Verse. 1611

١٢ - يُوسُف

12 - Yusuf

فَلَمَّا ذَہَبُوْا بِہٖ وَاَجْمَعُوْۗا اَنْ يَّجْعَلُوْہُ فِيْ غَيٰبَتِ الْجُبِّ۝۰ۚ وَاَوْحَيْنَاۗ اِلَيْہِ لَتُنَبِّئَنَّہُمْ بِاَمْرِہِمْ ھٰذَا وَہُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُوْنَ۝۱۵
Falamma thahaboo bihi waajmaAAoo an yajAAaloohu fee ghayabati aljubbi waawhayna ilayhi latunabiannahum biamrihim hatha wahum la yashAAuroona

English

Ahmed Ali

So, when they took him out they planned to throw him into an unused well. We revealed to Joseph: "You will tell them (one day) of this deed when they will not apprehend it."

15

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (then, when they led him off) after jacob gave them permission to take him, (and were of one mind that they should place him in the depth of the pit) and they were unanimous about throwing him into the depth of the pit, (we inspired in him) we sent to him gabriel to inform him; it is also said this means: we directly inspired him: (thou wilt tell them) you will inform them, o joseph, (of this deed of theirs) of this act of theirs (when they know (thee) not) when they do not realise that it is you, joseph, until you inform them of your identity; it is also said that this means: they know not our inspiration to you.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : so when they went off with him, and agreed, resolved, to put him into the bottom of the well (the response of lammā, ‘when’, has been omitted, in other words [understand it as being] fa‘alū dhālika, ‘they did [just] that’) by taking off his shirt — after having beaten him, humiliated him and desiring to kill him — and lowering him in a bucket [into the well]. when he reached half-way down the well, they flung him [from the bucket] so that he would [fall and] die, but he fell into the water and took refuge near a rock. they then called to him and he responded, thinking that they had [decided to have] mercy on him. they then wanted to smash his head with a rock, but judah prevented them. and we revealed to him, in the well, through true revelation (wahy haqīqa) — he was 17 years of age or just under — in order to reassure his heart: ‘truly you shall inform them, after this day, of this affair, [this] deed, of theirs when they are unaware’, of [who] you [are] (wa-hum lā yash‘urūna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the action of ‘informing’).