had become the actual ruler of Egypt. This fact enabled him to seat his parents on the throne. On this occasion the court of Yusuf had its unique Splendour. The old memories were revived, and the gracious act of Yusuf in forgiving his brethren and his noble character had impressed his brethren a great deal. When they saw that this person has remained so humble even after becoming the king of the country that he has placed his parents beside himself on the throne, they spontaneously prostrated themselves before him. This was an internal pressure which made them bow down to him; he had not ordered them to do so, nor was this a conscious act of respect, but it was a spontaneous and reflex action which ensued from them in a very highly emotional moment. Yusuf did not object to it because it was the interpretation of the dream which he had seen in his childhood. Thus the scheme which Allah had planned came to be executed, and all of them came under Yusuf’s protection and power.

A few aspects of discussion are dealt with as under:

(1) The words used in the text can be translated as “they prostrated themselves before him,” and other translation can be “they bowed down before him.” According to the context the second translation is correct. The word “sajda” as we have clarified in Note No: 7 can be used to mean bowing down also, and the bowing down of Yusuf’s brethren was the interpretation of his dream in which he had seen the stars bowing down before him. Therefore, here the question of prostrating oneself, as in prayer, does not arise. Do the stars have head which they can place on the ground? Prostrating themselves or bowing down of the stars means that they had descended from the heaven and had tilted towards Yusuf. Therefore, when his brethren bowed down before Yusuf the dream had come to be true. The word ‘Kharroo’ means ‘they fell down’ This word shows that they had involuntarily prostrated themselves, that is the situation had become so much emotionally charged that they had no control over their action and involuntarily bowed down before him. In other words, there was no external pressure on them to bow down before Yusuf, but they bowed down being internally pressurized by their own emotions, and the idea behind the narration of this event in the Qur’an is merely to show that ultimately Yusuf’s brethren had to bow down before him and to accept his control over them.

(2) The question of this bowing down to be the prostration of prayer or worship does not arise, because no prophet can tolerate anybody worshipping him. As for its being a prostration as a mark of respect, so that is also not true, because neither Yusuf had ordered it nor was this act of bowing down was introduced as a part of etiquette. There is no argument for this in the Qur’an and what is stated in the ayah is merely that his brothers bowed down before him involuntarily.

After the correct sense of the ayat has been made clear, the view of those who have declared the prostration in respect (sajda-i-tazimi) as lawful on the basis of this ayah is automatically refuted, although they have continued to consider it lawful to bow down before the ‘peers’, elderly people, dargahs and king. The Mogul kings had also allowed themselves to be respected by peoples’ bowing down before them, but Shaikh Ahmed Sarhindi carried on a brave jihad against this anti-Shariah custom.

(3) Yusuf had earlier placed his parents on the throne, so they were not included among those who bowed down before him. As regards the question as to how without his parents’ bowing down before him the Interpretation of the dream can be said to be true? The explanation is that the dream which Yusuf related (ayah No.5) had two parts. In one part he said that he saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon, and in the second part he said that they bowed down before him”. In the second part he has mentioned their bowing down collectively, he did not mention that they bowed down before him individually. Therefore, on the whole, his statement about their bowing down before him collectively has come to be true, even though his parents were not included in this act. The main sense of the dream was that all of them will be under his control and this purpose was realised as his parents and brethren came down to him after leaving their native land and agreed to stay with him under his control.

(4) When Yusuf was appointed as the administrator of Egypt he had not become the throned king of the land, but officially the king was the ruler of the country. However, subsequently his position became stronger. When his brethren came to buy the grains, he had become an administrator of great authority, Aziz, and now when he placed his parents on the throne by his side, he was the real ruler of the country, the king. This is the picture that emerges from the narrative in the Qur’an. In this connection the involved narrative in the Bible cannot be relied upon.

154. On this occasion this statement of Yusuf is the best example of his spotless character. Inspite of the fact that he was the ruler of Egypt, not even the slightest trace of vanity and pride can be found in this statement, on the contrary every word of this statement speaks of his acknowledgement of gratitude, thanks giving and humility.

155. On this occasion Yusuf also prayed to God. In this prayer he first mentioned the favours of Allah and praised Him, and then requested Allah to make his end blissful (as a Muslim) and to join him to the group of virtuous people. It is the etiquette of the prayer to Allah that first His praises be uttered and then one’s needs be humbly stated.

156. This event had taken place about two thousand and four hundred years before the revelation of Qur’an. Prophet Muhammad had no knowledge of this event, nor was his nation aware of it. As for the people of the Book, this chronicle has been narrated in the Book of Genesis, Bible, but the Prophet could not take advantage of it as he was unlettered, and secondly he had no contacts with learned men of the people of the Book. Moreover, the authenticity with which it has been narrated in the Qur’an is not found in the Bible. The narrative in the Qur’an is reasonable and such as would attract reliance, while this speciality cannot be claimed by the narrative in the Bible. The second difference in the two narratives is that in the Bible all the links of the chronicle have not been mentioned, while Qur’an presents it as a well co-ordinated chronicle, and has brought into focus all those important aspects which had gone under the cover of unseen, e.g. the interpretation of Yusuf’s dream as given by Prophet Yaqub; Yusuf’s brethren’s carrying him away according to a plan and to give false assurances to their father that they would protect him; divine revelation being sent to Prophet Yaqub to comfort him after Yusuf’s being thrown in the well; knowledge of interpretation of events being granted to Yusuf; tearing of Yusuf’s shirt from behind and the event of circumstantial evidence to prove his innocence; admission of the Aziz of Egypt that his wife was guilty; inviting to a feast of the ladies of Egypt by the wife of Aziz under a plan; crying out of the ladies that the meeting that Yusuf was not a man but an angel; the threat of Aziz’s wife to send Yusuf to prison; Yusuf’s prayer for steadfastness; Yusuf’s efforts at dawah in the prison; going of the king’s wine-server to the prison with the king’s permission for asking the interpretation of the dream; Yusuf’s refusal to be released and demand for a probe into the conspiracy of the Egyptian ladies; king’s probe and Yusuf’s being proved to be innocent; Prophet Yaqub’s sorrow on Bin Yamin’s detention; Prophet Yaqub’s directive to his children to search for Yusuf; Yusuf’s forgiving his brethren; on the caravan’s starting from Egypt, Prophet Yaqub’s feeling the presence of Yusuf’s scent; recovery of Prophet Yaqub’s sight on Yusuf’s shirt being laid on his face; Yusuf’s brethren’s seeking forgiveness; Yusuf’s placing his parents on the throne and paying them immense respects; bowing down of Yusuf’s brethren before him; Yusuf’s uttering praises of Allah; and his thanking God and praying for his virtuous end. This and other kinds of such events are conspicuous in the Bible by their absence. Then how could an unlettered man narrate this chronicle in full and how could he bring out to the public gaze the lost pages of history There cannot be any other correct answer to this question except that all this was narrated by the revelation from God. And even today a person who would study the Bible and the Qur’an with a view to finding out the truth would not fail to miss the reality.

157. That is: Many people do not want to understand a thing by being convinced by argument, they want to stick to their own views; for only this single argument is enough to convince anybody about the divine origin of Qur’an.

158. The Prophet was conveying the message of Allah to the people In a selfless way and without demanding any fee or compensation for it. Therefore, there was no room for doubting that he was doing this service for his selfish ends.

159. That is: The lesson of monotheism which the prophets had taught to the people and which many people had forgotten, was being brought again to their notice. Qur’an is a reminder of that lesson, and this reminder is not for any single nation, but it is for all the nations of the world, and for all mankind.