“Ask the town in which we were, and the caravan with which we returned; indeed, we are telling the truth.” (82) He said, “Rather, your own souls have enticed you into something. So patience is most fitting. Perhaps Allah will bring them all back to me. Indeed, He alone is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” (83) Then he turned away from them and said, “Oh, my grief for Joseph!” His eyes turned white from sorrow, for he was suppressing his grief. (84)

“Ask the town in which we were,” that is, its people; and it was Egypt. Ibn Abbas said: It was a town among the towns of Egypt from which they had travelled to Egypt.

“And the caravan with which we returned,” that is, the caravan in which we travelled. Some people from Canaan, neighbours of Jacob, had accompanied them. Ibn Ishaq said: The brother detained in Egypt knew that his brothers were viewed with suspicion by their father because of what they had done in the matter of Joseph. He therefore instructed them to say this to their father.

“Indeed, we are telling the truth.” If it is asked: How could Joseph lawfully do such a thing to his father—without informing him of his whereabouts, and by detaining his brother despite knowing the intensity of his father’s grief for him—when this appears to involve undutifulness to one’s father, severing ties of kinship, and a lack of compassion?

It is said: People have spoken at length on this matter. The sound view is that he did so by Allah’s command. Allah commanded him to do this in order to increase Jacob’s trial, thereby multiplying his reward and raising him in rank alongside his forefathers who had passed before him. It was also said that he did not reveal himself to his brothers because he feared that they might devise some plan concerning him and conceal it from their father. The first view is more correct.

“He said, ‘Rather, your own souls have enticed you into something’”: that is, they made it seem fair to you. This is an abbreviated expression, the meaning being that they returned to their father and related to him what their eldest brother had said. Jacob then said: “Rather, your own souls have enticed you into something”—that is, your brother was taken to Egypt in pursuit of some immediate gain.

“So patience is most fitting. Perhaps Allah will bring them all back to me”: meaning Joseph, Benjamin, and their brother who remained in Egypt. “Indeed, He alone is the All-Knowing”—of my sorrow and anguish at losing them—“the All-Wise” in governing His creation.

As for His saying, “Then he turned away from them”: when news of Benjamin reached Jacob, peace be upon him, his grief was completed and reached its utmost, and his sorrow for Joseph was stirred anew; so he turned away from them. “And said, ‘Oh, my grief’”: that is, “O my sorrow!” “For Joseph!” Grief is the most intense form of sorrow. “His eyes turned white from sorrow”: his sight was lost. Muqatil said: He was unable to see with them for six years. “For he was suppressing his grief”: that is, he was filled with sorrow and restrained it, not giving it expression. Qatadah said: He kept turning his grief over within himself, yet spoke nothing but good. Al-Hasan said: Eighty years passed from the time Joseph left his father’s lap until the day he met him again. Jacob’s eyes never dried, and at that time there was no one upon the face of the earth more honoured by Allah than Jacob.