Ustadh Asim Khan

[THROWN IN A WELL TAFSEER SURAT YUSUF]

Thrown in a Well | Lesson 7

The part of the story that we have got to now is that Yusuf has been thrown into the bottom of a
well by his brothers. The brothers come back home, make excuses. Yaqoob sees right through the
excuses and says you have just beautified this for yourselves, I dont believe you, and as for me, then I am
going to have sabrun jameel (a beautiful patience), and I am going to seek the help of Allah in what is going on.
So his heart was actively engaged in the worship of Allah through the tribulation.

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19. Some travellers came that way and then dispatched their water-drawer who let his
bucket down. He said, Good news for me, Ive found a boy! They then hid him away
among their goods. Allah knew very well what they were doing
The scene before this is the brothers come home, speak to their dad, and make up their lies. Now the story
goes back to the well. Who is at the bottom of the well? Yusuf .
Now think about that scene. A sayyarah comes. In our times we refer to a sayyarah as a car. But sayyarah
means the mode which people use to travel. So it is referring to caravans. Imam Shawkaani
says the
caravan of travellers was actually a business. They were going from Sham, passing through Palestine and
heading up to Egypt where they were all from. They happen to lose their way.
Then they send their waarid (scout), the person who is sent to draw the water up for the rest of the crew. They
send him out in search of water, which shows they are lost, they dont know their way, and they dont know
where the nearest well is. They need water.
Then he lowers down his bucket into the bottom of the well.
Fa adla dalwah is an interesting verb. We find it in Surat al- Araf.

So he made them fall, through deception. [7:22]
Allah mentions about shaytan in regards to Aadam and Hawwa that he slowly reeled them into disobeying
Allah.

( fa adla dalwah) means the waarid lowers his bucket and then slowly reels it up. Yusuf is at
the bottom of the well. So he grabs on to the rope of the bucket. The other interesting thing is that it is not
adla dalwan, it is adla dalwahu. This means the bucket belonged to the waarid. This is quite strange. A well
usually has a bucket with it. So we are being informed there was no bucket there. This points to the fact that it
was a very primitive well and didnt even have a bucket, or that there was a bucket and the brothers cut it off
so no one could even use the well.

( ya bushra). This is a figure of speech and is an exclamation. He

The waarid pulls up the bucket and says
says, this is a gulam, a young boy, aged between 7 and puberty.
Why is he excited to find a boy at the bottom of the well? Think about the context of the time. He is thinking
he will sell this boy as a slave. As a young boy, he will become a strong man and can serve for a long time, he
can be sold for a good price. He is like a treasure.
So they hide him with their cargo/ commodities/ goods. ( Bidaa) are commodities/ sellable goods. They
are businessmen. They have a caravan. Some of them they ride on, and at the back, like the back of a train, they
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place their cargo. No one sits in there. They hide him amongst the cargo. Why do they hide him? They found
like a treasure. If they announce that they found him, the other businessmen will say, when you sell him, give
us a share. Imam ash-Shawkaani mentioned that they hid him so the others wouldnt find out try to claim a
share when they finally ended up selling him.

Who hid him? 2 views

There is a point here which leads to a difference of opinion. There was one waarid. He is the one who found the
boy. But then the ayah says assarruhu, they hid him. It is in the plural. Who are they? Some scholars said that in
fact, something different happened. The brothers of Yusuf were there, waiting in the midst. When
they saw the caravan, and saw that they found Yusuf, they came along and said he was a runaway slave and
they sold him off. That is next level cruelty! They waited for someone to come so they could sell him off!
This is a difference of opinion and at-Tabari said this is the view that he chose to be more accurate of the 2.
Imam ash-Shawkaani said the other view is more accurate, to say that it was the close friends of the waarid. He
told them he found a boy and they said lets hide him in the cargo, and that was what they did.
Allah was fully aware about that which they were doing. This can be understood in 2 ways:
1.

