Tafsir of Surah Yusuf - Verse 65

They find Their Money returned to Their Bags

Allah says, when Yusuf's brothers opened their bags, they found their merchandise inside them, for Yusuf had ordered his servants to return it to their bags. When they found their merchandise in their bags,

قَالُواْ يأَبَانَا مَا نَبْغِى

(They said: "O our father! What (more) can we desire..."), what more can we ask for,

هَـذِهِ بِضَـعَتُنَا رُدَّتْ إِلَيْنَا

(This, our money has been returned to us;) Qatadah commented (that they said), "What more can we ask for, our merchandise was returned to us and the `Aziz has given us the sufficient load we wanted" They said next,

وَنَمِيرُ أَهْلَنَا

(so we shall get (more) food for our family,), `if you send our brother with us the next time we go to buy food for our family,'

وَنَحْفَظُ أَخَانَا وَنَزْدَادُ كَيْلَ بَعِيرٍ

(and we shall guard our brother and add one more measure of a camel's load.) since Yusuf, peace be upon him, gave each man a camel's load of corn.

ذلِكَ كَيْلٌ يَسِيرٌ

(This quantity is easy (for the king to give).) They said these words to make their case more appealing, saying that taking their brother with them is worth this gain,

قَالَ لَنْ أُرْسِلَهُ مَعَكُمْ حَتَّى تُؤْتُونِ مَوْثِقًا مِّنَ اللَّهِ

(He Ya`qub (Jacob) said: "I will not send him with you until you swear a solemn oath to me in Allah's Name..."), until you swear by Allah with the strongest oath,

لَتَأْتُنَّنِى بِهِ إِلاَّ أَن يُحَاطَ بِكُمْ

(that you will bring him back to me unless you are yourselves surrounded (by enemies)), unless you were all overwhelmed and were unable to rescue him,

فَلَمَّآ ءَاتَوْهُ مَوْثِقَهُمْ

(And when they had sworn their solemn oath), he affirmed it further, saying,

اللَّهُ عَلَى مَا نَقُولُ وَكِيلٌ

(Allah is the Witness to what we have said.) Ibn Ishaq commented, "Ya`qub did that because he had no choice but to send them to bring necessary food supplies for their survival. So he sent Binyamin with them."

At this stage, verse 65 opens with the words:

وَلَمَّا فَتَحُوا مَتَاعَهُمْ وَجَدُوا بِضَاعَتَهُمْ رُ‌دَّتْ إِلَيْهِمْ ۖ قَالُوا يَا أَبَانَا مَا نَبْغِي ۖ هَـٰذِهِ بِضَاعَتُنَا رُ‌دَّتْ إِلَيْنَا ۖ وَنَمِيرُ‌ أَهْلَنَا وَنَحْفَظُ أَخَانَا وَنَزْدَادُ كَيْلَ بَعِيرٍ‌ ۖ ذَٰلِكَ كَيْلٌ يَسِيرٌ‌

And when they opened their baggage, they found their capital given back to them. They said, "Our father, what else do we want? Here is our capital given back to us, and we shall bring food to our family, protect our brother and add the measure of one camel more. That is an easy measure."

It will be noticed that, prior to this verse, the brothers of Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) were talking about what had happened to them on their journey, before they had opened their baggage. After that, when they opened the baggage and saw that their entire capital with which they had paid for the food grains was present inside the baggage, they realized that this was not done by mistake, in fact, their capital had been returned to them. Therefore, they said: رُ‌دَّتْ إِلَيْنَا (given back to us). Then, to their father they said: مَا نَبْغِي (what else do we want?) that is, ` the grains are here and what we paid for it has also been returned to us. Now we should definitely go back there in peace with our brother because the way we have been treated shows that the ` Aziz of Misr is kind to us. We should have no apprehensions. It is the time that we go and bring food-grains for the family and take care of our brother too. That we shall get an additional load of grains in the name of our brother will help - because, whatever we have brought in the present trip is much less than our needs and is likely to be consumed soon.

One sense of the sentence: مَا نَبْغِي (ma nabghi) spoken by the brothers of Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) is practically the same as given immediately above, that is, ` what else do we want?' And if, in this sentence, the letter: مَا (ma : not) is taken in the sense of negation, it could also mean that the sons of Sayyidna Ya` qub (علیہ السلام) told their father: Now that we have the price of the grain with us, we do not want anything from you. You just send our brother with us.

On reaching home, when they found their money in their bags of corn, they were very happy. They told their father that he should send Benjamin with them. They promised to take care of him. They said that they would bring one more camel-load of corn as his share. They also said that the corn they had now brought was not sufficient for their needs. Perhaps according to the distribution system introduced by Joseph, outsiders were each allowed one camel-load of corn.