Tafseer of Joseph · Yusuf · 12:64
He said, "Should I entrust you with him except [under coercion] as I entrusted you with his brother before? But Allah is the best guardian, and He is the most merciful of the merciful."
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 هَلْ آمَنُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ إِلا كَمَا أَمِنْتُكُمْ عَلَى أَخِيهِ مِنْ قَبْلُ فَاللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَافِظًا وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ (64)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah the Exalted says: Their father Yaʿqūb said: "Can I entrust to you the brother on your father's side — the one whom you ask me to send along with you — except as I entrusted to you his brother Yūsuf before?" — that is to say: before him.
The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of فَاللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَافِظًا .
The majority of the reciters of Medina, and some of the Kūfans and the Baṣrans, read it as: فَاللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حِفْظًا — with the meaning: Allah is the best of you in protection.
The majority of the Kūfan reciters, and some of Mecca, read it as: فَاللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَافِظًا — with the alif — taking "al-ḥāfiẓ" (the protector) as an explication of "al-khayr" (the good/the best), as one says: "he is a good man"; the meaning is then: Allah is the best protector of you; in that case "the kāf and the mīm" are omitted.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct view is that these are two well-known readings that are close to one another in meaning, and of which scholars in the Qurʾān have each read one of the two; whichever of the two readings one reads, one attains the truth. For whoever describes Allah as the best of them in protection (ḥifẓan) has described Him as the best protector (ḥāfiẓan) of them, and whoever describes Him as the best protector of them has described Him as the best in protection of them.
وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ — that is to say: Allah is the most merciful of the merciful toward His creation; He shows mercy upon my weakness in my advanced age and my loneliness through the loss of my child; He therefore does not let him perish but protects him out of His mercy until He returns him to me.