Allah was fully aware of what the brothers did in terms of cruelty to Yusuf . This is a stern
warning being given to the brothers that Allah knows what they did and that there will be
consequences for what they did.

2.

The other way of understanding it which is mentioned, is that this is referring to the caravaneers. And
that means Allah is fully aware of what they have just done. And this has another meaning that comes
out of it - it implies Allah wanted them to find him. He knew of it, He wanted it to happen, and He
allowed it to happen. Ibn Kathir mentioned this in al-Bidayah wa an-Nihayah.

Lessons
Some lessons we can learn from this ayah:
Allah is the Wali of the Believer [al-Baqarah 257]
Allahu waliyullazina amanu. Allah is the protective friend of the believer. Look at the case of Yusuf .
He was thrown into the bottom of a well, left for dead, and it just so happens that a sayyarah of caravaners
comes along, and theyve lost their way themselves and they stumble upon him. And in that way did Yusuf
come out of the well. Allah saved him. Why? Because he was a believer. Allah mentions in Surat al-Baqarah

{Al-Baqarah 2:257}
Allah is the wali of those that believe. Allah saved Yusuf and that shows that He is the wali of the
believer.

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Allahs Help Comes From Unlikely Sources [al-Qsimi]
This is a very nice point. Al-Qasimi mentioned this in his tafseer. Of all the things that could happen, what do
you know, a sayyarah loses its way and saves Yusuf . That is quite strange. But this happens so often
in the Quran.
Consider the case of Moosa . His mother was inspired to throw him into the Nile a young baby. Why
does she want to throw him into the Nile? Why does she have to get rid of him? Firawn has just put out a policy
that in order to counter extremism, we need to kill all the believing male children. So the mother of Moosa

throws Moosa into the Nile, in order to get him away from Firawn. Where does he end up? In
the house of Firawn. And Firawn is the one who ends up looking after him, because of his wife. And then from
that, does Moosa come out a prophet. Unbelievable. Such an unlikely source, that is where the help
came from.
Consider the case of ashab ul-Qaryah. This is the story in Surah Yaseen. The 3 prophets came and the people
rejected them. Then they are about to kill them. So some help is going to come. Where did the help come
from? It came in the form of a man. Where did that man come from? The furthest distance in the city. The only
description we were given about this man is not his name, not his age, it is the fact that he came from the
furthest distance in the city. The most unlikely place that a person is going to come and help you out is the
place that he ends up coming out from. You would have thought that someone witnessing this would say, look
at them, they are going to kill these people, I must help them, I can see this happening before my eyes. But no,
not him, somebody on the other side of the city comes. Allahs help comes, and it comes in the most unlikely
way.

Allahs Help Came at the Breaking Point [al-Qaasimi]

We discussed this last time as well. Allah could have saved Yusuf even before he was thrown into the
well. It could have been the case that Yusuf could climb out himself. Anything could have happened.
But the fact is that Yusuf was left for dead and he had no way out. This was a jubb, a well in the
middle of nowhere; no one is going to find him. Now that he is in total isolation, nothing to help him, in that
scenario does Allah send His help. So He brought him to the very brink. This is the end now. And
then he sent a sayyarah to come and help him. We spoke about this last time. Aqeel mentioned that one
reason why Allah brings a slave to breaking point before He sends His help is in order to give him
the maximum reward. This is an example of this as well.
Another reason is when a person reaches just about the point where he feels he cant take this anymore,
nothing is going right there is no help, there is no way out, in that scenario, he only has Allah to turn to. So
Allah creates the scenario with which a slave will end up only being able to turn to Him.
Just like, at Badr, when the Prophet took his companions out, 313 odd, they didnt go out for a war, they
went out to ambush a caravan, what happens? Quraysh end up coming. How many? One thousand odd. We
havent even got proper armour. We have only one horse in the whole army. We are going to be annihilated.
So they were allowed to get to this stage where it looks like they are going to get wiped out. Because in that
state, they will turn to Allah in real sincerity. Because they have got no one else to turn to.
So these are some of the maqasid of ibtida; some of the higher objectives of testing. Why Allah tests us. There
are many objectives behind it, these are 2 of them.
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Yusuf remains quiet

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20. They sold him for a pittance, a few small coins, considering him to be of little
worth.
The story continues.
Sharao means sold. Ishtara-yashtari can mean to buy. Ibn al-Jawzee said this is a word which can take the
opposite meanings it can either mean to sell, or it can mean to buy. In this case, it means to sell.
They sold Yusuf off on the slave market.

