The Descendants of Ibrahim (peace be upon him)

We have already presented his story with his people, and what was of their affair, and to what his affair led: and the salutations and the honor: and we mentioned what happened in his time of the story of the people of Lout, and followed that with the story of Madian, the people of Chou'ayb: because it is its companion in the Book of Allah: in several places the Most High mentions after the story of the people of Lout the story of Madian: and they are the people of the Thicket, according to the correct: as we have presented: so we mentioned it following it, in imitation of the Immense Quran: then we now begin the discourse on the detail of the descendants of Ibrahim: because Allah placed in his descendants the prophethood and the Book: every prophet sent after him is of his sons.

The story of Ismaïl (peace be upon him)

The Confident had sons, as we mentioned: but the most famous of them are the two brothers, the two great prophets, the two messengers, the elder of the two and the more venerable being the one who is the sacrificed, according to the correct: Ismaïl, the firstborn of Ibrahim the Confident, from Hajar the Copt, the Egyptian: from the Great, the Majestic. Some scholars said: the sacrificed is Isaac: he only holds that from the transmission of the children of Israël, those who altered, distorted and interpreted the Torah and the Gospel, and contradicted with their own hands the revealed text in this: for Ibrahim was commanded to slaughter his firstborn son: and in one transmission: his only son.

And whichever it may be, it is Ismaïl by the clear text of the proof: for in their own Book, Ismaïl was born to Ibrahim at the age of eighty-six years: and Isaac was only born after the passing of one hundred years of the Confident's life: Ismaïl is therefore without doubt the firstborn: and he is the only one in form and meaning, in every case: as to form: because he was alone, his son not exceeding thirteen years: and as to his being alone in meaning: he is the one his father migrated with: and with him his mother Hajar: and he was small, a nursing child as is said: and he placed the two of them in the valley of the mountains of Farane: these are the mountains around Mecca: a good resting place: and left them there with no provisions or water but a little: and that out of trust in Allah and reliance upon Him: so Allah surrounded the two of them with His care and His sufficiency: what a good guarantor and sustainer and guardian and protector.

So this is the only child: in form and in meaning: but where is the one who ponders this secret? And where is the one who takes his place in this station? And the meaning is not grasped, nor encompassed by knowledge, except by every noble prophet.

Allah the Most High has praised him and described him by forbearance, patience, truthfulness of promise, and keeping up the prayer with the command to his family to do it, that they might be spared the punishment: « So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy: and when he had reached with him the age of striving, he said: O my son, I see in a dream that I am slaughtering you: so look, what do you see. He said: O my father, do what you are commanded: you will find me, if Allah wills, of the patient. » So he yielded to his father toward what he was calling him to: and promised him that he would be patient: and he fulfilled that and was patient. « And mention in the Book Ismaïl: he was true to his promise: and he was a messenger, a prophet: and he used to command his family the prayer and the zakat: and he was with his Lord pleasing.

» « And remember Our servants Ibrahim, Isaac and Ya'qoub: possessors of hands and eyes: We purified them with a pure purification: by the remembrance of the Home: and they are with Us of the chosen, the best: and mention Ismaïl and Élisha and Dhu al-Kifl: and all are of the best. » « And Ismaïl and Idris and Dhu al-Kifl: all of the patient: and We admitted them into Our mercy: they are of the righteous. » « We revealed to you as We revealed to Nuh and the prophets after him: and We revealed to Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes. » The verse.

« Say: we believe in Allah and what was sent down to us and what was sent down to Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes. » The verse. And its like in the other sura: « Or do you say that Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes were Jews or Christians? Say: are you more knowing, or Allah?

» The verse. So Allah mentioned of him every beautiful quality, made him His prophet and His messenger, absolved him of everything the ignorant attributed to him, and commanded His believing servants to believe in what was sent down upon him.

He is the first who rode horses: they were before that wild beasts: so he tamed them and rode them. A sheikh of Qouraych narrated to us: Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-'Aziz narrated to us, from Abdallah ibn 'Oumar, that he said: take the horses and tether them well: for they are the inheritance of your father Ismaïl. And this Arab stock was wild: so he called upon it with the invocation he had been given: and it answered him: and he is the first who spoke the eloquent, penetrating Arabic: and he had learned it from the pure-bred Arabs who came down to them at Mecca, of Djorhoum and the 'Amaliqa and the people of Yemen: from the earlier nations of the Arabs before the Confident.

Ali ibn al-Moughira reported to me: Abu 'Oubayda reported to us: Misme' ibn Malik reported to us, from Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Houssayn, from his forefathers, that he said: the first whose tongue spoke clear Arabic was Ismaïl: and he was fourteen years old. You have spoken truly, O Abu Yassar. That is how Abu Jouray narrated to me.

We have already presented that he married when he matured, from the 'Amaliqa, a woman: and that his father ordered him to leave her: so he left her. She is 'Amara bint Sa'd ibn Oussama ibn Akila the 'Amaliqite: then he married another: and he ordered him to keep her: so he kept her: she is the Lady bint Mouadd ibn 'Amrou the Djorhoumite. She bore him twelve male children: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq named them: Nabat, Qaydar, Adhbal, Micha, Misme', Mach, Douma, Adar, Yatour, Banch, Tima, Qaydhouma: and thus the People of the Book mentioned them in their Book: and among them, they are the twelve great ones of whom the one mentioned before was the bearer of good tidings: and they lied in their interpretation of that.

Ismaïl was a messenger to the people of that region and what adjoined it: of the tribes of Djorhoum and the 'Amaliqa and the people of Yemen: may the prayers of Allah and His peace be upon him: and when death presented itself to him he bequeathed to his brother Isaac: and married his daughter Nassama to his nephew 'Is ibn Isaac: and she bore the Roms: the sons of al-Asfar from the yellow color that was in 'Is: and she bore the Greeks in one of the sayings: from the two of them as well: and Ibn Jarir withheld judgment.

And Ismaïl the prophet of Allah was buried at the Hijr with his mother Hajar: and his age on the day he died was one hundred and thirty-seven years. Ismaïl complained to his Lord of the heat of Mecca: so Allah revealed to him: I will open for you a door of the Garden, to the place where you will be buried: its coolness will flow upon you until the Day of Resurrection.

And all the Arabs of the Hijaz trace descent to his two sons Nabat and Qaydar: and we shall speak of the living branches of the Arabs: and their tribes: and their settlements: and their clans: and their tribes: from Ismaïl to the time of the Messenger of Allah: and that is when we reach his noble days and his rich biography, after finishing the reports of the prophets of the children of Israël up to the time of Issa son of Maryam, the seal of their prophets and the fulfiller of their announcements: then we shall mention what was in the time of the children of Israël: then what happened in the days of the Djahiliyya: then the discourse will end at the biography of our Prophet, the Messenger of Allah, to the Arabs and the Persians and the rest of the varieties of the sons of Adam of the nations, if Allah the Most High wills: and in Him is the trust: and on Him is reliance: and there is no power and no strength except by Allah, the High, the Immense, the Mighty, the Wise.

The story of Isaac, son of Ibrahim

We have already presented that he was born when his father was one hundred years old, fourteen years after his brother Ismaïl: « So We gave him good tidings of Isaac, a prophet from among the righteous: and We blessed him and Isaac: and of their descendants a doer of good and one who wrongs himself, clear. » Allah the Most High has mentioned him, praising him, in more than one verse of His Mighty Book: and we presented in the hadith of Abu Hurayra, from the Messenger of Allah, that the noble, the son of the noble, the son of the noble, the son of the noble: Youssouf son of Ya'qoub son of Isaac son of Ibrahim. And the People of the Book mention that Isaac, when he married Rifqa bint Thabou'ayl during his father's lifetime, was forty years old: and that she was barren: so he prayed to Allah for her: and she conceived: and bore two twin boys: the first of the two they named 'Isou: and he is the one the Arabs call 'Is: and he is the father of the Roms: and the second came out holding his brother's heel: so they named him Ya'qoub.

Isaac loved 'Is more than Ya'qoub because he was his firstborn: and their mother Rifqa loved Ya'qoub more because he was the younger. When Isaac grew old and his sight weakened, he craved from his son 'Is food: and ordered him to go and hunt game for him: and cook it for him so that he might bless over him and pray for him: and 'Is was a hunter: so he went to seek that: Rifqa then ordered her son Ya'qoub to slaughter two kids from the best of the flock: and prepare from the two of them a meal such as his father craved: and to come to him with it before his brother so that he might pray for him: and she rose and dressed him in his brother's clothes: and placed on his arms and his neck from the skin of the two kids: because 'Is was hairy of body: and Ya'qoub was not. Who are you? Your son.

So he drew him to himself and felt him: the voice is the voice of Ya'qoub: but the touch and the clothes are 'Is's. When he ate and finished, he prayed for him that he be the greatest of his brothers in rank: and that his word prevail over them: and over the peoples after them: and that his provision and offspring be abundant. When he left him, his brother 'Is came with what his father had commanded him to bring near: What is this, O my son? This is the food you craved.

Did you not bring it to me earlier, and I ate of it and prayed for you? No, by Allah. And he realized that his brother had beaten him to it: so he felt great grief toward him. And they mention that he threatened him with killing when their father died: and his father asked him: so he prayed for him with another prayer: and that He make for his descendants a thick land: and that He multiply their provisions and fruits: when their mother heard what 'Is was threatening his brother Ya'qoub with: she ordered her son Ya'qoub to go to her brother Labane who is in the land of Harrane: and to stay with him until his brother's anger against him subsides: and to marry from his daughters: and she said to her husband Isaac to command him with that: and bequeath it to him: and pray for him: and he did: so Ya'qoub left them on the evening of that day: and the evening caught up with him in a place: and he slept there: he took a stone and placed it under his head.

And he slept: and saw in his sleep a ladder set up from heaven to earth: and the angels ascending and descending on it: and the Lord addressing him: I will bless over you: and multiply your offspring: and grant you this land: and your posterity after you: so when he rose from his sleep he rejoiced at what he saw: and made a vow to Allah: that if he returned safely to his family, he would surely build in this place a temple for Allah: and that a tenth of everything he would be provided with would belong to Allah: then he attended to that stone: and poured oil upon it by which to recognize it: and named that place Bayt Il: that is, the house of Allah: and it is the site of Bayt al-Maqdis today, which Ya'qoub built after that: when Ya'qoub arrived at his uncle's, in the land of Harrane, he had two daughters: the elder named Léa: and the younger named Rachel: so he asked for Rachel: and she was the fairer and more graceful of the two: so he answered him to that on condition that he shepherd his flock for seven years: when the term passed, his uncle Labane prepared a meal: and gathered the people for it: and led his elder daughter Léa to him by night in procession: and she had weak eyes, uncomely to look at: when Ya'qoub awoke, behold, it was Léa: why have you betrayed me: when I asked for Rachel alone?

It is not our custom to marry the younger before the elder: if you wish her sister, work seven more years and I will marry you to her. So he worked seven years: and brought her in to him along with her sister: and that was permissible in their religion: then it was abrogated in the law of the Torah: and this alone is sufficient proof of the abrogation's occurrence: for Ya'qoub's deed is proof of the lawfulness of this: and its permission: because he is preserved.

And Labane gave each of his two daughters a maidservant: so he gave to Léa a maidservant named Zilfa: and gave to Rachel a maidservant named Balha: and Allah the Most High compensated Léa's weakness by granting her children: so the first who bore to Ya'qoub was Ruben: then Siméon: then Lévi: then Juda: at that Rachel grew jealous: and she was not conceiving: so she gave Ya'qoub her maidservant Balha: and he lay with her: and she conceived: and bore him a boy whom she named Dan: and conceived: and bore another boy whom she named Nephtali: then Léa attended to that: and gave her maidservant Zilfa from Ya'qoub: and she bore him Gad and Acher, two male boys: then Léa conceived as well: and bore a fifth boy from her: and named him Issacar: then conceived: and bore a sixth boy whom she named Zaboulon: then conceived: and bore a girl whom she named Dina: so she had from Ya'qoub seven children: then Rachel called upon Allah the Most High: and asked Him to grant her a boy from Ya'qoub: so Allah heard her cry: and answered her supplication: and she conceived from the prophet of Allah Ya'qoub: and bore him a great, noble, goodly, beautiful boy: and she named him Youssouf.

All this, they were residing in the land of Harrane: and he shepherded his uncle's flock for six more years after entering upon the two girls: so his stay amounted to twenty years.

I have been blessed because of you: so ask me from my wealth whatever you wish. Give me every lamb born of your flock this year: pied with white and black: and every gleaming lamb: white with black: and every brown goat with whiteness: and every white-with-black goat of the he-goats. Yes. So they set to work: and put aside from their father's flock what was of these qualities of he-goats: so that nothing would be born of the young on these qualities: Ya'qoub then took fresh, peeled rods of almond and poplar: he would peel them white: and place them in the troughs of the flock in the water: so that the flock would look at them and startle: and their young would move in their wombs: and the colors of their young would become so. And this is of the class of breaches of habit: and ranks among the miracles. So Ya'qoub came to have abundant sheep: and mounts: and slaves: and his uncle's and his sons' attitude toward him changed: as if they were becoming straitened with him.

And Allah the Most High revealed to Ya'qoub to return to his father's land and his people: and promised him to be with him: so he presented that to his family: and they answered hastening to obey him: so he took charge of his family and his wealth: and Rachel stole her father's idols: and when they passed beyond and moved away from their land: Labane and his people: and when Labane joined Ya'qoub, he rebuked him for leaving without his permission and knowledge: and why did he not inform him: so that he might send them out amid joy: and drums and tabors: and that he might bid farewell to his daughters and their children: and why did they take his idols with them: and Ya'qoub had no knowledge of the idols: so he denied that they had taken idols of his: so he entered the houses of his daughters and their maidservants, searching: and found nothing: and Rachel had placed them in the camel's pack-saddle: and she was beneath it: so she did not rise. Here is Galaad.

