Yusuf · Makki · ayah 91 of 111

Yusuf 12:91

قَالُوا۟ تَٱللَّهِ لَقَدْ ءَاثَرَكَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْنَا وَإِن كُنَّا لَخَـٰطِـِٔينَ

“They said, "By Allāh, certainly has Allāh preferred you over us, and indeed, we have been sinners."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Offered the excuse of ignorance, the brothers refuse it: they confess that Allah chose Yusuf, and that they aimed at their wrong on purpose.

A reflection

We did not miss; we aimed

Many translations soften the last word of this ayah. We were in error. We were mistaken. It is easy to read the brothers' confession as an admission that things went wrong.

The Arabic does not allow that. The lexicons picture this root as an arrow that misses its target. Then the language splits the picture in two. One who aimed rightly and missed is mukhṭiʾ. One who aimed at what he should not have aimed at is khāṭiʾ. The brothers use the second word.

The commentaries are precise about it. Khaṭiʾa is said of one who does wrong deliberately; akhṭaʾa of one who meant well and fell short. A theological commentary notes that a scholar who reasons carefully and gets a ruling wrong is called mukhṭiʾ, never khāṭiʾ. A later commentary glosses the brothers' word: we deliberately committed the sin.

Now put that beside the previous ayah. Yusuf had offered them an excuse: what you did when you were ignorant. They decline it. They do not say we were ignorant. They say we aimed, and we aimed wrong.

That is the difference between an apology and a confession. An apology accepts any exit offered. A confession closes the exits itself.

A man stands in a magistrates' court for scratching a key along the whole side of his neighbour's new car. His solicitor has written a statement about stress at work. On the stand he puts it down and says: I did it because I could not stand that he had it.

The brothers do the same. The easiest word was offered to them by the man they wronged. They chose the true one.

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.