It was also said that it is in the nominative, functioning as the subject, and that the statement ends with the words, “in Allah’s name.” He then says, “And before this was your failure with regard to Joseph.” (1) It was also said that ma is an expletive; that is: “And before this, you failed with regard to Joseph.”

“I will not leave this land,” namely, the land in which I am, the land of Egypt, “until my father permits me” to leave it and summons me, “or Allah judges in my favour,” by restoring my brother to me, or by allowing me to depart while leaving my brother behind. It was also said: or until Allah judges in my favour by the sword, so that I may fight them and recover my brother.

“And He is the best of judges,” that is, the most just of all who judge between people.

“Return to your father and say, ‘Our father, your son has stolen. We testify only to what we know, and we could not guard against the unseen.’” (81)

“Return to your father,” says the brother who remained behind in Egypt (2) to his brothers: Return to your father and say, “Our father, your son”—Benjamin—“has stolen.” Ibn Abbas and al-Dahhak recited it as “was accused of theft,” with the initial letter pronounced with a vowel of u, and the following letter with a vowel of i and doubled; meaning, he was ascribed to theft. Thus one may say, “I accused him of treachery,” meaning, I attributed treachery to him.

“We testify only to what we know,” (3) meaning: We said this only according to what we knew, for we saw the measuring cup brought out of his baggage. It was also said that its meaning is: We have never borne testimony in our lives concerning anything except what we knew. This, however, is not testimony from us; rather, it is merely a report of what your son did, as they alleged.

It was also said that Jacob, peace be upon him, said to them: How did this man know that a thief is taken as a slave for his theft except through what you told him? They replied: We testified before Joseph that the thief is enslaved only according to what we knew; and this was the ruling observed by the prophets, Jacob and his sons.

“And we could not guard against the unseen.” Mujahid and Qatadah said: We did not know that your son would steal and that our affair would come to this. Had we known that, we would not have taken him with us. We merely said, “We will protect our brother,” from whatever we had any means of protecting him against. It is reported from Ibn Abbas: We could not guard over his night and day, his coming and going. Ikrimah said: “And we could not guard against the unseen”; perhaps it was secretly placed in his baggage at night.