Verse. 1615

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (and there came a caravan) of travellers from midian who were going to egypt. they lost their way and went round and round until they passed by the land where the pit was. this land is called dawthan, midway between midian and egypt, and there the caravan decided to have a break, (and they sent their water-drawer) each group of people sent their water-drawer. the pit in which joseph was thrown was the lot of an arab man from midian called malik ibn du'ar who was the nephew of the prophet shu'ayb, allah give him peace. (he let down his pail (into the pit)) and joseph got hold of it such that the water-drawer could not pull it back. when he looked down he saw a boy grabbing the pail of water and so he called his companions. (he said: good luck!) “this is my good luck, o my companions!” his companions asked him: “what is it, o malik?” he said: (here is a youth) the most handsome of youths. they gathered and got joseph out of the pit. (and they hid him as a treasure) they concealed from their people the fact that they found him in the pit, and instead informed them that the owners of the pit entrusted them to sell him in egypt for them (and allah was aware of what they did) to joseph, i.e. what the brothers of joseph did to him; it is also said that this refers to the people of the caravan.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : and there came a caravan — travellers going from midian to egypt, who stopped near to joseph’s well — and they sent their water-drawer, the one who goes down to the water [source] to draw from it, and he let down his bucket, into the well and joseph clung to it and he pulled him out, and when he saw him: he said, ‘good news!’ (a variant reading [of yā bushrā] has yā bushrāya: this [vocative] call is figurative, in other words [it is to be understood as] ‘come [o good news], now is your time!’) ‘this is a young boy’. his brothers became aware of this and came to him, and they hid him, that is, they disguised his real status, claiming that he was, as [a piece of] merchandise, by saying, ‘this is a slave of ours: he is a runaway’; but joseph did not say anything, fearing that they might kill him. but god knew well what they were doing.