Yusuf · Makki · ayah 20 of 111

Yusuf 12:20

وَشَرَوْهُ بِثَمَنٍۭ بَخْسٍ دَرَٰهِمَ مَعْدُودَةٍ وَكَانُوا۟ فِيهِ مِنَ ٱلزَّٰهِدِينَ

“And they sold him for a reduced price - a few dirhams - and they were, concerning him, of those content with little.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The noblest boy in the story is sold for a handful of coins too few to weigh, by people who reckoned him worth almost nothing.

A reflection

The wrong kind of zuhd

Most readers know the word zuhd as a virtue. The zāhid is the ascetic, the one who renounces the world and wants little of it. It is a word we hear in sermons with admiration.

Here the same word describes the people who sold Yusuf. They were, concerning him, among the zāhidīn.

The lexicons show why. The root is plain littleness. A shallow valley that takes hardly any water before it runs was zahīd. To be zāhid in a thing is to reckon it of small worth and turn from it, content with little of it. Zuhd is a judgement about value. Its virtue depends entirely on what you judge to be worth little.

The commentaries explain the brothers' version. They did not know his rank with Allah, one says, so they held him cheap. Another says they cared nothing for the price; their only aim was to be rid of him. A third applies the word to the caravan, who valued him lightly because they had picked him up for nothing.

So the ayah turns a sermon word inside out. It is possible to be a perfect ascetic in the wrong direction. To renounce your brother, your parents, your neighbour, your own soul, while holding on hard to the things that really are worth little.

A man gives up his evenings with his children to chase a promotion. He calls it sacrifice. Nobody would call it zuhd. But that is what it is, in this ayah's sense: a valley too shallow to hold what was poured into it.

True zuhd is the brothers' error reversed. Little desire for what is cheap, and great value placed on people.

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.