What Did the Brothers Tell Their Father When They Returned Without Yusuf?
ماذا قال الإخوة لأبيهم عندما عادوا دون يوسف؟
They told him that they had left him by their belongings while they went out to race, and the wolf came and ate him. They smudged his undershirt with fake blood and showed it to their father. In fact, they had thrown Yusuf into the well, as one of the brothers had suggested to them. “They cried, ‘Our father! We went racing and left Yusuf with our belongings, and a wolf devoured him! But you will not believe us, no matter how truthful we are.’ And they brought his shirt, stained with false blood” (Surah Yusuf 12:17).
قالوا لأبيهم إنهم ذهبوا ليتسابقوا وتركوا يوسف عند متاعهم، فجاء الذئب وأكله، وقد أحضروا قميصه وعليه دم كاذب، وهم في الواقع أنزلوه إلى البئر كما أشار عليهم أحد الإخوة. قَالُوا يَا أَبَانَا إِنَّا ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقُ وَتَرَكْنَا يُوسُفَ عِندَ مَتَاعِنَا فَأَكَلَهُ الذِّئْبُ ۖ وَمَا أَنتَ بِمُؤْمِنٍ لَّنَا وَلَوْ كُنَّا صَادِقِينَ ﴿١٧﴾ وَجَاءُوا عَلَىٰ قَمِيصِهِ بِدَمٍ كَذِبٍ ۚ (سورة يوسف: 17).
1. A Confession Hidden Inside Their Own Lie | اعتراف مختبئ داخل كذبتهم
Strikingly, the brothers themselves said, “you will not believe us, no matter how truthful we are,” anticipating their father’s disbelief before he even responded. Commentators note this as an unintentional admission, people confident in an honest account do not typically preempt disbelief this way, and Yaqoub’s own reaction, covered in the next question in this subcategory, shows he noticed exactly that.
من اللافت أن الإخوة أنفسهم قالوا، “وما أنت بمؤمن لنا ولو كنا صادقين”، متوقعين عدم تصديق أبيهم قبل أن يرد عليهم أصلا. ويلاحظ المفسرون أن هذا اعتراف غير مقصود، فالأشخاص الواثقون من رواية صادقة لا يستبقون عادة عدم التصديق بهذه الطريقة، ويُظهر رد فعل يعقوب نفسه، المذكور في السؤال التالي في هذا القسم الفرعي، أنه لاحظ ذلك بالضبط.
2. Evidence That Gave Away the Deception | دليل كشف الخديعة
Classical commentators note a detail the brothers overlooked: a shirt torn by a genuine wolf attack would show tears and rips consistent with an animal’s claws and teeth, yet the shirt they presented was stained with blood but otherwise intact. This inconsistency between their story and their own staged evidence is often cited as one of the clues that led Yaqoub to doubt them from the very start.
يلاحظ المفسرون الكلاسيكيون تفصيلا أغفله الإخوة: القميص الممزق بهجوم ذئب حقيقي كان سيظهر تمزقات وشقوقا تتوافق مع مخالب الحيوان وأنيابه، بينما القميص الذي قدموه كان ملطخا بالدم لكنه سليم في غير ذلك. وغالبا ما يُستشهد بهذا التناقض بين روايتهم ودليلهم المفتعل نفسه بوصفه أحد القرائن التي جعلت يعقوب يشك فيهم منذ البداية.
3. The Same Shirt Would Later Tell the Truth | القميص نفسه سيكشف الحقيقة لاحقا
Yusuf’s shirt reappears later in the surah in an entirely different context, used to prove his innocence in Egypt and eventually to restore Yaqoub’s eyesight, a narrative thread scholars point to as one of the surah’s clearest examples of a single object carrying meaning across the entire story, first used to deceive, later used to reveal truth.
يظهر قميص يوسف مرة أخرى لاحقا في السورة في سياق مختلف تماما، يُستخدم لإثبات براءته في مصر وأخيرا لاستعادة بصر يعقوب، خيط سردي يشير إليه العلماء بوصفه أحد أوضح أمثلة السورة على جسم واحد يحمل معنى عبر القصة بأكملها، استُخدم أولا للخداع، ثم استُخدم لاحقا لكشف الحقيقة.
Frequently Asked Questions | الأسئلة الشائعة
What story did the brothers tell their father about Yusuf?
That a wolf had devoured him while they were racing and had left him with their belongings.
What false evidence did they present?
Yusuf’s shirt, stained with blood that was not actually his.
Did their story seem convincing?
Not entirely, they themselves admitted their father might not believe them, and the shirt showed no tears consistent with a wolf attack.