3 descriptions about the transaction

And we will mention 3 details about this transaction:

offensive

The thaman (price) was bakhs. Bakhs is usually translated to mean cheap. It comes from the root .
means to be offensive. So they sold him off at an offensively cheap price, it was dirt cheap. Meaning, a slave
boy on the market at that time in Egypt, would have fetched a handsome price. But they decided to sell him for
an offensively cheap price.

is the plural of dirham. Dirham is the silver coinage. They agreed on a really cheap price. The were
so little, that you could count them. In those times, if you had a lot of dirhams, a lot of silver coins, you would
have to weigh it in order to find out how much it was.
Now a third detail is mentioned. And they were, regarding him, zaahideen. Zaahid, linguistically is when
someone who is aloof. You have something of value, you dont care much about it, someone comes and asks
you for it, you dont care, you just give it. You have an expensive car, you have a Mercedes Benz, for example,
state of the art. you dont really care about it. Someone comes and asks to buy it from you. The actual price is
50,000, you sell it for 25,000. Why? You are a zaahid, it doent really bother you whether you have it or dont.

Not usually Zaahid (taqdeem)

In regards to Yusuf, the ayah is not wa kanu min az-zaahideena fihi they were zaahid people about him.
Rather it says, wa kaanu fhi min az-zaahideen. Meaning, they were not really like this, but when it came to him,
they became zaahid. Why?

Why did they sell him off so cheap?

Why did they sell him so cheap, why did they not pay much attention to him, even though a boy slave is worth
a lot of money?
They hid him, they didnt want the other caravaners to find out. Theyve got something, they shouldnt really
have it, if they do have it, they have to share with everyone else.
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However, there was something else as well. They knew he was a free boy. You cant just sell a free person.
Either you buy a slave, or someone is born into slavery. But they got him and they realized this isnt a slave, but
were going to sell him off as a slave. So basically, they got something for free. And they are going to sell him as
a slave, when he is not really a slave. He is a free person.
When you get back of the lorry goods, they know they have something illegal. They want to get rid of it.
They knew he was a free person, and that was one of the reasons why they sold him off for a dirt cheap price.
However, there is something else. The fact is that Allah mentioned one whole verse out of Surat Yusuf
explaining how they sold Yusuf off as a slave. That is a lot of detail. And on top of that it is described in 3
different ways. But the ayah does not mentioned the price. The price was intentionally omitted and instead 3
details were mentioned. And also, it was mentioned, and about him, especially, they were zaahideen. So the
question arises here, why was so much detail given about Yusuf and they way he was sold in Egypt?
And in other places in the story, details arent mentioned. For example, that woman was mentioned so many
times, but only as Imraat ul-Aziz (the wife of Aziz). What was her name? Her name is not mentioned.
But in the next ayah, Misr (Egpyt) is mentioned. So the place where he went and was bought is mentioned. So
the actual price wasnt mentioned. Instead, how low they sold him for and how little they cared about him was
mentioned instead. Why? What are we being taught here?