He also made a pact that he would not dishonor his daughters: nor marry over them: nor cross this ridge to the other's land: neither Labane nor Ya'qoub: and they prepared a meal: and the people ate with them: and each of the two bade the other farewell: and they parted, returning to their lands: and when Ya'qoub drew near the land of Séir, the angels met him: giving him good tidings of the coming: and Ya'qoub sent messengers to his brother 'Isou, seeking his pardon and humbling himself before him: so the messengers returned: and informed Ya'qoub that 'Is has set out toward you with four hundred riders: so Ya'qoub feared that: and called upon Allah: and prayed to Him: and humbled himself to Him: and submitted humbly in His presence: and implored Him by His covenant and His promise which He had promised him: and asked Him to restrain from him the evil of his brother 'Is: and prepared for his brother a great gift: two hundred ewes: and twenty he-goats: and two hundred she-lambs: and twenty rams: and thirty milch camels: and forty cows: and ten bulls: and twenty she-asses: and ten donkeys: and commanded his servants to drive each of these classes separately: Who are you?

And whose is this with you? Your servant Ya'qoub: it is a gift to my master 'Is. And let the one after him say the same: and the one after him the same: and the one after him the same: and he comes after us. And Ya'qoub stayed behind with his two wives: and his two maids: and his eleven sons: after all of them: by two nights: and made them travel by night: and hide by day: when the time of dawn of the second night came, an angel appeared to him from among the angels: in the form of a man: so Ya'qoub took him for a man of the people: so Ya'qoub came to wrestle with him: and overcome him: so Ya'qoub prevailed over him, as it appeared: but the angel struck his hip: so Ya'qoub went lame.

What is your name? Ya'qoub. You should not be called after today except Israël. And who are you?

And what is your name? So he departed from him: and he knew he was an angel of the angels: and Ya'qoub awoke limping on his leg: and for that reason the children of Israël do not eat the sinew of the thigh. Ya'qoub raised his eyes: and behold, his brother 'Is was approaching with four hundred riders: so he advanced in front of his family: and when his brother 'Is saw him, he prostrated to him seven times: and that was their greeting in that age: and it was sanctioned for them: as the angels prostrated to Adam as a greeting to him: and as Youssouf's brothers and his parents prostrated to him, as will come: and when 'Is saw him, he advanced to him: and embraced him: and kissed him: and wept: and 'Is raised his eyes: and looked at the women and the children: From where do you have these? These are those whom Allah has granted your servant.

So the two maids and their sons drew near: and prostrated to him: and Léa and her sons drew near: and prostrated to him: and Rachel and her son Youssouf drew near last: and prostrated to him: and he offered him to accept his gift: and pressed him: so he accepted it: and 'Is returned: and went ahead of him: and Ya'qoub followed with his family and what he had of cattle and flocks and slaves: intending the mountains of Séir: and when he passed Saouira, he built himself a house: and shades for his animals: then he passed by Ourousalim, the village of Sahim: and camped before the village: and bought the farm of the sons of Hammour, the father of Sahim, for a hundred ewes: and pitched his tent there: and built there an altar: and named it Il, the god of Israël: and Allah commanded him to build it that he might exalt himself in it: and it is Bayt al-Maqdis today: which Sulayman son of Dawoud renewed after that: and it is the site of the Rock which he had marked by pouring oil upon it before: as we mentioned first.

And the People of the Book mention here the story of Dina bint Ya'qoub from Léa: and what happened in her affair with Sahim son of Hammour, who overpowered her and brought her into his dwelling: then asked her hand from her father and her brothers: We will do nothing unless you all circumcise yourselves: and we intermarry with you and you with us: for we do not marry with a people uncircumcised. So they answered them to that: and all of them circumcised themselves: and when the third day came: and their pain from the circumcision's ache intensified: Ya'qoub's sons fell upon them: and killed them to the last of them: and killed Sahim and his father Hammour: for the ugly thing they had done to them: in addition to their disbelief: and the idols they worshipped: for that Ya'qoub's sons killed them: and took their wealth as spoils: and Allah knows better.

Then Rachel conceived: and bore a boy: and he is Benyamin: except that she struggled severely at his delivery: and died after him: and Ya'qoub buried her at Afarath: and it is Bethléem: and Ya'qoub made over her grave a stone: and it is the stone known as the tomb of Rachel to this day.

And Ya'qoub's male sons were twelve men: from Léa: Ruben: and Siméon: and Lévi: and Juda: and Issacar: and Zaboulon: and from Rachel: Youssouf: and Benyamin: and from Rachel's maidservant: Dan: and Nephtali: and from Léa's maidservant: Gad: and Acher. And Ya'qoub came to his father Isaac: and stayed with him at the village of Habroun which is in the land of Canaan: where Ibrahim dwelt: then Isaac fell ill: and died at one hundred and eighty years: and his two sons 'Is and Ya'qoub buried him with his father Ibrahim the Confident in the cave he had bought: as we presented. And Allah, glory to Him, knows better than that.

Israël (Ya'qoub) and the story of Youssouf son of Ya'qoub

And Allah sent down concerning him, and what was of his affair, a sura of the Immense Quran, for the contemplation of what is in it of wisdoms and exhortations and courtesies and wise command: “Alif, Lam, Ra: those are the verses of the Clear Book: We have sent it down, an Arabic Quran: that you may understand: We relate to you the best of stories: by what We revealed to you of this Quran: and you were before it of the heedless.” We have spoken of the detached letters at the beginning of the tafsir of the sourate al-Baqara: whoever wants its verification let him look there: and we have spoken of this sura in abridged form at its place in the tafsir: and we mention here a fragment of what is there, in the most concise manner: and the most successful.

The sum of the word at this station is that He the Most High praises His Great Book, which He sent down upon His noble servant and messenger: in eloquent, clear Arabic: plain, manifest: understood by every intelligent, sound, pure mind: it is the most excellent book that has come down from heaven: sent down by the most excellent of the angels upon the most excellent of creation: in the most excellent of times and places: in the most eloquent of tongues and the clearest of exposition: if the context is in the narratives past or future, it mentions the best and clearest of them: and makes manifest the truth of what people differed over: and routs the false: countersigns it: and repels it: and if it is in commands and prohibitions: it is the most just of laws: and the clearest of paths: the clearest of rulings: and the most just of verdicts: “and the word of your Lord has been completed in truth and justice”: meaning in truthfulness in the narratives: justice in the commands and prohibitions: “We relate to you the best of stories: by what We revealed to you of this Quran: and you were before it of the heedless”: that is, with respect to what was revealed to you in it: “and thus We revealed to you a spirit of Our command: you did not know what the Book was: nor the faith: but We made it a light: by which We guide whom We will of Our servants:

and you guide surely to a straight path: the path of Allah: to whom belongs what is in the heavens: and what is on the earth: to Allah all matters revert. “Thus We relate to you reports of what has passed: and We have given you from Us a reminder: whoever turns away from it, he will carry on the Day of Resurrection a burden: abiding therein: and evil for them is the burden on the Day of Resurrection”: meaning whoever turns away from this Quran: and follows other than it of books: this threat reaches him: as He said in the hadith reported in the Musnad: and by at-Tirmidhi: from Ali, commander of the believers: whoever seeks guidance in other than it, Allah leads him astray. Sourayj ibn an-Nou'man narrated to us: Houchaym narrated to us: Moujalid informed us: from ach-Cha'bi: from Jabir: that 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab came to the Prophet with a book that had reached him from some of the People of the Book: and he read it: he said: and he grew angry. And said: and are you taking liberties with it, O son of al-Khattab?

By He in whose hand my soul is: I have come to you with it white and pure: do not ask them about anything: for they will inform you of truth and you will deny it: or of falsehood and you will affirm it: and by He in whose hand my soul is: if Moussa were alive: he would have no choice but to follow me. An authentic isnad: and Ahmad reported it from another way: and by He in whose hand my soul is: if Moussa appeared among you: and then you followed him and left me: you would be astray: you are my portion of the nations: and I am your portion of the prophets. I have reported the ways of this hadith and its wordings at the beginning of the sourate Youssouf: he addressed the people: and said in his sermon: O people: I have been given the comprehensive words and the closures: and it has been condensed for me concisely: and I have come to you with it white and pure: so do not take liberties with it: and let not the liberty-takers deceive you. Then he commanded that that leaf be effaced, letter by letter.

“When Youssouf said to his father: O my father, I saw eleven stars: and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrating to me. He said: O my son, do not relate your vision to your brothers: lest they scheme against you a scheme: the devil is to man a manifest enemy: and thus your Lord will choose you: and teach you of the interpretation of narratives: and complete His favor upon you: and upon the family of Ya'qoub: as He completed it upon your two fathers before: Ibrahim and Isaac: your Lord is Knowing, Wise.”

Surat Youssouf, 4-6

We presented before that Ya'qoub had of sons twelve male children: and we named them: and to them are ascribed all the tribes of the children of Israël: and the noblest of them: and the most venerable: and the greatest of them was Youssouf: and a group of scholars went to the view that there was no prophet among them other than him: and the rest of his brothers received no revelation: and the apparent meaning of what is mentioned of their deeds: and their sayings in this story points to this view: “Say: we believe in Allah and what was sent down to us and what was sent down to Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes.” And he claimed that these are the tribes: so his inference is not strong: because what is meant by the tribes are the peoples of the children of Israël: and what existed among them of prophets upon whom heaven's revelation descends: and Allah knows better.

And among what confirms that Youssouf is the one singled out from among his brothers for the message and the prophethood: that He attested his prophethood and the revelation to him in more than one verse in His Mighty Book: and did not attest to a single one of his brothers besides him: so it indicates what we mentioned. Abd as-Samad narrated to us: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abdallah ibn Dinar narrated to us: from his father: he said: the noble, the son of the noble, the son of the noble, the son of the noble: Youssouf son of Ya'qoub son of Isaac son of Ibrahim. Al-Boukhari alone reported it: and he reported it from Abdallah ibn Muhammad: and 'Abda: from Abd as-Samad ibn Abd al-Warith with it. We mentioned its ways in the story of Ibrahim, which suffices against its repetition here: and praise and favor belong to Allah.

The exegetes said: Youssouf saw, while small, before he reached puberty, as it were eleven stars: which are a pointer to the rest of his brothers: and the sun and the moon: an expression for his two parents: who had prostrated to him: so he was astonished at that: when he awoke he related it to his father: and his father knew that he would attain a high standing: and a great elevation in this world: and the hereafter: such that his parents and his brothers bow to him in it: so he commanded him to conceal it: and not to relate it to his brothers: lest they envy him: and seek against him the causes of harm: and scheme against him with kinds of trickery and deceit: and this indicates what we mentioned: and for this it came in some athars: “Seek help for the fulfilling of your needs by concealing them: for everyone possessing a blessing is envied. And with the People of the Book: that he related it to his father and his brothers together: and that is an error of theirs.

“And thus your Lord will choose you”: that is: and as He shows you this great vision: so if you conceal it your Lord will choose you: that is: He will single you out with kinds of gentleness and mercy: “and teach you of the interpretation of narratives”: that is: He will make you understand of the meanings of speech: and the interpretation of dreams, what others do not understand: “and complete His favor upon you”: that is: by the revelation to you: “and upon the family of Ya'qoub”: that is: because of you: and the best of this world and the hereafter will come to them through you: “as He completed it upon your two fathers before: Ibrahim and Isaac”: that is: He will favor you: and treat you well with prophethood: as He gave it to your father Ya'qoub: and your grandfather Isaac: and the father of your grandfather, Ibrahim the Confident: “your Lord is Knowing, Wise”: Allah knows better where He places His message.

And for this the Messenger of Allah said, when asked: which of the people is most noble? Youssouf, the prophet of Allah: the son of the prophet of Allah: the son of the prophet of Allah: the son of the intimate of Allah. And Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim have reported in their two tafsirs: and Abu Ya'la: and al-Bazzar in their two Musnads: from the hadith of al-Hakam ibn Dhahïr: and the imams weakened it: from as-Souddi: from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sabit: a man of the Jews came to the Prophet: called Boustana the Jew: O Muhammad, inform me about the stars that Youssouf saw prostrating to him: what are their names? So the Prophet was silent: and did not answer him with anything.

And Jibril came down with their names: so the Messenger of Allah sent to him: Are you a believer, that I inform you of their names? Yes. They are Jarabane: and at-Tariq: and adh-Dhiyal: and Dhu al-Kanafat: and Qabis: and Waththab: and 'Amoudane: and al-Faylaq: and al-Mousbih: and as-Sarouh: and Dhu al-Far': and adh-Dhiya: and an-Nour. By Allah, indeed they are their names.

And with Abu Ya'la: when he related it to his father: This is a scattered matter which Allah will gather: and the sun his father: and the moon his mother.

“There was certainly in Youssouf and his brothers signs for the questioners: when they said: Youssouf and his brother are dearer to our father than we: while we are a band: our father is certainly in manifest error: kill Youssouf: or cast him into a land: your father's face will be free for you: and you will be after him a righteous people. A speaker among them said: do not kill Youssouf: but throw him into the depth of the well: some caravan will pick him up: if you are doers.”

Surat Youssouf, 7-10

The Most High calls attention to what is in this story of signs: and wisdoms: and implications: and exhortations: and proofs. Then He mentioned the envy of Youssouf's brothers toward him: because of their father's love for him: and for his brother: meaning his uterine brother Benyamin, son of their mother: more than them: and they were a band: that is: a group: so we were more worthy of love than these two: “our father is certainly in manifest error”: that is: in preferring love for those two over us. Then they conspired among themselves about killing Youssouf: or banishing him to a land from which there is no return: so that their father's love would be devoted to them alone: that is: so that his love for them might be purified: and concentrated upon them: and they concealed repentance after that: and when they debated that and agreed upon it, a speaker among them said.

