Yusuf · Makki · ayah 102 of 111

Yusuf 12:102

ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ أَنۢبَآءِ ٱلْغَيْبِ نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ ۖ وَمَا كُنتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ أَجْمَعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَهُمْ وَهُمْ يَمْكُرُونَ

“That is from the news of the unseen which We reveal, [O Muḥammad], to you. And you were not with them when they put together their plan while they conspired.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The story turns to its listener: you were not in the room where they plotted, yet you have just told what was said there.

A reflection

One Witness in the room

The brothers' plot was made in private. No servant overheard it. No neighbour saw them go to the well. They agreed their plan, and for decades they kept it, telling their father a story about a wolf.

This ayah says the room was never empty. That is from the news of the unseen, which We reveal to you. You were not with them when they agreed on their plan, and they were scheming.

The ones who were present all lied. The One who was absent from no place told the truth, word for word, through a man who was not born for centuries.

That is a hard thing for the ego to hear. A great deal of human pride rests on secrecy: the plan no one knows about, the conversation that will never come out. The confidence of the plotter is the confidence that he is alone. This ayah removes that confidence entirely. There is no private room.

Allah gains nothing from knowing what the brothers said. He does not need the knowledge, and He does not need to be admired for it. The statement is for us. It tells the person being plotted against that the meeting was witnessed. It tells the person plotting that it was recorded.

The brothers learned this at the counter in Egypt, decades late, when the official asked them: do you know what you did? Every reader learns it here, in time to act on it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.