No Refund On Undersold Item [Qurtubi]

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Activity
Allah mentioned 3 details regarding the cheapness of the price but never stated
the actual price? Why was so much detail given about the selling off of Yusuf
in Egypt?
This is happening in Egypt. Yusuf is going to become second in command in Egypt. When he becomes
second in command, he is going to save the people from Egypt from a famine. He is going to become the most
significant person in Egypt 40 years later. And look at how he began. The Egyptians sold him for such a cheap
price. They had no idea who he was, especially his significance to them later on. They had no idea. And this is
the way Allah plans. People have no idea what is going on. They have no idea this young boy that we are trying
to make a few bucks from is going to become our Aziz, and then he is going to save us from destruction.
That could be why we are given so much detail.
Another thing. Yusuf comes to Egypt, he becomes the Aziz. Then his family comes. Who is his father?
Yaqoob . From Yaqoob , which tribe comes? Bani Israeel. The whole legacy of Bani Israaeel
continues in Egypt. And then who comes later on in Egypt to save them from slavery? Moosa . This
transaction will actually trigger the entry of Bani Israeel into Egypt. Then, his father will come. And then Bani
Israeel will live in Egypt, become enslaved, and then Moosa will come. And through the legacy of
Moosa will Bani Israeel leave Egypt. All of this came down to this one point in history. And look at
how people underestimated what was going on. They had no idea.
How Allah plans! And in the next ayah Allah mentions wallahu ghaalibun ala amrihi, Allah is in total control of
his affair.

My Reflections

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21. The Egyptian who had bought him told his wife, Look after him with honour and
respect. Its possible he will be of use to us or perhaps we might adopt him as a son.
And thus We established Yusuf in the land to teach him the true meaning of events.
Allah is in control of His affair. However, most of mankind do not know.
The story continues. They have sold him off. Now it is about the one who bought him.

The Road Trip

The one who bought him was from Misr (Egypt). He was an Egyptian. He says to his wife, make honourable his
mathwa (place where someone stays for a long time).
For example, Allah mentions an-naaru mathwahum, khaalideena fiha (as for the kuffar, their mathwa is going
to be the hellfire). May Allah save us from that.
The same word is being used here. Aziz, who is the person here, bought Yusuf . And as he is bringing
him home, he is talking to Yusuf , and looking at him, talking to him, and seeing the way he behaves,
he realizes this is no ordinary child. So when he comes home to his wife, he says, akrimi mathwa. She is
thinking, what? He is a slave. You just bought him, and youre brining him home. And you are telling me to give
him the best bedroom in the house? And already you know that he is going to stay for a very long time? You
dont treat a slave like this.
Usually, a servant is kept in quarters or the worst place in the house. here, the Aziz is saying, give him the best
place in the house!

IKRAAM of MATHWAA figure of speech

Ibn Ashur says that akrimi mathwaa is a figure of speech. He is not given the best room or the most honourable
place in the house, it means take good care of him.
He gives 2 reasons as to why he is saying this:
1.
2.

Maybe it is the case that he will benefit us a lot (become a very obedient slave and do all the things
you want done in the house), or
We can take him as a walad (child), meaning we can adopt him.

He really likes Yusuf . Already. He just bought him, brought him home, and already thinks highly of him
and tells his wife, look after him, maybe he will become a great slave, or maybe we can take him as a son.

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Why take him as a child?

At this point, Imam Shawkaani mentioned that Aziz and his wife couldnt have children. In fact, it may be that
Aziz couldnt fulfil the needs of his wife, maybe he was impotent or something. So because of that, he says we
can adopt him.
He gave reasons to his wife. Here the scholars said that the firasa of Aziz, his intuitive nature that he saw
something in Yusuf and he made a judgment call about who he is or what he is like, so let us be
different towards him. It seems more likely that Yusuf was so honourable himself that you could tell
him apart more than anybody else.
Later on in the story, what we find about Aziz are not good things. We find out that when he comes home and
he sees his wife clearly trying to seduce his slave Yusuf , what does he say to Yusuf? He says, turn
away from her, ignore it, push it under the carpet. What did he say to his wife? You made a mistake. This is his
wife! She just tried to seduce his wife and he is telling the slave to push it under the carpet and is telling his
wife, ask Allah to forgive you. Any other man would have said I dont want anything to do with you get out of
the house.
Is it really the case that he is someone that we look up to and someone that we think he was actually a very
good person? The most we can say is that Allah placed in the heart of Aziz affection towards Yusuf .
And that is clear by his words akrimi mathwa. And thats obviously a good statement of his.
As for his general character, the fact is that:
1.
2.
3.

he is a politician,
the way that he treats his wife, and the fact that he doesnt have a go at her, he actually says lets keep
this hush-hush
and then later on something else will happen but in conversation with the king he says something
which doesnt paint him in a good light either.