He is Siméon: he is Juda: and Qatada said: he is their eldest, Ruben: “do not kill Youssouf: but throw him into the depth of the well: some caravan will pick him up”: that is: some passing travelers: “if you are doers”: whatever you say there is necessarily: so let it be what I say to you: for it is nearer in state than his killing: or his banishment: and his exile: so they all agreed upon this view: at that they said: “O our father, why do you not trust us with Youssouf: and we are indeed his sincere well-wishers: send him with us tomorrow: that he may graze: and play: and we are indeed his guardians. He said: it grieves me indeed that you take him away: and I fear that the wolf may eat him: while you are of him heedless. They said: if the wolf eats him: and we a band: we would then certainly be losers.”

They asked their father to send with them their brother Youssouf: and made it appear to him that they wanted him to graze with them: and play: and be at ease: and they had concealed for him what Allah knows better: O my son: it grieves me to part from him for an hour of the day: and along with this I fear you will be occupied in your play: and whatever you are at: and the wolf will come: and eat him: and be unable to ward him off because of his smallness: and your heedlessness of him. They said: “if the wolf eats him: and we a band: we would then certainly be losers”: that is: if the wolf were to transgress upon him: and eat him from among us: or we were occupied from him: until this happened: and we a group: we would then certainly be losers: that is: incapable: perishing. And with the People of the Book: that he sent him behind them: following them: and he strayed from the road: until a man guided him to them: and this too is of their error: and mistake in the rendering: for Ya'qoub was more eager over him: than to send him with them: so how would he send him alone?

When they went with him: and agreed to put him in the depth of the well: “and We revealed to him: you will surely inform them of this affair of theirs: while they perceive not. “And they came to their father at evening, weeping: they said: O our father, we went racing: and left Youssouf by our effects: and the wolf ate him: and you will not believe us: even if we were truthful. “And they came with his shirt, stained with false blood. He said: no: your souls have enticed you to something: beautiful patience: and Allah is the sought-for help against what you describe.”

They did not cease pressing their father until he sent him with them: and no sooner did they disappear from his sight than they began insulting him: and dishonoring him in deed and word: and agreed upon casting him into the depth of the well: that is: into its bottom, upon its central stone: it is the rock that stands in the middle: on which the drawer stands: he who descends to fill the buckets when water is low: and the one who hauls them up by the rope is called the hauler: when they cast him into it, Allah revealed to him that there is no escape for you: and no outlet from this hardship you are in: and you will surely inform your brothers of this deed of theirs: while you are in a state of power: and they, in need of you: fearing you. “And they perceive not. Mujahid said, of “and they perceive not”: by Allah's inspiration to him of that. And from Ibn Abbas: “and they perceive not”: that is: you will surely inform them of this affair of theirs: in a state in which they do not recognize you.

Ibn Jarir reported it from him: so when they put him in it: and turned away from him: they took his shirt: and smeared it with some blood: and returned to their father at evening: while they wept: that is: over their brother: let not the weeping of the complainer deceive you: for many an oppressor weeps: and they mentioned the weeping of Youssouf's brothers: “and they came to their father at evening, weeping”: that is: in the darkness of night: so that their treachery would be more concealed: not their excuse: they said: “O our father, we went racing: and left Youssouf by our effects”: that is: our clothes: “and the wolf ate him”: that is: in our absence from him: during our race: “and you will not believe us: even if we were truthful”: that is: you will not believe me in what I have informed you: of the wolf's eating of him: even if we were not suspect with you: how then, when you suspect us in this?

For you feared the wolf would eat him: and we guaranteed you that he would not eat him: because of our numbers around him: so we have become disbelieved by you: so you are excused in not believing us: and this is the state: “and they came with his shirt, stained with false blood”: that is: lied-in, fabricated: because they went to a she-goat: slaughtered it: took some of its blood: and put it upon his shirt: to give the impression the wolf had eaten him: and they forgot to tear it: and when the marks of the fraud appeared upon them: their deed did not return upon their father: for he understood their enmity to him: and their envy: of his father's love for him among them: more than for them: because of what he discerned in him of majesty: and awe: which he had in his smallness: because of what Allah wished to single him out with: of his prophethood: and because of what they had contrived of taking him: so as soon as they took him: they deprived him: and removed him from his sight: and came lamenting: and agreeing upon what they had plotted: “no: your souls have enticed you to something: beautiful patience: and Allah is the sought-for help against what you describe.

And with the People of the Book: that Ruben suggested putting him in the well: to take him from where they did not notice: and return him to his father: so they outwitted him: and sold him to that caravan: and when Ruben came at the end of the day to take out Youssouf, he did not find him: so he cried out: and rent his clothes: and grieved: and those men went to a kid: slaughtered it: and smeared Youssouf's coat with its blood: when Ya'qoub knew, he rent his clothes: and wore a black waist-wrap: and grieved over his son for many days: and this feebleness came from their mistake in interpretation: and rendering.

“And there came a caravan: and they sent their water-drawer: and he let down his bucket: he said: O good news, this is a boy: and they concealed him as merchandise: and Allah is Knowing of what they do: and they sold him for a low price: a few counted dirhams: and they were of him detached: and the one who bought him, of Egypt, said to his wife: give him an honorable lodging: perhaps he will benefit us: or we take him as a son: and thus We established Youssouf in the land: and that We might teach him of the interpretation of narratives: and Allah is dominant over His command: but most of the people do not know: and when he reached his maturity: We gave him judgment: and knowledge: and thus We reward the doers of good.”

Surat Youssouf, 19-22

The Most High reports the story of Youssouf when he was placed in the well: that he sat waiting for Allah's relief: and His gentleness with him: and there came a caravan: that is: travelers.

The People of the Book: their merchandise was pistachios: and pine nuts: and earth-pistachios: heading for the lands of Egypt from Syria: so they sent some of them to draw water from that well: and when one of them let down his bucket: Youssouf clung to it: “O good news”: that is: O my good tiding: “this is a boy”: “and they concealed him as merchandise”: that is: they gave the impression that with them was a boy among the whole of their stock: “and Allah is Knowing of what they do”: that is: He is knowing of what his brothers plotted against him: and of what they secretly held: of making him merchandise for themselves: and with that the Most High does not change it: because of the great wisdom He has in that: and the prior decree: and the mercy toward the land of Egypt: because of what Allah will bring about at the hands of this boy: who enters it in the form of a captive slave: then after this He will make him master of the affairs: and Allah will benefit them by him: in their world and their hereafter: in a way that cannot be measured: nor described.

And when Youssouf's brothers sensed the caravan's taking of him: they caught up with them: This is our slave who fled from us: so they bought him from them for a low price: that is: little, rare. It is the falsehood: “a few counted dirhams”: “and they were of him detached. Ibn Mas'oud said: and Ibn Abbas: and Nouf al-Bikali: and as-Souddi: and Qatada: they sold him for twenty dirhams: which they divided, two dirhams each: twenty-two dirhams: and 'Ikrima said: forty dirhams: and Allah knows better: “and the one who bought him, of Egypt, said to his wife: give him an honorable lodging”: that is: be good to him: “perhaps he will benefit us: or we take him as a son.

And this is of Allah's gentleness with him: and His mercy: and His kindness to him: by what He intends to prepare him for: and give him of the two goods, this world: and the hereafter: and the one who bought him was of the people of Egypt, her aziz: his name was Atfir ibn Rouhib: and the king of Egypt at that time was al-Rayyan ibn al-Walid: a man of the 'Amaliqa: and the name of the aziz's wife was Ra'il bint Ra'il: her name was Zoulaykha: the apparent is that it is her title: others say bint Yanous: reported by ath-Tha'labi: from Abu Hicham ar-Rifa'i: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: from Muhammad ibn as-Sa'ib: from Abu Salih: the name of the one who sold him in Egypt: meaning the one who carried her to him: was Malik ibn Daghr ibn Thawayb ibn 'Afqa ibn Madian ibn Ibrahim: and Allah knows better: and Ibn Ishaq said: from Abu 'Oubayda: the most discerning of people are three: the one who said “give him an honorable lodging”: and the woman who said to her father about Moussa: “O my father, hire him: the best of those you hire is the strong, the trustworthy”: and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq when he appointed 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab as successor.

The aziz bought him for twenty dinars: at their weighing of musk: and silk: and leather: and Allah knows better.

“And thus We established Youssouf in the land”: that is: and as We predestined this aziz: and his wife to treat him well: and care for him: We established him in the land of Egypt: “and that We might teach him of the interpretation of narratives”: that is: its understanding: and the interpretation of dreams is of that: “and Allah is dominant over His command”: that is: when He wills something: He predestines for it means: and matters the servants are not guided to: but most of the people do not know: “and when he reached his maturity: We gave him judgment: and knowledge: and thus We reward the doers of good. So it indicates that all of this was: and he was before reaching maturity: which is the limit of forty: in which Allah reveals to His servant-prophets, upon them the prayer and the peace, from the Lord of the worlds.

They differed over the span of life: which is reaching maturity: Malik said: and Rabi'a: and Zayd ibn Aslam: it is adolescence: eighteen years: twenty years: twenty-five years: thirty years: and Ibn Abbas said: and Mujahid: thirty-three years: forty years: “until when he reached his maturity: and reached forty years.”

“And she, in whose house he was, sought to seduce him from himself: and closed the doors: and said: come, you. He said: Allah be my refuge: he is my lord who has made good my lodging: the wrongdoers do not prosper: and she indeed desired him: and he would have desired her: had he not seen the proof of his Lord: thus: that We might turn away from him evil: and indecency: he is of Our servants, the chosen: and they raced to the door: and she tore his shirt from behind: and they found her master at the door: she said: what is the recompense of one who intended evil against your people: except that he be imprisoned: or a painful punishment.

He said: she sought to seduce me from myself: and a witness from her family testified: if his shirt is torn from the front: then she has spoken the truth: and he is of the liars: and if his shirt is torn from behind: then she has lied: and he is of the truthful: so when he saw his shirt torn from behind, he said: it is of your scheming: your scheming is indeed great: Youssouf, turn away from this: and seek forgiveness for your fault: you were of the erring.”

The Most High mentions what was of the aziz's wife seeking to seduce Youssouf from himself: and her asking of him what does not befit his state and standing: and she was at the height of beauty: and wealth: and rank: and youth: and how she closed the doors upon her and upon him: and prepared herself: and made herself up: and wore her finest clothes: and her most splendid dress: and with all this she was the wife of the vizier: and the niece of the king al-Rayyan ibn al-Walid, the possessor of Egypt: and all this while Youssouf was a young man of marvelous beauty and splendor: except that he is a prophet of the lineage of prophets: so his Lord preserved him from indecency: and protected him from the cunning of women: and he is the master of the seven noble, pious, god-fearing ones mentioned in the two Sahihs from the seal of the prophets, in his saying: of the people of earth and heaven: seven whom Allah shades in His shade on a day when there is no shade but His shade: a just ruler: and a man who remembers Allah alone: and his eyes overflow: and a man whose heart is attached to the mosque: when he leaves it until he returns to it: and two men who loved each other for Allah: met upon it: and parted upon it: and a man who gave charity: and concealed it: so that his left hand does not know what his right hand spends: and a young man who grew up in the worship of Allah:

and a man whom a woman of position and beauty called: and he said: I fear Allah. And the intent is that she called him to herself: and desired that intensely: “Allah be my refuge: he is my lord”: meaning her husband, the master of the house: “who has made good my lodging”: that is: has been good to me: and honored my stay with him: “the wrongdoers do not prosper. “And she indeed desired him: and he would have desired her: had he not seen the proof of his Lord”: in which is sufficiency: and satiety in tafsir: and most of the exegetes' sayings here are received from the books of the People of the Book: so turning away from it is more befitting to us: and what must be believed is that Allah the Most High preserved him: absolved him: and sanctified him from indecency: and protected him from it: and guarded him from it: “thus: that We might turn away from him evil: and indecency: he is of Our servants, the chosen.

“And they raced to the door”: they both found: that is: her master: that is: her husband: at the door: so she beat him to speech: and incited him against him: “she said: what is the recompense of one who intended evil against your people: except that he be imprisoned: or a painful punishment. She accused him: while she is the accused: and she absolved her honor: and sanctified her own quarter: He said: “she sought to seduce me from myself. He needed to say the truth when the need arose. He was a small child in the cradle: Ibn Abbas said it: and it was reported from Abu Hurayra: and Hilal ibn Yasaf: and al-Hasan al-Basri: and Sa'id ibn Jubayr: and ad-Dahhak: and Ibn Jarir chose it: and he reported in it a hadith raised from Ibn Abbas: and others reported it from him suspended: he was a man close to Atfir, her husband: close to her: and among those who said he was a man: Ibn Abbas: and 'Ikrima: and Mujahid: and al-Hasan: and Qatada: and as-Souddi: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq: and Zayd ibn Aslam.

“If his shirt is torn from the front: then she has spoken the truth: and he is of the liars: and if his shirt is torn from behind: then she has lied: and he is of the truthful”: that is: because he would have fled from her: and she pursued him: and clung to him: so his shirt tore for that: and so it was: so when he saw his shirt torn from behind, he said: “it is of your scheming: your scheming is indeed great.

That is: what occurred of your scheming: you seduced him from himself: then accused him with falsehood: and her husband turned away from this: turning away: “Youssouf, turn away from this”: that is: do not mention it to anyone: for concealment of matters like this is more apt: and better: and he commanded her to seek forgiveness for the fault that issued from her: and to repent to her Lord: for when the servant repents to Allah: Allah turns to him: and the people of Egypt: though they worshipped idols: knew that He who forgives sins: and punishes for them: is Allah alone: with no partner in that: and for this her husband said it to her: and excused her in some respects: “and seek forgiveness for your fault: you were of the erring.”

