Yusuf · Makki · ayah 70 of 111

Yusuf 12:70

فَلَمَّا جَهَّزَهُم بِجَهَازِهِمْ جَعَلَ ٱلسِّقَايَةَ فِى رَحْلِ أَخِيهِ ثُمَّ أَذَّنَ مُؤَذِّنٌ أَيَّتُهَا ٱلْعِيرُ إِنَّكُمْ لَسَـٰرِقُونَ

“So when he had furnished them with their supplies, he put the [gold measuring] bowl into the bag of his brother. Then an announcer called out, "O caravan, indeed you are thieves."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The cup that measured out grain fairly to everyone is hidden in the innocent brother's sack, and a voice calls the caravan thieves.

A reflection

Not palace theatre: the grammar keeps two acts apart

Many readers enjoy this ayah as a clever trick. Yusuf plants the cup, the alarm goes up, and the plot to keep Binyamin is under way. A bit of palace theatre.

But the commentators did not read it lightly. For them it raised a serious question. How could a prophet let innocent men be called thieves?

Look first at how the ayah is built. It has two acts and two subjects.

He put the drinking cup into his brother's saddlebag. That is Yusuf. Then a caller called out: O caravan, you are thieves. That is someone else, and the word then marks a gap in time.

One classical commentary draws the conclusion. Nothing in the Qur'an says the call was made on Yusuf's order. The most natural reading, it suggests, is that his men searched for the cup and could not find it. They assumed the departing strangers had taken it.

That same commentary records other answers, and so do others. Binyamin had been told and had consented. The word thieves might allude to what the brothers really had stolen: Yusuf, from his father. The call might have been a question: are you thieves? One commentary even records a view that it was a lapse on Yusuf's part.

And one commentary cites the view that the whole stratagem was by revelation. It points to what the surah says a few ayat later: thus did We plan for Yusuf.

So this is not a cute trick. It is a moment the tradition wrestled with openly, offering several answers and choosing none lightly.

The reader is invited to wrestle too. The ayah lets Yusuf's hand place a cup, and holds the accusation at a distance from him.

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.