Therefore, perhaps it is not likely that Aziz was a very good person.

MAKKANNAA in 2 ways
Now Allah mentions, in that way did We establish Yusuf in that land (Egypt). Look at what just
happened. He was going to die in the well. We saved him. He was sold as a slave and We placed in the heart of
his master love and affection for him. So he ends up in the house of somebody who is going to take care of
him. From being in a situation where he is going to die to being in a situation where actually he is alright. He is
in Egypt. His master is looking after him. He has given him the best room in the house. On top of that, who is
this person? Aziz. So Yusuf can learn a few things from him. He doesnt know it yet, but he is going to be in his
job one day. And the way he is going to become Aziz is from Aziz himself. He will learn the ins and outs of
Egyptian politics, how to be the state treasurer and all the rest of it. How is all of this happening? Allah is the
One who established Yusuf in Egypt. Why? Now we will know the reason.

LAAM of taleel
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Wa li nuallimahum. The laam of taleel (reasoning). The reason why We established Yusuf in Egypt is
not so that he can eat well, drink well and live a life of luxury. No. It is in order to teach him how to interpret
ahadith. This is the reason why. He has reached a new stage in his life and the reason why We put him in this
particular scenario is so that he will gain experience in taweel al-ahadith (the ability to interpret dreams or the
ability to interpret revelation). So this stage in his life and everything that happens is to teach him how to do
that thing. And that thing is the cause of another thing (he ends up interpreting the dreams of the prisoners
and then the king, and then he becomes the Aziz and then his brothers come and the whole thing comes to a
conclusion.

GHAALIB against something

And Allah is ghaalib over his matter. Whose matter? 2 interpretations:
1.

2.

The matter of Yusuf - his life and what is happening. Allah is ghaalib meaning fully in control.
Actually it has the meaning of overpowering. Ibn Ashur said that when someone is ghaalib it means
that there are opposing forces but He is able to overpower them.
Allah is ghaalib over everything in existence.

If the meaning of ghaalib is to overpower something that is trying to oppose, then it gives us another insight.
Look for example at the plan of the brothers of Yusuf . They had their own plan. They wanted to get
rid of Yusuf . Did they manage to fulfill their plan? They never did. They tried to oppose the intent and
plan of Allah. Allah is ghaalib over it. People try to oppose Allahs plan. However Allahs plan will always come
into completion.
But most people dont know this. Most people dont understand and dont even believe this, that Allah is fully
in control. Allah taught us this lesson and told us this story. And what happened before this story all points to
one lesson that Allah is ghaalib over his amr. Totally in control.

So what things?

Lets go back to when Yusuf had his dream. He tells his dad. What did dad say to him? Keep it
to yourself. Do you think he kept it to himself? He may have. How did the brothers find out and plot
against him? Some scholars say that they did find out about the dream. When they did, that was it. so
what happened exactly? Yusuf wouldnt have told them. Wallahu ghaalibun ala amrihi. This
was the plan of Allah. They ended up finding out.
They said kill Yusuf. The plan was kill him or throw him in some land. But it just so happens that one of
them has a change of heart and says dont kill him, throw him in the bottom of a well. Wallahu
ghaalibun ala amrihi.
Thrown into the bottom of the well. He is finished now. This is the end. A sayyarah come out of
nowhere. Wallahu ghaalibun ala amrihi.
That is why after all of this he ends up in Egypt in the house of Aziz who he will one day become the
Aziz of that country. Of all the countries, Egypt is where he ends up.