“And women in the city said: the wife of the aziz seeks to seduce her slave boy from himself: he has indeed inflamed her with love: we surely see her in manifest error: so when she heard of their scheming: she sent to them: and prepared for them a cushioned place: and gave each one of them a knife: and said: come out to them: and when they saw him: they extolled him: and cut their hands: and said: Allah forbid: this is no man: this is none other than a noble angel. She said: this then is he about whom you blamed me: and I did indeed seek to seduce him: but he preserved himself: and if he does not do what I command him: he will certainly be imprisoned: and will certainly be of the humiliated. He said: my Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me: and if You do not turn away from me their scheme: I will incline toward them: and be of the ignorant. So his Lord answered him: and turned away from him their scheme: He is the Hearing, the Knowing.”

The Most High mentions what was from the women of the city: meaning Egypt: of the wives of the princes: and daughters of the grandees: in criticizing the aziz's wife: and faulting her: and disparaging her for her seducing of her slave boy: and her intense love of him: and this is not equal because he is a client: and his like are not a people for this: “we surely see her in manifest error”: that is: in placing the thing out of its place: so when she heard of their scheming: that is: their disparaging her: and slighting her: and pointing at her with fault: and blame: for the love of her client: and passion for her slave boy: so they displayed blame: and she was excused in the substance of the matter: and for this she wished to lay out her excuse before them: and show that this young man is not as they supposed: nor of what they had: so she sent to them: and gathered them in her home: and prepared for them hospitality like them: and brought in the midst of that something that is cut with knives: like oranges: and the like: and gave each one of them a knife: and she had prepared Youssouf: and dressed him in the best clothes: and he was at the height of the freshness of youth: and commanded him to come out to them in this state: so he came out: and he was more beautiful than the full moon, inevitably: so when they saw him they extolled him: that is: magnified him:

and venerated him: and sanctified him: and they never supposed such a one to be among the sons of Adam: and his beauty dazzled them: until they became distracted from themselves: and began striking in their hands with those knives: and not feeling the wounds: and said: “Allah forbid: this is no man: this is none other than a noble angel.”

There has come in the hadith of the Isra: I passed by Youssouf: and behold, he had been given half of beauty: the Souhayli said: its meaning is that he was at the half of Adam's beauty: because Allah the Most High created Adam with His hand: and breathed into him of His spirit: and he was at the very utmost of human beauty: and for this the people of the Garden enter the Garden upon the stature of Adam: and his beauty: and Youssouf was at the half of Adam's beauty: and there was not between the two of them anyone more beautiful than they: just as there was not after Hawwa a woman who resembled her as Sara, the Confident's wife.

And Youssouf's face was like lightning: and when a woman came to him for a need: he would cover his face: he was mostly veiled: so that the people would not see him: and for this when the aziz's excuse of the aziz's wife was established: in her love for this mentioned sense: and there befell them and upon them what befell: of the cutting of their hands by the wounds of the knives: and what overcame them: of awe: and astonishment at the sight of him: “this then is he about whom you blamed me”: then she praised him with complete chastity: and said: “and I did indeed seek to seduce him: but he preserved himself”: that is: abstained: “and if he does not do what I command him: he will certainly be imprisoned: and will certainly be of the humiliated.

And the rest of the women urged him to hear and obey his mistress: so he refused with the utmost refusal: and distanced: because he was of the lineage of the prophets: “my Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me: and if You do not turn away from me their scheme: I will incline toward them: and be of the ignorant”: if You entrust me to myself: I have nothing of myself but helplessness: and weakness: and I do not possess for my soul benefit: or harm: except what Allah wills: so I am weak: except what You strengthened me with: and preserved me: and guarded me: and sheltered me by Your power: and Your strength. “So his Lord answered him: and turned away from him their scheme: He is the Hearing, the Knowing.”

“Then it appeared to them after they saw the signs: that they would imprison him certainly for a time: and there entered the prison with him two young men: one of them said: I see myself pressing wine: and the other said: I see myself carrying upon my head bread: from which the birds eat: inform us of its interpretation: we see you of the doers of good. He said: there shall not come to you two any food you are provided: but I inform you two of its interpretation: before it comes to you: this is of what my Lord has taught me: I have abandoned the religion of a people who do not believe in Allah: and they are of the hereafter disbelievers: and I followed the religion of my fathers: Ibrahim and Isaac and Ya'qoub: it was not for us to associate anything with Allah: that is of the grace of Allah upon us: and upon the people: but most of the people do not give thanks: O my two companions of the prison: are masters divided better: or Allah, the One, the Prevailing?

You worship not besides Him except names you have named: you and your fathers: Allah has sent down for it no authority: judgment belongs only to Allah: He has commanded that you worship none but Him: that is the upright religion: but most of the people do not know: O my two companions of the prison: as for one of you: he will pour wine for his lord: and as for the other: he will be crucified: and the birds will eat from his head: the matter about which you two inquire has been decreed.”

Surat Youssouf, 35-41

The Most High mentions of the aziz: and his wife: that it appeared to them: that is: the view appeared to them: after they learned of Youssouf's innocence: to imprison him for a while: so that this would be less in the talk of the people over that affair: and mute her matter: and to make it appear that she seduced him from herself: and he was imprisoned because of her: so they imprisoned him unjustly: and aggressively: and this was of what Allah destined for him: and of what He preserved him by: for it keeps him furthest from their company: and mingling with them: and from here some of the Sufis deduced what ash-Shafi'i narrated from them: that among preservation is that one does not find.

“And there entered the prison with him two young men”: one of them was the king's cupbearer: and the other his baker: meaning the one in charge of his food: the majordomo: the king had suspected them in some matters: and imprisoned them: when the two saw Youssouf in prison: his bearing pleased them: and his guidance: and his way: and his manner: and his speech: and his deed: and the abundance of his worship of his Lord: and his kindness to His creation: the two saw in one night: as for the cupbearer: he saw as if three vine branches had leafed: and their clusters ripened: he took them: and pressed them in the king's cup: and gave him drink: and the baker saw upon his head three baskets of bread: and birds eating from the topmost basket: so he related it to him: and the two asked him to interpret for them: “we see you of the doers of good”: so he informed them that he knows their interpretation: and is expert of their affair: and He said: “there shall not come to you two any food you are provided: but I inform you two of its interpretation: before it comes to you”: its meaning: whatever dream you two see: I will interpret it for you two before its occurrence: and it will be as I say: its meaning: I inform you two of what will come to you two of food: before its coming: sweet or sour: “and I inform you of what you eat: and what you store in your houses.

And he said to the two: “this is of what Allah has taught me”: because I believe in Him: affirm His oneness: follow the religion of my noble fathers: Ibrahim the Confident: and Isaac: and Ya'qoub: “it was not for us to associate anything with Allah: that is of the grace of Allah upon us”: that is: by His guiding us to it: “and upon the people”: that is: by His commanding us to call them to it: and guide them: and lead them to it: and it is embedded in their fitra: and planted in their nature: “but most of the people do not give thanks.”

Then he called them to the oneness of Allah: and blamed the worship of other than Allah: and belittled the matter of the idols: and diminished it: and weakened its standing: “O my two companions of the prison: are masters divided better: or Allah, the One, the Prevailing?

You worship not besides Him except names you have named: you and your fathers: Allah has sent down for it no authority: judgment belongs only to Allah”: that is: He is the disposer in His creation: the actor for what He wills: the One who guides whom He wills: and leads astray whom He wills: “He has commanded that you worship none but Him”: that is: Him alone: no partner with Him: “that is the upright religion”: that is: the straight: and the right path: “but most of the people do not know”: that is: they are not guided to it despite its clarity: and manifestation: and his calling them in this state was of the utmost completeness: because their two souls revered him: and were risen to receive what he says with acceptance: so it suited him to call them to what is more beneficial to them than what they asked about: and sought from him: “O my two companions of the prison: as for one of you: he will pour wine for his lord”: and he is the cupbearer: “and as for the other: he will be crucified: and the birds will eat from his head”: and he is the baker: “the matter about which you two inquire has been decreed”: that is: this will occur inevitably: and will be necessitated in every state: and for this it came in the hadith: the dream stands on a bird's foot as long as it is not interpreted: and when it is interpreted it falls.

And it was reported from Ibn Mas'oud: and Mujahid: we saw nothing: “the matter about which you two inquire has been decreed.”

And he said to the one of the two he thought would be saved: “mention me before your lord”: “so the devil made him forget the remembrance of his Lord: and he remained in prison a few years. The Most High reports that Youssouf said to the one of the two he thought would be saved: and he is the cupbearer: “mention me before your lord”: meaning mention my affair: and what I am in of prison without crime: before the king: and in this is proof of the lawfulness of pursuing means: and that does not contradict reliance upon the Lord of lords.

“So the devil made him forget the remembrance of his Lord”: that is: so the devil made the saved one of the two forget: to mention what Youssouf had commended to him: Mujahid said it: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq: and more than one: and it is the correct: and it is the text of the People of the Book: “and he remained in prison a few years”: between three and nine: to seven: to five: less than ten: ath-Tha'labi narrated it: a few women: and a few men: and al-Farra' prohibited using “a few” for what is under ten: rather one says: a handful: “and he remained in prison a few years: within a few years”: and one says: eleven: and twenty-one: to ninety: a few hundreds: and a few thousands: and al-Jawhari differed on what exceeds eleven: twenty-one: to ninety: and in the Sahih: faith is sixty-and-some branches: “there is no god but Allah”: and its least: removing harm from the path.

The pronoun in His saying: “so the devil made him forget the remembrance of his Lord”: returns upon Youssouf: so what he said is weak: though it was reported from Ibn Abbas: and 'Ikrima: and the hadith which Ibn Jarir reported in this place is weak from every aspect: Ibrahim ibn Yazid al-Khouzi al-Makki alone reports its chain: and he is abandoned: and the mursal of al-Hasan: and of Qatada are not accepted: especially here: by the safer and most certain way: and Allah knows better.

Mention of the reason for which Youssouf remained in prison as long as he remained: al-Fadl ibn al-Houbab al-Joumahi informed us: Moussadad ibn Moussarhad informed us: Khalid ibn Abdallah informed us: Muhammad ibn 'Amrou informed us: from Abu Salama: he said: the Messenger of Allah said: may Allah have mercy on Youssouf: were it not for the word he uttered: he would not have remained in prison as long as he remained: and may Allah have mercy on Lout: he was about to take refuge in a rugged pillar: and he said: Allah did not send a prophet after him: except amid plenty from his people: for it is a hadith rejected from this aspect: and Muhammad ibn 'Amrou ibn 'Alqama has things he alone reports: and in them are rejected items: and this wording is among the most rejected: and strongest: and what is in the two Sahihs bears witness to its error: and Allah knows better.

“And the king said: I see seven fat cows: which seven lean ones eat: and seven green ears: and others dry: O notables: give me your opinion of my vision: if you were interpreters of visions. They said: confused dreams: and we are not knowing of the interpretation of dreams: and the one of the two who escaped: and remembered after a while: said: I will inform you of its interpretation: so send me forth. Youssouf, O truthful one: give us your ruling about seven fat cows: which seven lean ones eat: and seven green ears: and others dry: that I may return to the people: perhaps they will know. He said: you will sow seven years of toil: and what you harvest: leave it in its ears: except a little from which you eat: then there will come after that seven hard ones: which will eat what you have prepared for them: except a little you preserve: then there will come after that a year: in which the people will be succored: and in it they press.”

Surat Youssouf, 43-49

All of this is among the causes of Youssouf's coming out of prison: in a manner of respect: and honor: and that is that the king of Egypt: who is al-Rayyan ibn al-Walid ibn Tharwane ibn Aracha ibn Farane ibn 'Amrou ibn 'Imlaq ibn Lawadh ibn Sam ibn Nuh: saw this vision: he saw as if he were on the bank of a river: and as if seven fat cows had come out of it: and they began grazing in a meadow there: and seven gaunt, weak ones came out of that river: and grazed with them: then they turned upon them: and ate them: so he awoke terrified: then slept: and saw seven green ears on one stalk: and behold, seven others thin, dry, eating them: so he awoke terrified: and when he related it to his notables: and his people: there was none among them who could interpret it well: rather they said: confused heaps of dreams: that is: mixtures of dreams of the night: perhaps it has no interpretation: and with this: we have no experience of that: “and we are not knowing of the interpretation of dreams.

At that the saved one of the two remembered: the one Youssouf had commended to mention him before his lord: and he had forgotten: until his due time: this: and that by Allah's decree: and to Him belongs the wisdom in that: when he heard the king's dream: and saw the people's helplessness at interpreting it: he remembered Youssouf's affair: and what he had commended to him: of remembrance: and said: “and the one of the two who escaped: and remembered”: that is: remembered after a while: that is: after a while of time: and it is a few years: and some read, as related: from Ibn Abbas: and 'Ikrima: that is: after a forgetting: with the i-skan of the mim: and it is also forgetting: “the man's climber climbs his mother”: I forgot: and I did not forget a saying: thus time fells the intellects. “I will inform you of its interpretation: so send me forth”: that is: so send me forth to Youssouf: “Youssouf, O truthful one: give us your ruling about seven fat cows: which seven lean ones eat: and seven green ears: and others dry: that I may return to the people: perhaps they will know.

And with the People of the Book: when the saved one mentioned him to the king: he summoned him to his presence: and related to him what he saw: and he interpreted it for him: and this is an error: and the correct is what Allah related in His Book the Quran: not what these ignorant ones rendered: priests and monks.

