They said, “By Allah, you will never cease remembering Joseph until you are worn out or become one of those who perish.” (85) He said, “I complain of my anguish and sorrow only to Allah, and I know from Allah what you do not know.” (86)
“They said,” meaning the sons of Jacob, “By Allah, you will never cease remembering Joseph”: that is, you will continue to remember Joseph and never tire of loving him. The word “not” is omitted from the expression “you will cease.” It is said, “He has not ceased doing such-and-such,” meaning, “He has continued doing it,” as Imru’ al-Qays said:
“I said, ‘By Allah, I shall not cease standing …
even if they sever my head and limbs before you.’” (1)
That is, “I shall not leave.”
“Until you are worn out”: Ibn Abbas said: emaciated. (2) Mujahid said: haraḍ is a condition short of death; that is, near death. Ibn Ishaq said: ruined, having lost your reason.
A haraḍ is one whose body and mind have deteriorated. It was also said: one melted away by grief. The meaning of the verse is: until you become physically weakened and mentally distraught.
The basic meaning of haraḍ is deterioration of the body and mind through grief, old age, or passionate love. (3) One may say of a man or a woman, of two men or two women, and of men or women: haraḍ. The singular, dual, plural, masculine, and feminine all take the same form, because it is originally a verbal noun used in place of an adjective. (4) “Or become one of those who perish”: that is, one of the dead.
Jacob, peace be upon him, said this when he saw their harshness: “I complain of my anguish and sorrow only to Allah.” Anguish is the most intense form of grief. It is called this because the one afflicted by it cannot bear it without expressing it openly. Al-Hasan said: “My anguish” means, “my need.”
It is related that one of Jacob’s neighbours visited him and said, “O Jacob, why do I see that you have become broken and wasted away, though you have not reached the age that your father reached?” He replied, “What has broken and worn me away is the grief over Joseph with which Allah has tried me.” Then Allah revealed to him: “O Jacob—”