“And they said, ‘O our father, ask forgiveness for our sins.’” The young child bears no sin.

Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: Their deed involved several crimes: severing ties of kinship, disobeying their parents, showing little compassion for the young child who had committed no sin, betraying a trust, breaking their pledge, and lying to their father. Yet Allah forgave them all of this, so that no one might despair of Allah’s mercy.

Some of the scholars (1) said that they resolved to kill him, but Allah protected them from doing so out of mercy toward them. Had they done it, they would all have perished. All of this took place before Allah Most High made them Prophets (2).

Abu Amr ibn al-Ala’ was asked: “How could they say, ‘We graze and play,’ when they were Prophets?” He replied: “That was before Allah Most High made them Prophets, when they had resolved to separate him from his father by means of various stratagems.”

“They said, ‘O our father, why do you not entrust us with Joseph, when we are surely his sincere well-wishers?’” (11)

“They said”—that is, to Jacob—“O our father, why do you not entrust us with Joseph?” Abu Ja‘far recited ta’mannā without ishmām (3), and this is also a narration from Nafi‘. The rest recited ta’mannā with ishmām: an indication of the ḍammah vowel on the first, assimilated nūn, without fully pronouncing it, so that it may be known that its original form was lā ta’manunā, with two nūns, according to the pattern tafa‘alunā; the first nūn was then assimilated into the second (4). They began by objecting to his not sending Joseph with them, as though they were saying: “You do not send him with us—are you afraid for him because of us?”

“And we are surely his sincere well-wishers.” Muqatil said: There is an inversion in the order of the speech. They first said to their father, “Send him with us.” Their father then said, “Indeed, it grieves me that you should take him away.” At that point they said, “Why do you not entrust us with Joseph, when we are surely his sincere well-wishers?” Here, sincere counsel means attending to what is in his best interest. It was also said to mean kindness and affection; that is: We are affectionate toward him, attentive to his welfare, and will protect him until we return him to you.