So Youssouf offered what he had of knowledge: without delay: or condition: or seeking a hasty exit: rather he answered them to what they asked: and interpreted for them what the king's dream indicated: of the occurrence of seven years of plenty: followed by seven of drought: then there comes after that a year in which the people are succored: meaning the rain comes to them: and plenty: and ease: “and in it they press”: meaning what they used to press of grape clusters: and grapes: and olives: and sesame: and other: so he interpreted for them: and guided them to good: and directed them to what they should rely upon: in their states of plenty: and drought: and what they should do of storing the grains of the years of plenty: in the first seven: in their ears: except what is set aside for eating: and of reducing the seed in the years of drought: in the second seven: since it is most likely that the seed will not return from the field: and this indicates the perfection of knowledge: and the perfection of judgment: and understanding.

“And the king said: bring him to me: and when the messenger came to him: he said: return to your lord: and ask him: what is the case of the women who cut their hands: my Lord is knowing of their scheme. He said: what was your affair when you sought to seduce Youssouf from himself? They said: Allah forbid: we know no evil against him. The aziz's wife said: now the truth has become manifest: I sought to seduce him from himself: and he is indeed of the truthful: that he may know that I did not betray him in secret: and that Allah does not guide the scheme of the betrayers: and I do not absolve my own self: the soul indeed enjoins evil: except what my Lord has mercy on: my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful.”

Surat Youssouf, 50-53

When the king encompassed knowledge of the perfection of Youssouf's knowledge: and the completeness of his intellect: and his sound judgment: and his understanding: he commanded that he be brought to his presence: to be among his elite: and when the messenger came with that: he wished not to leave: until it became clear to everyone: that he had been imprisoned unjustly: and aggressively: and that he was innocent of the court: of what they attributed to him: in slander: he said: “return to your lord”: meaning the king: “and ask him: what is the case of the women who cut their hands: my Lord is knowing of their scheme”: its meaning: my master the aziz knows of my innocence of what was attributed to me: so order the king: that he ask them: how was my intense abstention: when they sought to seduce me: and their urging of me: toward the matter that is neither sound: nor right: so when they were asked about that: we confessed what had occurred of the error of the matter: and what came of it: of the praiseworthy affair: and said: “Allah forbid: we know no evil against him.

At that the aziz's wife said: and she is Zoulaykha: “now the truth has become manifest”: that is: appeared: and become clear: and plain: and truth is most worthy of being followed: “I sought to seduce him from himself: and he is indeed of the truthful”: that is: in what he says: of his being innocent: and that he did not seduce me: and that he was imprisoned unjustly: and aggressively: falsely: and in slander.

“That he may know that I did not betray him in secret: and that Allah does not guide the scheme of the betrayers”: it is from Youssouf's speech: that is: I only sought the verification of this: that the aziz may know that I did not betray him in his absence: “and I do not absolve my own self: the soul indeed enjoins evil: except what my Lord has mercy on: my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful”: it is from the completeness of Zoulaykha's speech: that is: I only confessed this: that my husband may know: that I did not betray him in the substance of the matter: and it was only a solicitation: no act of indecency having occurred with her: and this saying is the one a large group of the imams of the later ones defended: and others: and Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim narrated nothing but the first: “and I do not absolve my own self: the soul indeed enjoins evil: except what my Lord has mercy on: my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful”: it is from Youssouf's speech: from Zoulaykha's speech: and it is branched upon the two first sayings: and its being from the completeness of Zoulaykha's speech is more apparent: and more fitting: and stronger: and Allah knows better.

“And the king said: bring him to me: I will single him out for myself: and when he spoke to him: he said: you are today with us: established: trusted. He said: place me over the storehouses of the land: I am a guardian: knowing: and thus We established Youssouf in the land: he settles in it wherever he wills: We reach with Our mercy whom We will: and We do not waste the reward of the doers of good: and the reward of the hereafter is better for those who believed: and were fearing. ”

Surat Youssouf, 54-57

When the innocence of his honor appeared to the king: “bring him to me: I will single him out for myself”: that is: make him of my elite: and the grandees of my state: and the notables of my retinue: and when he spoke to him: and heard his saying: and discerned his state: he said: “you are today with us: established: trusted”: that is: possessing standing: and trustworthiness: he said: “place me over the storehouses of the land: I am a guardian: knowing”: he asked that the oversight of what concerns the granaries be entrusted to him: because of what he anticipated: of gaps occurring after the passing of the seven years of plenty: that he might look into them: with what pleases Allah toward His creation: of care for them: and gentleness: and he informed the king that he is a guardian: that is: strong upon keeping what he has: trustworthy over it: knowing of regulating things: and the interests of the granaries: and in this is proof of the lawfulness of seeking office: for one who knows of himself trustworthiness: and competence: and with the People of the Book: Pharaon greatly honored Youssouf: and empowered him over all the land of Egypt: and clothed him with his ring: and clothed him with silk: and put the gold necklace on him: and carried him on his second chariot: and it was proclaimed before him: you are a lord: that is: a master: and empowered: and he said:

“I am not greater than you: except by the throne. And Youssouf was then thirty years old: and his wife a woman of great standing: and ath-Tha'labi reports that he removed Qitfir from his post: and appointed Youssouf to it: when her husband died, he married to him his wife Zoulaykha: and found her a virgin: because her husband did not come to women: so she bore Youssouf two men: and they are Efraïm: and Mansha: and the kingdom of Egypt was entrusted to Youssouf: and he acted among them with justice: so the men and the women loved him: it is narrated that Youssouf on the day he entered upon the king was thirty years old: and that the king addressed him in seventy languages: and he answered him in every one of those languages: and that amazed him: along with his young age: and Allah knows better.

“And thus We established Youssouf in the land: he settles in it wherever he wills”: that is: after the prison: and the constraint: and the confinement: he became free of rein in the lands of Egypt: “he settles in it wherever he wills”: that is: wherever he wills he alights in it: honored: envied: venerated: “We reach with Our mercy whom We will: and We do not waste the reward of the doers of good”: that is: all of this is from Allah's requital: and His reward for the believer: along with what He stores for him in his hereafter: of ample good: and beautiful reward: “and the reward of the hereafter is better for those who believed: and were fearing.

Atfir, the husband of Zoulaykha, had died: so the king appointed him his place: and married him his wife Zoulaykha: and he was a true vizier: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq mentioned that the master of Egypt, al-Walid ibn al-Rayyan, became Muslim at the hands of Youssouf: and Allah knows better: and he said: “Behind the straitness of fear, safety widens: and the first thing rejoiced in is the end of sorrow: so do not despair: for Allah made Youssouf master of His treasuries: after release from prison.”

“And the brothers of Youssouf came: and entered upon him: and he recognized them: and they were to him unrecognizing: and when he equipped them with their equipment: he said: bring me a brother of yours from your father: do you not see that I give full measure: and I am the best of hosts? But if you do not bring him to me: there shall be no measure for you with me: and do not approach me. They said: we will solicit his father about him: and we will surely do: and he said to his pages: put their merchandise in their saddlebags: perhaps they will recognize it when they have turned back to their people: perhaps they will return.”

Surat Youssouf, 58-62

The Most High reports the coming of Youssouf's brothers to the lands of Egypt: seeking food: and that after the coming of the years of drought: and their spreading over the rest of the lands: and the servants: and Youssouf was then the governor of the affairs of the lands of Egypt: in religion: and in world: and when they entered upon him: he recognized them: and they did not recognize him: because it had not crossed their minds what Youssouf had reached: of standing: and greatness: and for this he recognized them: and they were to him unrecognizing: and with the People of the Book: that when they arrived at him: they prostrated to him: so he recognized them: and he intended that they not recognize him: so he was harsh with them in speech: You are spies: you have come to take word of my land: Allah forbid: we have only come to seek sustenance for our people: from the hardship: and hunger that has struck us: and we are the sons of one father: from Canaan: and we are twelve men: one of us is gone: and our youngest is with our father: I must needs know your affair: and with them: that he imprisoned them three days: then brought them out: and kept Siméon with him: that they might come with the other brother: and in part of this there is reflection: “and when he equipped them with their equipment”: that is:

gave them from the provisions what his habit ran of giving every man a camel-load: not exceeding it: he said: “bring me a brother of yours from your father: we were twelve men: one of us is gone: and his uterine brother remained with our father: when you come from the coming year: bring him to me with you: do you not see that I give full measure: and I am the best of hosts?

That is: I have done well your lodging: and your hospitality: so he enticed them to bring him: “but if you do not bring him to me: there shall be no measure for you with me: and do not approach me”: that is: I will not give you provisions: and will not approach you at all: opposite of what he first bestowed on them: so he strove to bring him with them: to quench his longing for him: by enticement: and intimidation: “we will solicit his father about him”: that is: we will strive for his coming with us: and his coming to you: by every possible means: “and we will surely do”: that is: and we are capable of obtaining it: then he commanded his pages to put their merchandise: which is what they came with: to compensate for the provisions: in their baggage: from where they do not sense it: “perhaps they will recognize it when they have turned back to their people: perhaps they will return.

He intended that they return it when they find it in their land: he feared they might not have with what to return a second time: he disapproved of taking from them compensation for the provisions: and the exegetes differed over their merchandise upon sayings that will come: and with the People of the Book: that it was purses of silver: and that is most likely: and Allah knows better.

So when they returned to their father they said: “O our father, the measure has been denied us: so send with us our brother: we will get measure: and we are indeed his guardians. He said: shall I trust you with him: except as I trusted you with his brother before: Allah is the best keeper: and He is the most Merciful of the merciful: and when they opened their baggage: they found their merchandise returned to them: they said: O our father, what more do we desire: this is our merchandise returned to us: and we will get provisions for our people: and guard our brother: and add a camel-load of measure: that is an easy measure. He said: I will never send him with you: until you bring me a firm pledge from Allah: that you will surely bring him to me: unless you are encompassed: and when they brought him their pledge: he said: Allah is trustee over what we say.”

“The measure has been denied us”: that is: after this our year: if you do not send with us our brother: if you send him with us: it will not be denied us: “and when they opened their baggage: they found their merchandise returned to them: they said: O our father, what more do we desire”: that is: what do we want: the merchandise has been returned to us: “and we will get provisions for our people”: that is: we will seek sustenance for them: and bring them what improves their year: and their state: “and guard our brother”: “and add a camel-load of measure”: that is: in exchange for their other son's going: and Ya'qoub held nothing dearer than his son Benyamin: because he smelled in him his brother's scent: and consoled himself with him for him: and compensated himself because of him for him: “I will never send him with you: until you bring me a firm pledge from Allah: that you will surely bring him to me: unless you are encompassed”: that is: unless all of you are overpowered as to bringing him: and when they brought him their pledge: he said: “Allah is trustee over what we say”: he strengthened the pledges: and consolidated the covenants: and took precaution for himself in his son: and precaution never avails against destiny: and had it not been his need: and his people's need: for provisions: he would not have sent the noble child: but destinies have their rulings:

and the Lord Most High decrees what He wills: and chooses what He wills: and judges what He wills: and He is the Wise, the Knowing: then he commanded them not to enter the city by one gate: but to enter by separate gates: he intended that none strike them with the evil eye: and that: because they were fair of form: and marvelous of figures: Ibn Abbas said it: and Mujahid: and Muhammad ibn Ka'b: and Qatada: and as-Souddi: and ad-Dahhak: he intended that they scatter: perhaps they would find word of Youssouf: or be told of him more easily: Ibrahim an-Nakha'i said it: and the first is more apparent: “and I avail you nothing against Allah: judgment belongs only to Allah: upon Him I rely: and upon Him let the reliant rely. “And when they entered from where their father commanded them: it did not avail them against Allah anything: except a need within Ya'qoub's soul: which he satisfied: and he was surely possessed of knowledge for what We taught him: but most of the people do not know.”

And with the People of the Book: that he sent with them a gift to the aziz: of pistachios: and almonds: and pine nuts: and earth-pistachios: and honey: and they took the first dirhams: and another present: and when they entered upon Youssouf, his brother betook himself to him: he said: I am your brother: so do not despair over what they used to do: and when he equipped them with their equipment: he placed the drinking cup in his brother's saddlebag: then a crier called out: O caravan: you are surely thieves: they said, turning toward them: what are you missing? They said: we miss the king's cup: and whoever brings it: a camel-load: and I guarantee it. They said: by Allah: you know certainly we came not to corrupt in the land: and we were not thieves: they said: then what is its recompense: if you are liars?

They said: its recompense is that the one in whose saddlebag it is found: it is his recompense: thus do we recompense the wrongdoers: so he began with their vessels before his brother's vessel: then he brought it out of his brother's vessel: thus We schemed for Youssouf: he could not take his brother in the king's religion: unless Allah willed: We raise in degrees whom We will: and over every man of knowledge is a knower: they said: if he steals: a brother of his stole before: so Youssouf kept it within himself: and did not show it to them: he said: you are worse in position: and Allah knows better of what you describe: they said: O aziz: he has a father, a very old man: so take one of us in his place: we see you of the doers of good. He said: Allah forbid: that we take except him with whom we found our merchandise: we would then indeed be wrongdoers.

The Most High mentions their affair when they entered with their brother Benyamin upon their uterine brother Youssouf: and his sheltering of him: and informing him secretly of them: that he was his brother: and commanding him to conceal that from them: and reassuring him of what was from them toward him of offense: then he schemed to take him from them: and leave him with him apart from them: so he commanded his pages to place his cup: the one he drank with: and measured the people's food from his honor with: in Benyamin's merchandise: then he informed them that they had stolen the king's cup: and promised them a reward upon returning it: a camel-load: and the crier guaranteed it to them: so they turned upon the one who had accused them of that: and apprised him: and rebuked him for what he said to them: “by Allah: you know certainly we came not to corrupt in the land: and we were not thieves”: you know of us the opposite of what you accused us of: of theft: they said: “then what is its recompense: if you are liars?

