Yusuf · Makki · ayah 63 of 111

Yusuf 12:63

فَلَمَّا رَجَعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِيهِمْ قَالُوا۟ يَـٰٓأَبَانَا مُنِعَ مِنَّا ٱلْكَيْلُ فَأَرْسِلْ مَعَنَآ أَخَانَا نَكْتَلْ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَـٰفِظُونَ

“So when they returned to their father, they said, "O our father, [further] measure has been denied to us, so send with us our brother [that] we will be given measure. And indeed, we will be his guardians."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Home again, the brothers ask their father to send a son with them, promising to guard him in the words they once used for Yusuf.

A reflection

The same promise, word for word, at the same door

It is easy to hear the end of this ayah as an ordinary reassurance. Do not worry, father; we will look after him.

But the first hearers had heard this exact sentence before, in this same surah.

On the day they took Yusuf, they said to their father: send him with us tomorrow, to graze and play. And indeed we will guard him. Now they say: send with us our brother, and indeed we will guard him.

Send with us. Indeed we will guard him. The words are identical.

One classical commentary points it out directly. This is just as they said about Yusuf, and that is why their father answers as he does in the next ayah.

The listener who knows the story feels the floor tilt. The last time this sentence was spoken in this house, a boy did not come home.

Sahih al-Bukhari records a saying of the Prophet that names three signs of the hypocrite. When he speaks, he lies. When he promises, he breaks it. When he is trusted, he betrays.

The day of the well held all three. A lie about a wolf. A promise to guard, broken. A brother entrusted, and betrayed.

The question this ayah quietly asks is whether the same men can say the same words and mean them this time.

A nineteen-year-old asks to borrow his father's van for a weekend away. He says: I will look after it, I promise. They are the same words he used the summer he brought it back with a dented wing and an empty tank.

His father hears the words. He also hears the summer.

The brothers do not seem to notice they are repeating themselves. Their father notices at once.

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.