Tafseer of Joseph · Yusuf · 12:73
They said, "By Allah, you have certainly known that we did not come to cause corruption in the land, and we have not been thieves."
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: قَالُوا تَاللَّهِ لَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمْ مَا جِئْنَا لِنُفْسِدَ فِي الأَرْضِ وَمَا كُنَّا سَارِقِينَ (73)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah the Exalted says: The brothers of Yūsuf said: تَاللَّهِ — that is to say: by Allah.
The "tāʾ" in تَاللَّهِ is a "wāw" that has been converted into a "tāʾ", just as has also been done in "al-tawrāt" (the Torah), which derives from "warraya" — and in "al-turāth" (the inheritance), which derives from "waratha" — and in "al-tukhma" (indigestion), which derives from "al-wakhāma" — for the wāw in all those words has been converted into a tāʾ. The "wāw" in all these words of the nominal category is different from the "wāw" in تَاللَّهِ , for the latter is the wāw of the oath; in this word it was, by way of exception, converted into a tāʾ on account of its frequent utterance on the tongues of the Arabs when swearing, namely in "wa-llāh." Whoever said that in the name of Allah by saying "tā-llāh" did not say "tā-l-raḥmān" or "tā-l-raḥīm," nor with any other name of Allah, nor with anything else by which one swears an oath; this is possible only in "tā-llāh" alone.
His words لَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمْ مَا جِئْنَا لِنُفْسِدَ فِي الأَرْضِ — that is to say: you know that we have not come to be disobedient to Allah in your land.
Thus a group of the people of exegesis also used to say it.
Mention of who said that:
19555 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, concerning the words قَالُوا تَاللَّهِ لَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمْ مَا جِئْنَا لِنُفْسِدَ فِي الأَرْضِ : we say: we have not come to be disobedient in the land.
If one then says: what did the one to whom it was said لَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمْ مَا جِئْنَا لِنُفْسِدَ فِي الأَرْضِ know about that, such that those who said it deemed it permissible to say?
Then it is answered: they deemed it permissible to say that because, according to what is related, they had returned the merchandise that they had found in their saddlebags; they said: had we been thieves, we would not have returned to you the merchandise that we found in our saddlebags.
It is also said: they had, on their way and during their journey, become known as people who wronged no one and took nothing that was not theirs; so they said that when it was said to them: إِنَّكُمْ لَسَارِقُونَ .
Notes: In the printed edition it reads "al-tawriya" (concealment/dissimulation), which is a serious error and also betrays ignorance; the manuscript version has "al-tawrāt" (the Torah), which is correct. Al-Farrāʾ said in his Book of the Nouns that it is a "tafʿila" derived from "warraya," constructed in the manner of the Ṭayy dialect, just as they say in "al-tawṣiya" "tawṣāt" and in "al-jāriya" "jārāt." The Baṣrans said: "al-tawrāt" is in origin a "fawʿala" form like "al-ḥawṣala" and "al-dawkhala"; when something is on the pattern "fawʿaltu," the verbal noun of action is "fawʿala," and the wāw was converted into a tāʾ, as also in "tawlaj" whose root form is "walaja." — See the explanation of "al-fasād fī l-arḍ" earlier in the linguistic registers (f-s-d). — In the printed edition it reads "and what was the knowledge of the one to whom it was said," which is nonsense and corrupt; the correct version is that of the manuscript.
