Tafseer of Joseph · Yusuf · 12:5
He said, "O my son, do not relate your vision to your brothers or they will contrive against you a plan. Indeed Satan, to man, is a manifest enemy.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the words of Allah, the Exalted: قَالَ يَا بُنَيَّ لا تَقْصُصْ رُؤْيَاكَ عَلَى إِخْوَتِكَ فَيَكِيدُوا لَكَ كَيْدًا إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لِلإِنْسَانِ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ (He said: "O my little son, do not relate your dream to your brothers, lest they devise a plot against you; verily, Satan is to man a manifest enemy." — 12:5)
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah, the Exalted, says: Yaʿqūb said to his son Yūsuf: "O my little son, do not relate your dream" — this one — "to your brothers," for they will feel envy toward you; "lest they devise a plot against you": that is to say: they will seek calamity for you, and harbor enmity against you, and obey Satan within you. (inna al-shayṭāna lil-insāni ʿaduwwun mubīn): Satan is to Adam and his progeny an enemy who has made clear and shown to them his enmity. He says: so be on your guard against Satan, lest he incite your brothers through envy against you, should you relate your dream to them.
* * *
Yaʿqūb said this because it had already become apparent to him beforehand that his sons harbored envy, as in:
18788 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAnqazī related to us, on the authority of Asbāṭ, on the authority of al-Suddī, who said: Yaʿqūb settled in Syria, and his concerns were directed toward Yūsuf and his brother; his brothers were envious of him because of the love their father had for him. Yūsuf saw in a dream that eleven stars, the sun, and the moon were prostrating before him. He related it to his father, who said: (yā bunayya lā taqṣuṣ ruʾyāka ʿalā ikhwatika fa-yakīdū laka kaydan) — the āya.
* * *
The Arabic linguists differed concerning the reason for the use of the "lām" in His words (fa-yakīdū laka kaydan).
Some of the grammarians of Basra said: its meaning is: they devise for you a stratagem; and it is not like: إِنْ كُنْتُمْ لِلرُّؤْيَا تَعْبُرُونَ [Surah Yūsuf: 43] — for in that verse one wished to connect the verb by means of the lām, just as one connects it by means of the bāʾ; as one says: "I served him food" (qaddamtu lahu ṭaʿāman) with the meaning: I presented it to him, and He said: يَأْكُلْنَ مَا قَدَّمْتُمْ لَهُنَّ [Surah Yūsuf: 48]; and comparable to it are His words: قُلِ اللَّهُ يَهْدِي لِلْحَقِّ [Surah Yūnus: 35]. He said: and if you wish, (fa-yakīdū laka kaydan) has the meaning of: "fa-yakīdūka," and then consider the lām to be of the same kind as: لِرَبِّهِمْ يَرْهَبُونَ [Surah al-Aʿrāf: 154] — which is as "rabbahum yarhabūn."
* * *
Others said: the lām was used therein just as it is used in the expressions: "ḥamidtu laka" and "shakartu laka," and "ḥamidtuka" and "shakartuka." He said: this is a lām that brings the verb along with it; likewise are His words (fa-yakīdū laka kaydan): one says: "fa-yakīdūka," or: "yakīdū lak," thus: "they direct themselves against you," or: "they direct themselves toward you"; and (kaydan): is for emphasis.
