Tafseer of Joseph · Yusuf · 12:84
And he turned away from them and said, "Oh, my sorrow over Joseph," and his eyes became white from grief, for he was [of that] a suppressor.
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 statement concerning the interpretation of His word, the Exalted: وَتَوَلَّى عَنْهُمْ وَقَالَ يَا أَسَفَى عَلَى يُوسُفَ وَابْيَضَّتْ عَيْنَاهُ مِنَ الْحُزْنِ فَهُوَ كَظِيمٌ (84) ("And he turned away from them and said: O my grief for Yūsuf! And his two eyes turned white from sorrow, while he was suppressing his anguish." (12:84))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means by His word (and he turned away from them) that Yaʿqūb turned away from them, (and said: O my grief for Yūsuf), that is to say: O my sorrow for him.
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It is said: "al-asaf" is the most intense form of sorrow and regret. Of this one says: "asiftu ʿalā kadhā āsafu ʿalayhi asafan" (I grieved over such-and-such, I grieve over it, with grief).
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Allāh, exalted is His praise, says: and the two eyes of Yaʿqūb turned white from the sorrow, (while he was suppressing his anguish – fa-huwa kaẓīm), He says: he was full of suppressed sorrow (makẓūm ʿalā al-ḥuzn), that is to say that he was filled with it, kept it within himself and did not let it show.
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= "The object" (al-mafʿūl, that is makẓūm) is here converted into the form "faʿīl" (that is kaẓīm), and to this also belongs His word: وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ (and those who suppress their anger) [Sūrat Āl ʿImrān: 134]. We have already set forth its meaning with its evidentiary passages earlier.
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And in accordance with what we have said about this, the interpreters (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
*Mention of those who said what we have said concerning the interpretation of His word: (and he said: O my grief for Yūsuf):
19646 – Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: (and he turned away from them), he turned away from them, his sorrow became complete and he reached the utmost limit of his capacity, when his brother (Benjamin) was joined to Yūsuf and his sorrow for Yūsuf was aroused within him, whereupon he said: (O my grief for Yūsuf! And his two eyes turned white from sorrow, while he was suppressing his anguish).
19647 – Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: (and he turned away from them and said: O my grief for Yūsuf), he says: O my sorrow for Yūsuf.
19648 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Shabāba related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us = and Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ =, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: (O my grief for Yūsuf), O my sorrow.
19648 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (O my grief for Yūsuf), O my distress.
19649 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (O my grief for Yūsuf), O my distress of sorrow.
19650 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq informed us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (O my grief for Yūsuf), O my distress.
19651 – Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: (O my grief for Yūsuf), that is to say: O my sorrow.
19652 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: (O my grief for Yūsuf), he said: O my sorrow for Yūsuf.
19653 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Maʿmarī related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, something similar.
19654 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: (and he said: O my grief for Yūsuf) ..... [the statement of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the interpretation of the verse is not recorded here; it has been lost through the copyists].
19655 – Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us = and Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us =, on the authority of Abū Ḥujayra, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: (O my grief for Yūsuf), he said: O my sorrow for Yūsuf.
19656 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of Abū Marzūq, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: (O my grief), O my sorrow.
19657 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: (O my grief) O my sorrow, (for Yūsuf).
19658 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of Sufyān al-ʿUṣfurī, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said: to no one other than this community (umma) has the istirjāʿ (the saying of "innā li-llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rājiʿūn") been given. Do you not hear the word of Yaʿqūb: (O my grief for Yūsuf)?
19659 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, something similar.
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*Mention of those who said what we have said concerning the interpretation of His word: (and his two eyes turned white from sorrow, while he was suppressing his anguish).
19660 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: a suppressor of sorrow (kaẓīm al-ḥuzn).
19661 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Shabāba related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: a suppressor of sorrow.
19662 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
19663 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq informed us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: the sorrow.
19664 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa informed us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (while he was suppressing his anguish), grieved and afflicted (makmūd).
19665 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: a suppressor of the sorrow.
19666 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: "al-kaẓīm" means the grieved, afflicted one (al-kamīd).
19667 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: al-Muḥāribī related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk concerning His word: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: grieved and afflicted (kamīd).
19668 – Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning His word: (suppressing – kaẓīm), he said: grieved and afflicted (kamīd).
19669 – Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: (and his two eyes turned white from sorrow, while he was suppressing his anguish), he says: his sorrow kept going back and forth within his inner self, and he spoke no evil.
19670 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: a suppressor of the sorrow, and he spoke no evil.
19671 – Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: (and his two eyes turned white from sorrow, while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: a suppressor of the sorrow, and he spoke nothing but good.
19672 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: grieved and distressed (makrūb).
19673 – Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of Asbāṭ, on the authority of al-Suddī: (while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: from anger.
19674 – Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: (and his two eyes turned white from sorrow, while he was suppressing his anguish), he said: "al-kaẓīm" is the one who does not speak; the sorrow reached him to such a degree that he no longer spoke with them.
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