Yusuf · Makki · ayah 10 of 111

Yusuf 12:10

قَالَ قَآئِلٌ مِّنْهُمْ لَا تَقْتُلُوا۟ يُوسُفَ وَأَلْقُوهُ فِى غَيَـٰبَتِ ٱلْجُبِّ يَلْتَقِطْهُ بَعْضُ ٱلسَّيَّارَةِ إِن كُنتُمْ فَـٰعِلِينَ

“Said a speaker among them, "Do not kill Joseph but throw him into the bottom of the well; some travelers will pick him up - if you would do [something]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

One unnamed brother says 'not murder' and saves a life, and in the same breath sends a child down a well.

A reflection

The moderate is not the hero

There is a comfortable way to read this ayah. Among the cruel brothers, one had a conscience. He said: do not kill Yusuf. He is the good one, the brother who saved him.

Read the whole sentence. Do not kill Yusuf, but throw him into the hidden depths of the well. Some passing caravan will pick him up. If you must do something.

That last clause is revealing. One commentary hears it as a reluctant concession. It means the better course is to do nothing at all; but if it has to be done, keep it to this. The same commentary compares an ayah that permits a just retaliation while pointing to restraint as better.

So the moderate knew. He knew the best thing was nothing, and he still proposed the well. He saved a life, and he put a child in the dark. Both are true, and the ayah will not let us keep only the first.

One commentary is honest about how much his voice mattered. They had no real way to kill him, it says, because Allah intended something that had to be completed. So He turned them from killing by this brother's words.

A group of teenagers want to post a humiliating video of a classmate. One of them talks the others into sending it only to their own chat, not posting it publicly. He goes home thinking he saved the boy. Three hundred people see it by Monday.

Most of us are not the brothers who said kill. Many of us have been the one who said: not that, just this. The ayah honours what that voice prevented. It does not let it call itself innocent.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.