“Then, when the bearer of the good news came, he cast it (the shirt) on his (Jacob’s) face and (forthwith) he regained his sight. He said: ‘Did I not tell you I know from Allah what you do not know?’”
After a number of difficult nights and days, one day Ya‘qub heard a loud voice proclaiming that the caravan of Kan‘an had just arrived from Egypt. Unlike the previous occasion, the brothers arrived in joyous spirits and went straight to their father’s house.
When the bearer of glad tidings came
Many scholars say Allāh calls him bashīr here, and he was the same one who came with the bloody shirt in the beginning.
Once again, Allāh mentions the good and ignores or neglects the bad.
As we said, this is a standard motif.
When the praise is due, Allāh mentions specifically, but when there is criticism, Allāh tries to cover it up unless there is a need to mention it.
Here Allāh praises him, and most of the scholars say he was the same one.
He insisted and said, “Since I am the one who caused the harm, I am now going to bring the shirt back.”
Allāh calls him the bearer of good tidings and the one who came with the good news.
“…he threw the shirt into his face, and he regained his eyesight.
He said, ‘Didn’t I tell you after all these years that Yūsuf is alive?
I told you go find him. I told you don’t lose hope in Allāh, but you kept on trying to deny this.
Didn’t I tell you that Allāh has told me that I know something that you don’t know?’”
*Reflection*
Scholars said that same person who brought the shirt the first time brought it again to nullify his sins
‣ Bashira isn’t the name, it’s just a name for person who brings gladtidings
‣ That person tosses the shirt in Yacoob’s face, and then his sight returned
• Can we do that to our shirts? – No
• The remnants of prophets and messengers are blessed
‣ Yacoob with returned vision, he says “Didn’t I tell you that I did know from Allah that
which you didn’t know?”
• Scholars say that this means that the brothers didn’t know about the dream but still
plotted against him anyway
• Yacoob knew about the dream and the brothers didn’t know
Lesson
1. Surah Yusuf is more than anything else a human story.
It is a story about how people can change.
It is a story about how this Deen can transform people.
We should remind ourselves at this point that the primary objective that we seek when we approach any ayah of the Quran is to find out how that ayah can guide us to Allah.
How that ayah can help us to be more cognizant of Him (swt).
In this ayah, Allah shows us how the brothers of Yusuf (AS) changed.
How they went from a people who were the worst of sinners to
being among the most repentant.
So far was the journey that they took back to Allah that some scholars even say that they became prophets.
So look now at this journey that the brothers took.
Then realize that no matter how far you have gone from your Lord, there is always a way back to Him (swt).