Yusuf · Makki · ayah 9 of 111

Yusuf 12:9

ٱقْتُلُوا۟ يُوسُفَ أَوِ ٱطْرَحُوهُ أَرْضًا يَخْلُ لَكُمْ وَجْهُ أَبِيكُمْ وَتَكُونُوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ قَوْمًا صَـٰلِحِينَ

“Kill Joseph or cast him out to [another] land; the countenance [i.e., attention] of your father will [then] be only for you, and you will be after that a righteous people."[586]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The brothers plan a crime, the reward they want from it, and their repentance afterwards, all in one breath.

A reflection

The repentance planned before the sin

We read this ayah as a window onto wicked men. Kill Yusuf or fling him away, and then be good. It is easy to shudder at them from a safe distance.

One commentary compresses the scene into a single phrase that removes the distance. They planned the repentance before the sin.

That is not a villain's habit. It is one of the most ordinary habits of believers. I will fix my prayer after the exams. I will stop that after the wedding. I will give properly once the house is paid off. I will be honest with them once this deal is done. The repair is booked in advance, and the breakage goes ahead.

The word they use for 'righteous' makes it sharper. The root means sound, fit, set right. One lexicon says it is the opposite of spoiling, and uses it for mending a pot or tending an animal back to health. A righteous deed, in this language, is a repair. The brothers were planning a repair for something they had not yet broken.

A young man keeps a note on his phone called 'After'. After graduation: start praying on time. After the first job: call his father more. After the promotion: stop the late nights. At thirty-one he scrolls it on a train and sees it has become a list of things he will never do.

The commentaries say most readers took 'righteous' here to mean repentant. They knew what they were about to do was grave, one says, so they promised themselves they would turn back afterwards. The surah will show what 'afterwards' cost them. For now it simply lets us hear the sentence, so that we can recognise it in our own mouths.

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.