Yusuf · Makki · ayah 96 of 111

Yusuf 12:96

فَلَمَّآ أَن جَآءَ ٱلْبَشِيرُ أَلْقَىٰهُ عَلَىٰ وَجْهِهِۦ فَٱرْتَدَّ بَصِيرًا ۖ قَالَ أَلَمْ أَقُل لَّكُمْ إِنِّىٓ أَعْلَمُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

“And when the bearer of good tidings[617] arrived, he cast it over his face, and he returned [once again] seeing. He said, "Did I not tell you that I know from Allāh that which you do not know?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

The shirt is laid on Ya'qub's face and his sight comes home; his first words point not to himself but to Allah.

A reflection

Not I told you so

There is a way of hearing Ya'qub's last sentence that makes it small. Did I not tell you? It sounds like the words of a man proved right at last, turning to the family who mocked him. Most of us know the satisfaction in those words, and it is easy to hear that satisfaction here.

The rest of the sentence will not allow it. I know from Allah what you do not know. He does not say: I was right. He says: Allah had told me something. The credit goes past him before it can settle.

A later commentary weighs who he is speaking to. Perhaps the household that called him senile. More likely, it suggests, the sons who have just arrived. Then the sentence recalls what he said when he sent them: do not despair of Allah's relief. The vindication is of that instruction, not of his judgement.

And the Qur'an has used this exact turn of phrase before, in a scene no one could hear as gloating. When Adam named what the angels could not, Allah said: did I not tell you? I know the unseen of the heavens and the earth (2:33). It is the language of knowledge being shown, not of a person scoring a point.

A surgeon performs a risky operation the family had begged him to refuse. It succeeds. Outside the theatre, they start to apologise for doubting him. He says only: alhamdulillah, it was His decision. Then he goes to wash.

The true is not always the triumphant. Ya'qub had every right to the second. He chose the first.

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.