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It is amazing how Allah teaches. And one thing we learn here is that the purpose of the story is not the story
itself. The detail of the story is not the reason why Allah told us the story. It is to teach us lessons. And that is
why sometimes some details are omitted.

A pause and Allah now speaks

Pause the story, there is a lesson here. And the lesson is that wallahu ghaalibun ala amrihi. And it is an amazing
lesson. It is beautifully drawn out in the story. It is from the beauty of the Quran and these are the words of
Allah.

Key Lessons
Allahs Prepares His slaves For Challenges [Ibn Atiyyah]
Allah established Yusuf on the earth in order to serve another purpose. Things are going to happen in
Yusufs life. Big things. Traumatic things. Sometimes not traumatic, something quite incredible. Like becoming
the Aziz.
Different challenges in your life. Allah prepares you for them. He prepares the believer for them. The person
who is a true believer in Allah, sincere to Allah, always trying to do those things he knows Allah loves and
staying away from those things Allah hates, you are a believer. And your life is going to be different. One way it
is going to be different is that things are going to happen in your life, Allah will prepare you for them.
There will be another stage where he will be in prison for a long time. And we are going to speak about why
prison, how did it impact Yusuf , what benefit did that serve. Regardless of what that answer is, we
can say for sure it was a preparation for something greater to come in his life and that is the way Allah deals
with His slaves (may Allah makes us of them).

No One Knows the Ghayb except Allah [al-Baghawi]

Al-Baghawi said here Allah said Allah is ghaalib over everything, He is in complete control, and part of that
control comes from His complete knowledge. He knows everything. The amazing thing is that there are so
many characters in this story and they are living their lives, most of the unrelated. But Allah brings all those
lives together in harmony at some point in order for something else to happen. The sayyarah are doing their
own thing, but they lose their way and stumble upon Yusuf. And Yusuf is in the well but the story comes
together and that leads to something else.
Also, the fact that Yusuf didnt know whats happening to him. Yaqoob didnt know whats happening. both
are prophets. If anyone was going to have knowledge of the ghayb, it would have been the prophets. Yet
clearly, this shows that they never had the knowledge of the unseen. Only Allah has the knowledge of the
unseen.

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Most People Think They Are In Control [Ibn Ashur]

This is a point we will talk about more later on. The issue of tawakkul. This amazing act of worship that the
heart does, having tawakkul in Allah. Reliance and trust in Allah in Allah we trust. This is embedded in a
foundation. What is that foundation? It is the belief that the whole affair is in the hands of Allah. Everything
that happens in this world, in existence, actually is something that came from Allah. He was in full control.
Nothing happens except Allah decrees it to happen.
So that person believes that my money, though it comes from XYZ source, my money, and it coming to me is
actually in the hands of Allah.
That is the beginning of tawakkul. You feel that only Allah has the whole affair in His hand. And it doesnt come
out of His hand. It is nowhere but in His hand.
To make it easy, imagine you are living on a desert island. There are only 100-200 people living there. You have
no connection with the outside world. You have no smart phone, it is just you living on the island. The people
agree to appoint a king. And he is the only one who manufactures currency. He has gold currency. And he says
to all the people in the desert island, you want gold coins, to get the gold coin, work, go and chop wood. The
person will now go and do the work. All the while he is thinking, where do the gold coins come from? Chopping
wood or the king? So he thinks if I chop the wood, the king will give me the coins. But it may also be that I chop
the wood and not get anything. If the king doesnt give it to me, there is nowhere else I can get it. So he is
always thinking the gold coins are in the hands of the king. So when he does the actions, the asbab, the means
he is never thinking that chopping the wood will get him the money. He is always thinking that the money is in
the hands of the king.
The foundation of tawakkul is to believe that amr (outcomes) are in the hand of Allah.

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