They said: “its recompense is that the one in whose saddlebag it is found: it is his recompense: thus do we recompense the wrongdoers”: and this was their law: that the thief be handed over what was stolen from him: “thus do we recompense the wrongdoers”: so he began with their vessels before his brother's vessel: then he brought it out of his brother's vessel: that this might be furthest from accusation: and most complete in stratagem: “thus We schemed for Youssouf: he could not take his brother in the king's religion: unless Allah willed: We raise in degrees whom We will”: that is: in knowledge: “and over every man of knowledge is a knower”: and that: because Youssouf was more knowing than them: and more complete in judgment: and stronger in resolve: and decision: and he only did what he did by Allah's command to him in that: because upon this command follows a great interest afterward: of his father's coming: and his people's to him: and their arrival at him: so when they witnessed the extraction of the cup from Benyamin's load: they said: “if he steals: a brother of his stole before”: meaning Youssouf: he had stolen his maternal grandfather's idol: and broken it: his aunt had hung it on him among his clothes: and he was small: with a waist-belt that was for Isaac: then they brought it out from between his clothes: and he did not sense what she had done:

and she only intended that it be with her: and in his keeping: for her love of him: he used to take the food from the house: and feed the poor: and it is said otherwise: “if he steals: a brother of his stole before”: “so Youssouf kept it within himself”: and it is his word after it: “you are worse in position: and Allah knows better of what you describe”: “they said: O aziz: he has a father, a very old man: so take one of us in his place: we see you of the doers of good. He said: Allah forbid: that we take except him with whom we found our merchandise: we would then indeed be wrongdoers”: that is: if we release the accused: and take the innocent: this we do not do: and do not permit: and we only take him with whom we found our merchandise. And with the People of the Book: that Youssouf made himself known to them at that moment: and this is of what they erred: and did not understand well.

So when they despaired of him, they conferred privately: their eldest said: “do you not know that your father took upon you a pledge from Allah: and before you failed concerning Youssouf: so I will never leave the land: until my father permits me: or Allah judges for me: and He is the best of judges: return to your father: and say: O our father, your son has stolen: and we testify only to what we know: and we were not guardians of the unseen: and ask the village we were in: and the caravan in which we came: and we are indeed truthful. He said: no: your souls have enticed you to something: beautiful patience: perhaps Allah will bring them all to me: He is the Knowing, the Wise: and he turned away from them: and said: O my sorrow for Youssouf: and his eyes whitened from the grief: and he was suppressing. They said: by Allah: you will not cease remembering Youssouf: until you are exhausted: or you are of the perished.

He said: I only complain of my grief: and sorrow to Allah: and I know from Allah what you do not know: O my sons, go and seek Youssouf: and his brother: and do not despair of relief from Allah: none despairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people.”

“Do you not know that your father took upon you a pledge from Allah”: you have certainly broken his covenant: and failed concerning him: as you failed concerning his brother Youssouf before him: so no face remains to me: with which I might face him: “so I will never leave the land”: that is: I remain always here: until my father permits me: “or Allah judges for me”: by enabling me to return my brother to my father: “and He is the best of judges: return to your father: and say: O our father, your son has stolen”: that is: inform him of what you saw of the affair: in outward witnessing: “and we testify only to what we know: and we were not guardians of the unseen: and ask the village we were in: and the caravan in which we came”: that is: for this that I informed you of: of their taking our brother: because he stole: is a matter famous in Egypt: and the caravan knew it: we and they being there: “and we are indeed truthful.

He said: no: your souls have enticed you to something: beautiful patience”: that is: the matter is not as you mentioned: he did not steal: for it is not of his virtue: nor his character: but your souls have enticed you to something: beautiful patience.

Ibn Ishaq said: the failing concerning Benyamin being consequent upon their deed concerning Youssouf: he said to them what he said: the recompense of the evil is the evil after it: “perhaps Allah will bring them all to me”: meaning Youssouf: and Benyamin: and Ruben: “He is the Knowing”: that is: of my state: and what I am in: of parting from the beloved: “the Wise”: in what He decrees: and does: and to Him belongs the perfect wisdom: and the decisive proof: “and he turned away from them”: that is: turned away from his sons: “and said: O my sorrow for Youssouf”: his new grief reminded him of the old grief: and stirred what was hidden: Carry your heart wherever you will of love: love is only for the first beloved: He blamed me by the graves upon weeping: my companion, for the pouring of the flowing tears: do you weep every grave you see: for a grave buried between Leh and Dadakad? I said to him: indeed sorrow awakens sorrow: so leave me: for this all is the grave of Malik.

“and his eyes whitened from the grief”: that is: from much weeping: “and he was suppressing”: that is: suppressed: from much of his grief: and his sorrow: and his longing for Youssouf: so when his sons saw what he suffered: of loneliness: and the pain of parting: they said to him: with compassion for him: “by Allah: you will not cease remembering Youssouf: until you are exhausted: or you are of the perished”: you will not cease remembering him: until your body dissolves: “I only complain of my grief: and sorrow to Allah: and I know from Allah what you do not know”: I do not complain to you: nor to anyone of the people: of what I am in: I only complain to Allah: and I know that Allah will make for me from what I am in: a relief: and an exit: and I know that Youssouf's vision must occur: and that I must prostrate to him: I and you: according to what he saw: “and I know from Allah what you do not know”: then he said to them: inciting to the pursuit of Youssouf: and his brother: and that they search for their affair: “O my sons, go and seek Youssouf: and his brother: and do not despair of relief from Allah: none despairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people”: that is: do not despair of relief after hardship: for none despairs of Allah's relief: and His deliverance: and what He decrees of exit: in straits: except the disbelieving people.

“So when they entered upon him they said: O aziz, distress has touched us: and our family: and we have come with merchandise of little worth: so give us full measure: and be charitable to us: Allah rewards the charitable. He said: do you know what you did with Youssouf: and his brother: while you were ignorant? They said: are you indeed Youssouf? He said: I am Youssouf: and this is my brother: Allah has certainly been gracious to us: whoever fears: and is patient: Allah surely does not waste the reward of the doers of good.

They said: by Allah: Allah has certainly preferred you over us: and we were certainly sinners. He said: no blame upon you today: may Allah forgive you: and He is the most Merciful of the merciful: go with this shirt of mine: and cast it upon the face of my father: he will come seeing: and bring me all your family.”

Surat Youssouf, 88-93

The Most High reports the return of Youssouf's brothers to him: and their coming upon him: and their desire for what he has of provisions: and his charity upon them: by his returning their brother Benyamin to them: so when they entered upon him: they said: “O aziz: distress has touched us: and our family”: that is: from the drought: and straitness of state: and many dependents: “and we have come with merchandise of little worth”: that is: lowly: its like is not accepted from us: except that it be passed over: they were bad dirhams: little: pine nuts: and earth-pistachios: and the like: they were the stuff of pouches: and ropes: and the like: “so give us full measure: and be charitable to us: Allah rewards certes the charitable”: by its acceptance: as-Souddi said it: by our brother's return to us: Ibn Jourayj said it: charity was only forbidden to our Prophet Muhammad: and he removed by this verse: Ibn Jarir reported it: and when he saw the state they were in: and what they brought: of what nothing else remained with them: of weak wealth: he made himself known to them: and was tender toward them: saying to them: from the affair of his Lord: and their Lord: and he had bared to them his noble forehead: and what it contained: of the hidden they know: “do you know what you did with Youssouf: and his brother: while you were ignorant?

They said: and they marveled with all wonder: and had turned to him many times: and they not knowing that it was he: “are you indeed Youssouf? “He said: I am Youssouf: and this is my brother”: I am Youssouf, with whom you did what you did: and what preceded of your affair concerning him: that you neglected: “and this is my brother”: confirmation of what he said: and an alert to what they concealed for the two of them: of envy: and what they did in their affair: of scheming: “Allah has certainly been gracious to us”: that is: by His kindness to us: and His favor upon us: and His sheltering us: and His tightening with us the bonds of honor: and that by what we preceded: of obedience to Him: and our patience over what was from you: toward us: and our obedience: and goodness to our father: and his intense love for us: and his care for us: “whoever fears: and is patient: Allah surely does not waste the reward of the doers of good.

They said: “by Allah: Allah has certainly preferred you over us: and we were certainly sinners”: that is: He preferred you: and we were sinners in what we did to you: and here we are before you: he said: “no blame upon you today”: that is: I do not rebuke you for what was from you after this your day: then he added for them beyond that: “may Allah forgive you: and He is the most Merciful of the merciful”: the saying is weak: and the correct is the first: then he commanded them to go with his shirt: the one adjacent to his body: and cast it upon his father's two eyes: for his sight will return to him: after it had gone: by Allah's leave: and this is of the breaches of habit: and the proofs of prophethoods: and the greatest of miracles: then he commanded them to carry all their family to the lands of Egypt: to the good: and abundance: and the joining of the group: after separation: upon the most complete of modes: and the highest of matters.

“And when the caravan departed, their father said: I indeed find the scent of Youssouf: if you did not think me senile: they said: by Allah: you are certainly in your old error: and when the bringer of glad tidings came: he cast it upon his face: and he returned seeing: he said: did I not say to you: I know from Allah what you do not know? They said: O our father, ask forgiveness for us our sins: we were certainly sinners. He said: I will ask forgiveness for you from my Lord: He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”

Isra'il informed us: from Abu Sinan: “and when the caravan departed”: he said: when the caravan went out, a wind stirred: and brought Ya'qoub the scent of Youssouf's shirt: so he said: “I indeed find the scent of Youssouf: if you did not think me senile”: and he smelled his scent from a distance of eight days: and thus ath-Thawri reported it: and Chou'ba: and others than the two of them: from Abu Sinan with it: and al-Hasan al-Basri said: between the two of them was a journey of eighty farsakh: and it had been for him since he parted from him eighty years: “if you did not think me senile”: you only said this from dotage: which is rambling: and old age: Ibn Abbas said: and 'Ata: and Mujahid: and Sa'id ibn Jubayr: and Qatada: “you think me senile”: you take me for a fool: and Mujahid also: you make me old: they said: “by Allah: you are certainly in your old error”: Qatada said: they said to him a coarse word: “and when the bringer of glad tidings came: he cast it upon his face: and he returned seeing”: that is: as soon as the bringer came: he cast the shirt upon Ya'qoub's face: and his sight returned at once: after he had been blind: “did I not say to you: I know from Allah what you do not know?

That is: I know that Allah will gather my lot with Youssouf: and my joy will settle with him: and He will show me in him: and of him what delights me: at that they said: “O our father, ask forgiveness for us our sins: we were certainly sinners”: they sought from him: that he ask Allah forgiveness for them: for what they did: and attained: of him: and of his son: and what they resolved against him: and since their intention was repentance before the deed: “I will ask forgiveness for you from my Lord: He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Ibn Mas'oud: and Ibrahim at-Taymi: and 'Amrou ibn Qays: and Ibn Jourayj said: Abu as-Sa'ib narrated to me: Ibn Idris narrated to us: I heard Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ishaq relate: he was my uncle: he used to come to the mosque: and heard a man saying: O Allah, You called me: and I answered: and You commanded me: and I obeyed: and this is the pre-dawn: so forgive me: so he listened to the voice: and it was from Abdallah ibn Mas'oud's house: so he asked Abdallah about that: Ya'qoub delayed his sons until the pre-dawn by his saying: “I will ask forgiveness for you from my Lord”: and the seekers of forgiveness at the dawns: and it is established in the Sahih from the Messenger of Allah, he said: Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven: and says: is there one repenting: that I may forgive him? Is there one asking: that I may give him? Is there one seeking forgiveness: that I may forgive him?

And there has come in a hadith that Ya'qoub delayed: al-Mouthanna narrated to me: Sulayman ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ayyoub al-Dimashqi narrated to us: al-Walid narrated to us: Ibn Jourayj informed us: from 'Ata: and 'Ikrima: from Ibn Abbas: “I will ask forgiveness for you from my Lord”: until Friday night comes: and it is the saying of the brother Ya'qoub to his sons: and this is strange from this aspect: and in its being raised there is reflection: and the most likely is that it be suspended on Ibn Abbas.

And when they entered upon Youssouf, he sheltered to him his two parents: and said: “enter Egypt: if Allah wills: in safety: and he raised his two parents upon the throne: and they fell to him in prostration: and he said: O my father, this is the interpretation of my vision of before: my Lord has made it true: and He was certainly good to me: when He brought me out of prison: and brought you from the desert: after the devil sowed between me: and my brothers: my Lord is gentle to what He wills: He is the Knowing, the Wise: my Lord, You have given me of sovereignty: and taught me of the interpretation of narratives: Originator of the heavens and the earth: You are my guardian in this world: and the hereafter: make me die a submitter: and join me with the righteous.

It is eighty years: eighty-three years: and they are two transmissions from al-Hasan: thirty-five years: Qatada said it: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: they mention that he was absent from him eighteen years: and the People of the Book claim he was absent from him forty years: and the apparent of the story's context points to specifying the period approximately: for the woman seduced him: and he was a young man of seventeen: as more than one said: so he abstained: and he was in prison a few years: and they are seven: with 'Ikrima: and others: then he was released: and the seven years of plenty were: then when the people spent out in the seven remaining: his brothers came seeking: the first year alone: and in the second: with them their brother Benyamin: and in the third he made himself known to them: and commanded them to bring all their family: so they came all of them: and when they entered upon Youssouf, he sheltered to him his two parents: he gathered with the two of them: alone: apart from his brothers: and said: “enter Egypt: if Allah wills: in safety.

This is from the preceding: enter Egypt: and he sheltered to him his two parents: and Ibn Jarir weakened it: and he is excused: he received the two of them: and sheltered them in the dwelling of the tents: then when they drew near the gate of Egypt: he said: “enter Egypt: if Allah wills: in safety”: as-Souddi said it: the matter does not need this also: and his saying “enter” has embedded the meaning of: dwell in Egypt: or reside in it: “if Allah wills: in safety”: it would be sound and good as well.

And with the People of the Book: that Ya'qoub, when he arrived at the land of Jachir: which is the land of Bilbays: Youssouf came out to meet him: and Ya'qoub had sent ahead his son Juda: bearing the news of his coming: and with them: that the king granted them the land of Jachir: to be in it: and dwell in it with their livestock: and their animals: and a group of the exegetes mentioned that when the coming of the prophet of Allah Ya'qoub drew near: who is Israël: Youssouf intended to go out to meet him: so the king rode with him: and his soldiers: in service to Youssouf: and veneration of the prophet of Allah Israël: and that he prayed for the king: and that Allah lifted from the people of Egypt the remainder of the years of drought: by the blessing of his coming to them: and Allah knows better.

And the sum of those who came with Ya'qoub of his sons: and their children: according to what Abu Ishaq as-Sabi'i said: from Abu 'Oubayda: from Ibn Mas'oud: sixty-three persons: from Muhammad ibn Ka'b: from Abdallah ibn Chaddad: they were eighty-three persons: from Masrouq: they entered as three hundred and ninety persons: and went out with Moussa as more than six hundred thousand fighters: and in the text of the People of the Book: they were seventy souls: and they named them.

“And he raised his two parents upon the throne”: his mother had died: as it is with the scholars of the Torah: and some of the exegetes said: Allah revived her: rather she was his aunt Léa: and the aunt holds the rank of the mother: and Ibn Jarir said: rather the apparent of the Quran requires his mother's life continuing until that day: so no reliance is placed on the People of the Book's transmission in what contradicts it: and this is strong: and Allah knows better: and he raised the two of them upon the throne: that is: seated them with him on his couch: “and they fell to him in prostration”: that is: the two parents prostrated to him: and the eleven brothers: in veneration: and honoring: and this was sanctioned for them: and that continued to be practiced in the rest of the laws: until it was forbidden in our religion: and he said: “O my father, this is the interpretation of my vision of before”: that is: this is the interpretation of what I related to you: of my vision: the eleven stars: and the sun: and the moon: when I saw them prostrating to me: and you commanded me to conceal it: and promised me what you promised me at that: “my Lord has made it true: and He was certainly good to me: when He brought me out of prison”: that is: after the anxiety: and constraint: He made me a ruler: of executed word: in the lands of Egypt: wherever I will:

“and brought you from the desert”: that is: the bedouin lands: and they dwelt the Arabian lands: of the Confident's country: “after the devil sowed between me: and my brothers”: that is: in what was from them: toward me: of the affair: whose mention preceded: “my Lord is gentle to what He wills”: that is: when He wills a thing: He prepares its means: and facilitates them: and makes them easy: in ways the servants are not guided to: rather He decrees them: and makes them easy: by His gentle crafting: and His great power: “He is the Knowing”: that is: of all matters: “the Wise”: in His creation: and His law: and His decree.

And with the People of the Book: that Youssouf sold the people of Egypt: and others: the food that was under his hand: with all their wealth: of gold: and silver: and remedies: and furniture: and all they owned: until he sold them for their own selves: so they became slaves: then he released them their land: and freed their necks: on condition they work: and that a fifth of what they produce: of their sowing: and their fruits: be for the king: so it became the custom of the people of Egypt after him: and ath-Tha'labi reports that he did not eat his fill in those years: so as not to forget the hungry: and that he only ate one morsel: at midday: and from there the good kings followed his example in that: and the commander of the believers 'Oumar ibn al-Khattab did not fill his belly in the Year of Ashes: until the drought went: and the plenty came: a bedouin man said to 'Oumar, after the Year of Ashes passed: it has certainly lifted from you: and you are certainly the son of a free woman.

Then when Youssouf saw that his blessing was complete: and his lot gathered: he knew that this abode is not settled in firmly: and that everything in it: and upon it is perishable: and after completeness there is only diminution: at that he praised his Lord with what is His due: and confessed to Him His immense kindness: and grace: and asked of Him: and He is the best of the questioned: that He take him: that is: whenever He takes him: in submission: and that He join him with His righteous servants: O Allah, make us live as Muslims: and make us die as Muslims: that is: whenever You take us: and it is possible he asked that at his death agony: as the Prophet asked at his death agony: that his spirit be raised to the highest assembly: and the righteous companions: of the prophets: and the messengers: O Allah, in the highest company.

Three times: then he passed: and it is possible Youssouf asked for death in submission: anticipated: in health: and safety: and that was permissible in their religion: and their law: no prophet ever wished for death before Youssouf: as for our law: invoking death has been forbidden: except at trials: as in Mou'adh's hadith: in the supplication Ahmad reported: and if You intend a people a trial: then take us to You: without being enamored: and in the other hadith: O son of Adam: death is better for you than trial: “O would that I had died before this: and been a thing forgotten”: and 'Ali ibn Abi Talib wished for death: when the affairs worsened: and the trials grew great: and the fighting intensified: and talk multiplied: and al-Boukhari Abu Abdallah, companion of the Prophet, wished for it: when his state intensified upon him: and he met from his opponents the horrors: as for in the state of ease: al-Boukhari reported: the Messenger of Allah said: let none of you wish for death for a harm that has befallen him: either a doer of good: so he may increase: or an evildoer: perhaps he will make amends: “O Allah, keep me alive so long as life is better for me: and take me when death is better for me”: and what is meant by harm here is what specially afflicts the servant in his body: of sickness: and the like: not in his religion:

and the apparent is that the prophet of Allah Youssouf asked that: either at his death agony: or when it was: that it be so. And Ibn Ishaq mentioned: from the People of the Book: that Ya'qoub resided in the lands of Egypt with Youssouf seventeen years: then he died: asking to be buried beside his two fathers Ibrahim and Isaac: as-Souddi said: he bore it: and made him travel to the land of Syria: and buried him in the cave: beside his father Isaac: and his grandfather the Confident. And with the People of the Book: Ya'qoub's age on entering Egypt was one hundred and thirty years: and among them: he resided in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so his whole life was one hundred and forty-seven years: that is the text of their book: and it is an error: whether in the copy: or on their part: or they dropped the break: and it is not their habit in what exceeds this: so how would they use this method here? “Or were you witnesses when death came to Ya'qoub: when he said to his sons: what will you worship after me?

They said: we will worship your Allah: and the Allah of your fathers: Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac: one Allah: and we are to Him submitters. So he counseled his sons with sincerity: which is the religion of submission: with which Allah sent the prophets. The People of the Book mentioned that he counseled his sons: one by one: and informed them of what would be of their affair: and gave Juda glad tidings of a great prophet coming out of his line: whom the peoples obey: and he is Issa son of Maryam: and Allah knows better.

And they mentioned that when Ya'qoub died: the people of Egypt wept over him seventy days: and Youssouf commanded the physicians: and they embalmed him with balm: and he remained in it forty days: then Youssouf sought permission from the king of Egypt to go out: with his father: to bury him with his people: so he permitted him: and the grandees of Egypt went out with him: and its elders: and when they reached Habroun they buried him in the cave which Ibrahim the Confident had bought: from 'Efron ibn Sakhr al-Hithite: and they made for him a mourning of seven days: then they returned to their land: and Youssouf's brothers consoled Youssouf over their father: and treated him gently: so he honored them: and made good their return: and they resided in the land of Egypt: then death came to Youssouf: so he bequeathed that he be carried with them when they leave Egypt: and be buried beside his fathers: so they embalmed him: and placed him in a coffin: and he was in Egypt until Moussa brought him out with him: and buried him beside his fathers: as will come: he died at the age of one hundred and ten years: that is their text: in what I saw: and what Ibn Jarir reported also: and Moubarak ibn Fadala said: from al-Hasan: Youssouf was cast into the well at seventeen years of age: and was absent from his father eighty years: and lived after that twenty-three years:

and died at the age of one hundred and twenty years: and another said: he bequeathed to his brother Juda: may the prayers of Allah and His peace be upon him: and upon all the prophets.

The story of the prophet of Allah Ayyoub

Ibn Ishaq said: he was a man of the Roms: and he is Ayyoub ibn Mous ibn Razeh ibn 'Is ibn Isaac ibn Ibrahim the Confident: and another said: he is Ayyoub ibn Mous ibn Raghwil ibn 'Is ibn Isaac ibn Ya'qoub: and other than that is said of his lineage: and Ibn Asakir reports that his mother was the daughter of Lout: his father was of those who believed in Ibrahim: the day he was cast into the fire: and it did not burn him: and the famous first: for being of Ibrahim's descendants: and of his descendants Dawoud: and Sulayman: and Ayyoub: and Youssouf: and Moussa: and Haroun: the verses: and of the authentic: that the pronoun returns upon Ibrahim: not upon Nuh: “We revealed to you as We revealed to Nuh and the prophets after him: and We revealed to Ibrahim and Ismaïl and Isaac and Ya'qoub and the tribes: and Issa: and Ayyoub.

The verse: so the authentic is that he is of the line of 'Is ibn Isaac: her name Léa bint Ya'qoub: Rahma bint Efraïm ibn Youssouf ibn Ya'qoub: and this is most famous: so for that we mentioned it here: then we will turn with the mention of the prophets of the children of Israël: after the mention of his story: if Allah wills: and in Him is the trust: and on Him reliance.

“And Ayyoub when he called to his Lord: distress has touched me: and You are the most Merciful of the merciful: so We answered him: and removed what afflicted him of distress: and We gave him his family: and their like with them: a mercy from Us: and a remembrance for the worshippers. And remember Our servant Ayyoub: when he called to his Lord: the devil has touched me with fatigue: and punishment: run with your foot: this is a washing place: cool: and drink: and We gave him his family: and their like with them: a mercy from Us: and a remembrance for the possessors of understanding: and take in your hand a bundle: then strike with it: and do not break your oath: We found him certainly patient: an excellent servant: he is ever-turning to Allah.”

Surat Sad, 41-44

The first prophet sent: Idris: then Nuh: then Ibrahim: then Ismaïl: then Isaac: then Ya'qoub: then Youssouf: then Lout: then Hud: then Salih: then Chou'ayb: then Moussa and Haroun: then Élias: then Élisha: then Ourfi ibn Sawilakh ibn Efraïm ibn Youssouf ibn Ya'qoub: then Yunus ibn Matta of the sons of Ya'qoub: then Ayyoub ibn Razeh ibn Amous ibn Lifaraz ibn 'Is ibn Isaac ibn Ibrahim: and in part of this ordering there is reflection: for Hud and Salih: the famous is that they are after Nuh: and before Ibrahim: and Allah knows better.

The scholars of tafsir: and history said: Ayyoub was a man of much wealth: of all its sorts and kinds: of cattle: and slaves: and flocks: and wide lands in the land of al-Bathniyya: of the land of Hourane: all of it was his: and he had children: and a numerous family: so he was stripped of all of that: and tried in his body: with kinds of calamity: and no limb of him remained sound: except his heart: and his tongue: with which he remembered Allah: and he was in all of that: patient: making his trial a means of reward: remembering Allah: night and day: and his morning: and evening: and his illness lasted: until his neighbor grew weary of him: and his intimate found him dreadful: and he was expelled from his town: and cast upon a dungheap outside it: and the people cut themselves off from him: and no one remained to care for him: except his wife: who attended to his right: and knew his old kindness to her: and his care for her: so she kept coming to him: and tending his state: and helping him fulfill his need: and attending to his welfare: and her condition weakened: and her wealth dwindled: until she served people for wages: to feed him: and tend his poor: and she was patient with him: over what befell the two of them: of separation from wealth: and child: and what specially touched her: of the affliction of her husband: and straitness of hand: and serving people:

after happiness: and blessing: and service: and honor: to Allah we belong: and to Him we return: he said: the most tried of people are the prophets: then the righteous: then the best and the best: a man is tried according to his religion: if there is in his religion firmness: his trial is increased: and all of this only increased Ayyoub: in patience: and hoping for reward: and praise: and gratitude: until the proverb is given by his patience: and the proverb is also given by what happened to him: of kinds of calamities: and it was reported from Wahb ibn Munabbih: and others: of the scholars of the children of Israël: concerning Ayyoub's story: a long account: of how his wealth went: and his child: and his trial in his body: and Allah knows better its truth: Ayyoub was the first to catch smallpox.

And they differed over the duration of his trial: upon sayings: Wahb claimed he was tried three years: neither more nor less: and Anas said: he was tried seven years: and months: and cast upon a dungheap of the children of Israël: animals varying in his body: until Allah relieved him: and magnified his reward: and praised him well.

He remained in his trial eighteen years: his flesh fell away: until nothing remained but bone: and sinew: his wife would come with ashes: spreading them beneath him: O Ayyoub: were you to call upon your Lord: He would relieve you: I have lived seventy years healthy: and it is little: that I be patient for Allah seventy years: so she revolted from this word: and she used to serve people for wages: and feed Ayyoub: then the people would not hire her: knowing: that she was Ayyoub's wife: fearing his calamity might strike them: or she might infect them by mixing: when she found no one to hire her: she resolved: and sold to some daughters of the nobles: one of her two braids: for abundant fine food: and brought it to Ayyoub: from where do you have this? I served people with it. When the next day came: she found no one: and sold the other braid for food: and brought it to him: and he disapproved of it also: and swore he would not eat it: until she told him: from where she had this food?

So she uncovered her head: her veil: and when he saw her head: shaved: “distress has touched me: and You are the most Merciful of the merciful.”

My father narrated to us: Abu Salama narrated to us: Jarir ibn Hazim narrated to us: Ayyoub had two brothers: they came one day: and could not draw near him: because of his smell: so they stood from a distance: if Allah knew any good of Ayyoub: He would not have tried him with this: so Ayyoub revolted from their word: a revolt: he never revolted from anything: like it: “O Allah: if You know I never passed a night: sated: and I know where a hungry one is: so verify me”: so he was verified from heaven: while the two listened: “O Allah: if You know I never had two shirts: and I know where a naked one is: so verify me”: so he was verified from heaven: while the two listened: “O Allah: by Your might”: and he fell prostrate: “O Allah: by Your might: I will never raise my head: until You remove this from me”: so he never raised his head: until He removed it from him: Ibn Jarir: and Ibn Abi Hatim: both: Yunus ibn Abd al-A'la narrated to us: Ibn Wahb informed us: Nafi' ibn Yazid informed me: from 'Ouqayl: from az-Zouhri: he said: the prophet of Allah Ayyoub: his trial remained with him eighteen years: so the near: and the far rejected him: except two men of his brothers: who were of his closest brothers to him: they used to go to him in the morning: and return in the evening: you know, by Allah: Ayyoub has certainly committed a sin: none of the worlds has committed it.

And what is that? For eighteen years: his Lord has not had mercy on him: to remove what afflicts him: so when the two went to him: the man could not bear: until he mentioned that to him: I do not know what to say: except that Allah knows: I used to pass by the two men disputing: and mentioning Allah: so I return to my house: and seek atonement for them: disliking that they mention Allah: except rightly: and he used to go out in his need: and when he fulfilled it: his wife would hold his hand: until he returned: “run with your foot: this is a washing place: cool: and drink”: so she lowered him: and met him looking: and he turned to her: Allah having removed what afflicted him of calamity: and he was upon the best he had been: may Allah bless you: have you seen this tried prophet of Allah?

By Allah, for that: I have never seen a man resembling you more than you: when he was healthy: “for I am he”: and he had two granaries: a granary for wheat: and a granary for barley: so Allah sent two clouds: when one of them was over the wheat granary: it poured gold into it: until it overflowed: and the other poured into the barley granary silver: until it overflowed: that is Ibn Jarir's wording: and thus Ibn Hibban reported it in full: in his Sahih: from Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Qoutayba: from Harmeala: from Ibn Wahb with it: and this is very strange as a raising: and the most likely is that it be suspended: my father narrated to us: Moussa ibn Isma'il narrated to us: Hammade narrated to us: Ali ibn Zayd narrated to us: from Youssouf ibn Mihran: and Allah clothed him in a garment of the Garden: so Ayyoub withdrew: and sat in a corner: “O servant of Allah: this is the tried one who was here: perhaps the dogs: carried him off: or the wolves? And she kept speaking to him a while: “woe to you: I am Ayyoub. “Are you mocking me, O servant of Allah?

“Woe to you: I am Ayyoub: Allah has returned to me my body. And Allah returned to him his wealth: and his child: with their very persons: and their like with them: “I returned to you your family: and your wealth: and their like with them: so wash with this water: for in it is your cure: and bring near your companion an offering: and seek forgiveness for her: for they have disobeyed Me concerning you. Ibn Abi Hatim reported it: Abu Zur'a informed us: 'Amrou ibn Marzouq narrated to us: Hammam narrated to us: from Qatada: from an-Nadr ibn Anas: from Bachir ibn Nahik: from Abu Hurayra: he said: when Allah healed Ayyoub: He rained upon him locusts of gold: and he began taking in his hand: and putting in his garment: it was said to him: O Ayyoub: do you not become sated? “O Lord: and who is sated from Your mercy?

And thus the imam Ahmad reported it: from Abu Dawud at-Tayalisi: and Abd as-Samad: from Hammam: from Qatada with it: and Ibn Hibban reported it in his Sahih: from Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Azdi: from Ishaq ibn Rahawayh: from Abd as-Samad with it: and none of the authors of the books extracted it: and it is upon the condition of the authentic: and Allah knows better: and the imam Ahmad said: Soufyan informed us: from Abu az-Zinad: from al-A'raj: a foot of locusts of gold was sent upon Ayyoub: and he began gathering them in his garment: it was said: O Ayyoub: has not what We gave you sufficed you? He said: “yes: O Lord: and who dispenses with Your grace? This is suspended: and it was reported from Abu Hurayra: from another way: raised: Abd ar-Razzaq narrated to us: Ma'mar narrated to us: this is what Abu Hurayra narrated to us: he said: the Messenger of Allah said: while Ayyoub was washing: naked: locusts of gold fell upon him: and Ayyoub began casting them in his garment: so his Lord called him: “O Ayyoub: was I not enriching you of what you see?

“Yes: O Lord: but there is no richness for me: without Your blessing. Al-Boukhari reported it: from the hadith of Abd ar-Razzaq with it.

“Run with your foot”: that is: strike the earth with your foot: so he obeyed what he was commanded: and Allah made a spring gush for him: of cool water: and he was commanded to wash in it: and drink from it: so Allah removed from him what he felt: of pain: and hurt: and sickness: and malady: which was in his body: outwardly: and inwardly: and Allah replaced for him after all of that: an outward health: and inward: and complete beauty: and much wealth: until He poured for him of wealth: a great pouring: locusts of gold: and Allah gave him the like of his family: “and We gave him his family: and their like with them”: it is said: Allah revived them: with their very persons: He rewarded him for those who preceded: and compensated him for them in the world: and gathered for him his lot with all of them: in the abode of the hereafter: “a mercy from Us”: that is: We lifted his hardship: and removed from him the distress afflicting him: “a mercy from Us”: toward him: and compassion: and kindness: “and a remembrance for the worshippers”: that is: an admonition for whoever is tried: in his body: or his wealth: or his child: he has then a model: in the prophet of Allah Ayyoub: when Allah tried him: with what is greater than that: so he was patient: and hoped for reward: until Allah relieved him.

And whoever understands from this the name of his wife: she is Rahma: from this verse: he has gone far astray of the goal: and drowned in denial: and ad-Dahhak said: Allah returned to her her youth: and increased her: until she bore him twenty-six male children: and Ayyoub lived after that seventy years: in the land of the Roms: upon the religion of sincere monotheism: then they changed after him: the religion of Ibrahim: “and take in your hand a bundle: then strike with it: and do not break your oath: We found him certainly patient: an excellent servant: he is ever-turning to Allah”: this is a dispensation from Allah the Most High: for His servant: and messenger Ayyoub: in what was of his oath: that he would strike his wife: one hundred lashes: his oath of that was for her selling her braids: because the devil opposed her: in the form of a physician: describing to her a medicine for Ayyoub: so she came and informed him: and he knew it was the devil: and swore he would strike her a hundred lashes: when Allah healed him: He offered him the permission: that he take a bundle: which is like the faggot gathering the twigs: so he gather all of them: and strike her with it: one stroke: and it would stand in the place of striking with a hundred lashes: and he acts kindly: and does not violate his oath: and this is of the relief: and the exit: for whoever feared Allah: and obeyed Him:

especially regarding his wife: the patient: the one hoping for reward: the enduring: the truthful: the devoted: the rightly guided: and for this Allah concluded this dispensation: “We found him certainly patient: an excellent servant: he is ever-turning to Allah”: and many of the jurists used this dispensation: in the chapter of oaths: and vows: and others expanded in it: until they composed the Book of Stratagems: for release from oaths: and prefixed it with this noble verse: and cited in it things: of wonders: and strangenesses: and we will mention a sample of that: in the Book of Rulings: upon arrival: if Allah the Most High wills: Ibn Jarir and others of the scholars of history have mentioned that Ayyoub: when he died: his age was ninety-three years: he lived more than that: “Allah will argue on the Day of Resurrection: with Sulayman against the rich: and with Youssouf against the captives: and with Ayyoub against the people of trial”: Ibn Asakir reported it: in its meaning: and that he bequeathed to his son Hawmal: and his son Bachr ibn Ayyoub took charge of the matter after him: and he is he whom many of the people claim to be Dhu al-Kifl: and Allah knows better: and this son of his died: and was a prophet: as they claim: and his age of years was seventy-five: he is the son of Ayyoub.

The story of Dhoul-Kifl

“And Ismaïl and Idris and Dhu al-Kifl: all of the patient: and We admitted them into Our mercy: they are of the righteous. “And remember Our servants Ibrahim: and Isaac: and Ya'qoub: possessors of hands: and eyes: We purified them with a pure purification: by the remembrance of the Home: and they are with Us: of the chosen: the best: and remember Ismaïl: and Élisha: and Dhu al-Kifl: and all of the best.

So the apparent of his mention in the Immense Quran: with praise of him: conjoined with these masters the prophets: is that he is a prophet: may the prayer and the peace from his Lord be upon him: and this is the famous: and others claimed he was not a prophet: but was a righteous man: and a just judge: an equitable one: and Ibn Jarir withheld judgment in that: and Allah knows better: and Ibn Jarir: and Ibn Abi Najih reported: that he was not a prophet: but was a righteous man: and he had pledged for the sons of his people: that he see to their affair: and judge between them with justice: so he did: so he was named Dhu al-Kifl: and Ibn Jarir: and Ibn Abi Hatim reported: by the way of Dawoud ibn Abi Hind: when Élisha grew old, he said: if only I appointed a man over the people: who works upon them: in my lifetime: until I see how he works: so he gathered the people: “who accepts for me three things: I appoint him: he fasts the day: and prays the night: and does not grow angry? So a man rose: whom the eye would disdain: “I. “You fast the day: and pray the night: and do not grow angry?

“Yes. So he returned them that day: and he said the like of it the next day: so the people fell silent: and that man rose: “I. So he appointed him: and Iblis began saying to the devils: “go after so-and-so”: so they wearied of that: “leave me: and him”: so he came to him: in the form of a great old poor sheikh: and came to him when he took his bed for the night: and he did not sleep night or day: except that nap: so he knocked at the door: “who is this?

“A great old oppressed sheikh”: so he rose: and opened the door: and began recounting to him: “there is between me: and my people a dispute: and they wronged me: and did to me: and did”: and he went on elaborating to him: until bedtime came: and the night went: “when I go: come to me: I will secure your right”: so he set off: and went: and he was in his session: and began looking: whether he saw the sheikh: and did not see him: so he rose: following him: when the next day came: he began judging between the people: and awaiting him: and not seeing him: and when he returned to the night: and took his bed, he came to him: and knocked at the door: “who is this? “The great old oppressed sheikh”: so he opened for him: “did I not say to you: when I sit: come to me?

“They are the most treacherous of peoples: we will give you your right: and when you stand: they deny me: so set off: and when you go: come to me”: so the night escaped him: and he went: and began waiting: and not seeing him: and the nap became hard for him: he said to some of his household: “do not let anyone approach this door: until I sleep: for sleep has become hard for me”: so when that hour came, he came: “forbidden: forbidden. “I came to him yesterday: and mentioned my affair to him. “No: by Allah: he commanded us: not to let anyone approach him”: so when they wearied him: he looked: and saw a hole in the house: and climbed by it: and behold, he was in the house: the man awoke: “O so-and-so: had I not commanded you? “As for me: by Allah: you were not served: so see: from where I was served?

So he went to the door: and it was locked: as he had locked it: and the man with him in the house: so he recognized him: “enemy of Allah? “Yes.

“You wearied me in everything: and I did what you see: to anger you”: so Allah named him Dhu al-Kifl: because he pledged for a matter: and fulfilled it: and Ibn Abi Hatim reported also: from Ibn Abbas: close to this context: and thus it was reported from Abdallah ibn al-Harith: and Muhammad ibn Qays: and Ibn Houjayra the greater: and others of the predecessors: the like of this: my father narrated to us: Abu al-Jamahir informed us: Sa'id ibn Bachir informed us: Qatada narrated to us: I heard al-Ach'ari: meaning Abu Moussa: “Dhu al-Kifl was not a prophet: but was a righteous man: who prayed every day: one hundred prayers: and Dhu al-Kifl pledged after him: to pray every day: one hundred prayers: so he was named Dhu al-Kifl”: and Ibn Jarir reported it: by the way of Abd ar-Razzaq: from Ma'mar: Abu Moussa al-Ach'ari said: and he mentioned it: cut off: Asbat ibn Muhammad narrated to us: al-A'mach narrated to us: from Abdallah ibn Abdallah: from Sa'd, client of Talha: I heard from the Messenger of Allah: a hadith: which had I heard it only once: or twice: until he counted seven times: “Kifl was of the children of Israël: who did not refrain from a sin he committed: so a woman came to him: and gave him sixty dinars: on condition he lie with her: and when he sat with her: in the sitting of a man with his wife: she trembled: and wept: so he said to her: what makes you weep:

have I forced you? “No: but this is a deed I never did: and it was need: that drove me to it. “Do you do this: and never did it? Then he descended: “go with the dinars: yours: and by Allah: Kifl will never disobey Allah”: so he died that night: and in the morning it was written upon his door: Allah has indeed forgiven Kifl: and at-Tirmidhi reported it: from the hadith of al-A'mach with it: and said: good: and mentioned that some reported it: suspending it on Ibn 'Oumar: and it is a very strange hadith: I know it only by one hadith: and Ibn Hibban deemed him trustworthy: and none reported from him except Abdallah ibn Abdallah ar-Razi, this one: and Allah knows better: and if he is preserved: he is not Dhu al-Kifl: but the wording of the hadith of the Prophet is without annexation: he is another man: other than the one mentioned in the noble Quran: and Allah knows better the correct.